Okay, I don’t mean never buy a book in your life, but honestly and truly approach books as if buying isn’t an option and then if you must buy, pretend new books don’t exist 
I am continually amazed at how much people spend on books when there are so many other ways to read the same books for free or nearly free. Here are a few tips!
1. Join the library and really embrace it! I don’t mean only go when you absolutely have to read something for that bookgroup/work/parenting course, I mean spend some time walking around your local libraries, get to know the librarians, peruse the shelves and become an active member! You will find a wealth of literature you didn’t know existed and find out neat tips each library offers, for example mine offers several free book clubs and a film group!
2. Get used to waiting! I know for most people, finding out they are number 100 on a waiting list for a particular book is a bit of a joke, but generally there are several copies of popular books and many are even on 1 week loans, so you can move quite quickly through the list. I’m currently 227 for a particular book, but you know what, there are hundreds, no thousands of other books to choose from while I wait. There may be some instances where you can’t wait (a therapy book for you child is one reason) but when it isn’t life or death and you simply want to read a book, practice delayed gratification – learning that skill will save you thousands each year!
3. See if anywhere you frequent has a book exchange/swap/sale. My gym and my bank have books you can take – at the gym it is free (and they encourage you to bring in any book you don’t want) at my bank you donate 50 cents to a cancer charity!
4. If none of centres/banks/gyms/rec-centres offer a book swap program, then suggest one! I’ve done this in the past and most places were very receptive!
5. Make requests for books to be ordered at your library! Don’t be scared of the librarians, they are often very pleased to have suggestions. Before I left Devon I admitted to my local librarian how poor I felt the library service was, she was very receptive, asked good questions about my experience with other libraries in England and asked me for some book suggestions. One month later, there were my suggestions on the shelf! Chances are if you want a book, someone else does to!
6. Check out hospital & University libraries. Many let the public have some access for free!
7. Peruse the book isles at second-hand shops! Keep a list of books you are interested in with you in your wallet/purse and take a few minutes to see if they have any.
8. Set yourself a limit – mine was 1.50 per book. I waited 2 years to find a cookbook I searched all over for (and was determined not to buy it for $5 plus shipping online) and lo and behold 2 years later I found it, for exactly my budget at a charity shop!
9. Join paperback swap and other resources like freecycle. But remember that postage still costs money!
10. Start swapping books with friends. Currently I have more than 10 books I’ve loaned to friends and I have two books here friends have loaned to me. This is such a frugal way to read & a great way to start a little book group!
And when you really need that book you really can’t find anywhere, ask for it for your Birthday or Christmas 
I’d love to hear from you! How much do you spend on books? Have you found any frugal tips for avid readers?
An interesting post, and whilst I agree with you wholeheartedly about using libraries and being patient, I approach book-ownership from a different angle.
Even when we were broke, my husband had the attitude, “we can always afford books”. We prioritised books above other “luxuries” like clothes and music. If my daughter wants to buy a book out of her pocket money, I subsidise it by 50%, making books the best ‘value-for-money’ purchase she can buy!
Reading is such an enjoyable and useful hobby that it is critical to encourage it in small children, and if that means you have to blow the budget from time to time, so be it. There’s worse things to blow money on, that’s for sure!
Place books and their shelves against outside walls (indoors of course) hey presto 4″ insulation!
I’m a bit of a fiend for non-fiction books, fiction less so (as I don’t read the same ones over and over). I use my local library a lot – it’s just a small branch, however you can reserve / get transferred from another library in the county for 80p. That’s worth it for me as a return bus trip to the big library is £3.00. It’s on my route home from work so I go in regularly.
My favourite haunt is the local charity bookshop, which has an amazingly good selection (especially given this town!). I do trawl charity shops and get suckered in quite a lot… mostly for non-fiction books. My best find lately has been ‘Vegan Lunch Box’, a blog I always read, and had been looking out for the book… picked it up in a very NON-vegan friendly town for £1
Such finds are very exciting 
If I really want to buy a particular fiction book, I check out Amazon – you can usually get paperbacks there for 1p plus shipping, which works out to about £2.50. I also use ebay a lot.
