Reading on the Cheap
Dec 11, 2008 Print This Post
Thanks to Brad for this quote:
“The man who never reads will never be read;
he who never quotes will never be quoted.
He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains,
proves that he has no brains of his own.”-Charles H. Spurgeon
I love to read, but I don’t get to read as much as I want. My favorite books are theology books, practical leadership books (both Christian and secular), and novels. Unfortunately, when I am in a teaching season I don’t have time to read which totally bums me out.
So I pile the books up. You can see my current pile in my office tour. Then, when I am not teaching I try to rock through as many books as I can. I also try to knock them out on planes when I am traveling.
Lots of people have asked me, “how do you afford all those books?” Well, Riv has a small book budget (but it’s not that big and I am real cheap). So here’s my system for reading, without spending a ton of money.
1) Check the library. It’s surprising how many books you can find in that magical place. For those of you in the Lansing area, go to CADL’s website first to save yourself the drive if the book you want is not in.
2) If the book is not in the library, but it’s short or you just want to skim it, go to Barnes and Noble and read it in the store.
3) Next, go to PaperBackSwap.com. This is one of my favorite sites. Basically, for every book you send someone, you can pick any book from any member to have sent to you. The average book takes $2.50 to mail, so you are basically buying books for that price. If I can find the book there, I do. With 2.6 million books available, I can often find what I want.
4) Finally, order books from Amazon.com. They always have a little discount on all books and you can score free shipping if you spend over $25. I have a wishlist there with books I want to read but are not essential reads right now. Then, whenever there is a book I need, I add a book or two from the wishlist to take my total over $25.00. At that point, the shipping is free. This makes them almost as cheap as buying them used from Amazon’s used service.
I have kicked around the idea of getting an Amazon Kindle, but I can’t quite justify the start-up costs. Once the new ones come out, I may explore that option because I like the idea of getting books for $9.99.
And that is how I read as much as I do on the cheap. Any other tips from you readers out there?
December 11th, 2008 at 8:57 am
half.com is a pretty good place to buy books too. You can find books for pretty cheap and they have a huge selection. I have purchased books for fifty cents before. But shipping can get you sometimes.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Yeah, that’s why I always buy new from Amazon. With the shipping factored in it’s almost the same cost as used.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The public library has a used book sale, (I think most cities do this), throughout the year. Once a year they have a huge warehouse clearing sale that has over a million books. I picked up more than a dozen books for about $15.
Can’t beat that!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
You didn’t mention CADL’s access to MELCAT. MELCAT is a link for when CADL doesn’t have a book. They can have a ook sent to your local branch office for checkout from hundreds of libraries around Michigan. I’ve used it for a variety of less widely read books and it works just like a regular CADL book check out. No late fees or penalties unless you don’t return the book. Easy, convenient and free!
December 11th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Do you guys have Half Price Books stores in Michigan?
I love that place. Good prices, good selection and they’ll buy your old books from you.
They also have a clearance section with a nice selection of American history books, president biographies, etc for only $1.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
For the money, I’d rather spend money on good books than just about anything else, but I look for whatever deal allows me to spend less. I’ve used both Amazon and eBay. Book sales and store sale tables lead to undiscovered treasures. This summer I picked up 2 books in the church library that were plainly books the Lord put into my hands.
I just read this on Facebook; it was new to me: “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.”-Groucho Marx. I love it!!
December 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Garage sales are my favorite bargin and treasure hunting locales.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I am ALL about the library. I’m a nerdy reader and write in my books. So if I’m reading a book from the library and see a quote I want to highlight or comments on, I dog ear the page, go to work, photocopy the pages and then go highlight and mark away.
Not sure if this is legal, but I’ve got folders upon folders of book pages like this.
The amount of dog ears in a given library book tells me if it’s worth finding the book on line (preferably used).
December 12th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Well, no other tips from me (except perhaps borrowing between friends – I have lent many of my books out, and I have borrowed a few myself…this is a limited suggestion though :)).
However, just wanted to THANK YOU for posting this and getting me to think about picking up a book again…since the baby, it’s been awhile, and I miss it!
December 13th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Thanks for all the suggestions. Here’s one thing I would add to Krista’s idea on loaning out books. I loan out tons of books (some because I think someone would enjoy it and often because someone asks to borrow it). If it is a book I want back, I make sure to do two things: 1) I write my name in the front 2) I mark my calendar for a couple months later. Then, at that date, I ask them about the book. Before I did that, I lost tons of books, forgetting who I had loaned them to.
Again, this applies only to books you know you want to read again or you will need for something. For others, I just let them go.
December 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Ok…
first of all:
mac lover + reader + loaner = http://www.delicious-monster.com/
secondly:
I like http://www.addall.com/ because it aggregates prices + shipping from a bunch of vendors so you can feel like you found the cheapest.
thirdly:
Since I met you I’ve been meaning to buy you “Ursula Under” the story of an asian-finnish-american kid down a well. Don’t worry, I’ll remember eventually. Then you’ll have another book for the stack.
and finally:
You’ve had a bad influence on the staff guys from epic:
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/KXzM2yDh93uBOvBI
December 17th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Great links, Dan.
I just ordered “Ursula Under” from Paperbackswap based on your recommendation.