All that said, i have too many books and need a clearout!
Great points!
However I’m just starting to relax my attitude towards buying books (still don’t think you’ll catch me paying £7 for a paperback, unless it’s something faith-related, as these often cost more and are hard to source second-hand/from a library).
I’ve been thinking a lot about the bang-for-your-buck approach to spending money. For example: going to the cinema costs £7, for a two-hour film. So that’s £3.50 per hour of entertainment. I can buy a brand-new, full price paperback for £7, which will keep me entertained for say…seven hours? (I’m guessing, I generally read in snippets over the course of a week or so depending on book length and time dedicated. But seven works for the purpose of the maths!) which brings my per-hour-of-entertainment cost down to £1 per hour. And that’s just on a first-read (I’m a big re-reader, lender-outer, book-lover).
Now factoring back in the fact that I very rarely buy a full-price paperback, buying books is not, to me, such a waste of money. Priorities I guess. And free is always better, I am just often impatient to read what I want to read when I want to read it!
That said, I do still love the occasional trip to the cinema. Orange Wednesday, though, when it’s 2-for-1
I really have no idea if it’d take me 7 hours to read a book cover to cover, I can’t remember the last time I had the time/inclination to read for that long uninterrupted…so I may be overstating the point a smidge, but you get the idea.
And sorry if I sound critical, I don’t mean to be. I very rarely buy books at all and am just slowly trying to ease myself out of it, considering a paperback not a dreadful choice for a “treat”, comparatively speaking.
I think that’s the point, viewing it as a treat. I help so many people budget and yet I’m amazed that people view buying 3 books every other week or even more often as a need when those books are not work related etc. Add to that people in debt buying books for “fun” when they could get them free from the library and all of a sudden it doesn’t make “cents”.
Not critical at all
Books are a huge weakness for me. I do use the library and put new relases on hold. As a previous comment said, we have a tiny library but with interlibrary access. There are very few books that I just can’t wait for. The ones that I buy are the off the wall ones that I doubt our library system will ever have. I am slowly culling down my collection of books, but I have really had to train myself not to grab, buy and go.
I also listen to books on CD, so I usually have one going in the car as well as reading one or two besides that. I received a Kindel for Christmas last year and some books are free. Most books are around $10, so that is much less than the $20 -25 cost of a new hardback.
Great post. Thanks
I’ve been better about this with pleasure books, and have been trying to cut down on how many I buy. A friend and I now loan books between the two of us, so I have a ready supply of mystery novels through her right now (as well as someone to talk with about them when finished).
That said, there are still books I buy, but mainly for two reasons. First, I buy reference books, especially if they’re ones that will also be useful in the future. So, I’m willing to buy (although preferably at a discount or used) books like cookbooks, guides to raising animals (sheep, anyone?), or texts on gardening.
I’m also in academia, so there are books the libraries don’t have. Those that I can get through inter-library loan come very slowly, and don’t get to stay for long. Ones that they do have are subject to being recalled quickly, with massive fines attached. For a book that will get a lot of use, I sometimes find it easier and more cost-effective to buy, especially when I factor in how much tuition is – being able to have a book quickly and have it accessible for as long as I need is worth it to me.
That said, my book consumption has gone down over the last year, and my library use has gone up. I love getting books delivered to the branch close to me for free, reading them, and then being able to return them without having to find more shelf space, or pay the visa bill at the end of the month.
That’s awesome and shows you even those of us who need books for work (myself included) can be purposeful about it and not simply spend $$$ each month when it isn’t needed.
I buy used books from amazon.com. Even if the books are relatively new releases, after a few days I can usually get them for half the price. Then when I’m finished reading them I turn around and sell them on Amazon. Amazon even reimburses me for the shipping. This way I can keep the books as long as I like without worrying about paying fines on “free” books from the library that I always forget to renew! I’ve just found this the best process for me. I feel like I’m really recycling!
I read somewhere in blogland THE most fantastic idea, and I promise I’m going to actually do it soon: Book Exchange Party. Works like a holiday cookie exchange where all attendees bring multiple batches of home-baked cookies and they are divided up at the party and everyone goes home with a great variety of fresh homemade cookies.
With the book exchange, everyone brings their already read books. When you arrive, you get a ‘ticket’ for each book you brought to exchange. All the books are laid out, and the shopping begins. You get to choose a book for each ‘ticket’ you have, so in theory everyone leaves with the same number of books they brought, but new-to-you titles.
Any unchosen books could be donated to a charity shop. Free shopping! I really hope to do this before the holidays this year.
My husband calls me the “Library Queen” I have access to a great library system and can do everything online…so I spend time on it every day check out the new titles, dvd’s etc. I also buy all my magazines at my local library. They are 10 cents a piece, last night I picked up Martha Stewart Living, as well as Oprah and several others from June and July 2010…not bad for a dime! All the books I’ve purchased for our grandsons have been used either at booksales or library sales…it’s a rare day when I buy a book new, although that does happen maybe once a year or so….
have a wonderful weekend
Niki
Great points all! I have a very large book collection but I can honestly say most are free or second hand tho, plus the Birthday/Christmas and then the rare special treat inbetween – rare.
This is so timely for me!! I am always amazed when I go shopping with friends that people will just spend money buying 3, 4, 5 or more books for their book circle or because they are popular without even thinking about going to the library or waiting for a friend to share theirs or even looking for second hand. At the end of the day people should admit it still costs money and sometimes it is worth the spend for a book you love or a book you can use, but to just buy so you can read isn’t a good idea as a general rule.
Buying brand new hardback books at full cover price is a luxury that I rarely allow myself. Probably not even once a year.
However, I do buy almost every book that I want to read, because I know that I’ll end up (at least semi-) permanently keeping about half of them, regifting 30 or 40%, and donating the rest.
My favorite way to buy books is used hardback from Amazon. Many times you can get a book home for $5 that way, including shipping.
Love this, I have been trying to do this actually. I am a book fiend, so I used to spend a TON on buying books, then realized the waste, when I only really read them once. So, I began to look into the local libray. I love that I can go online, llok up the book I want, reserve it and they email me when it’s ready. And in the mean time, as you said I just read something else.
There have been times though that I just couldn’t wait…:) But more and more I use the library, or as you said, wait till a holiday when I might ask for it as a gift.
Thank you for this post it was great!
Blessings
Andrea
I’ve found enough classics available for free as e-book that it’s been ages since I’ve had to pay for anything. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and sites like Project Gutenberg offer out-of-copyright ebooks free for download. If I really want something newer, I usually turn to Freecycle or Swaptree.
Great tips Erin!
As part of my current austerity project I have vowed that I won’t buy any books until I’ve read everything that I’ve bought and not read yet. It’s keeping me fairly busy and I won’t need to buy any fiction for at least another month or two.
I am a huge fan of buying books in charity shops. So many people get rid of books as soon as they’ve read them, whereas I keep everything I will want to read again and donate anything I didn’t like. You can buy books so cheaply this way. I’m a very big fan of the Amazon Marketplace service as well: if you’re not fussy about buying books that might be slightly ‘pre-loved’ in their appearance’ you can pick up so many books for one or two pennies. You still have to pay the postage costs (usually around £2.50), but that’s still a pretty good bargain.
My aunt and gran were both librarians so libraries were a big part of growing up for me, my whole family are avid readers and I can only imagine how full our homes would be if we didn’t make use of the library!
For upcoming releases of my favourite authors it has become almost a game for me to know when a new title is due and watch for it on the libraries website so I can get my request in while it is still on pre-order.
The only books I buy now are academic books that I need my own reference copy of (usually I test run with the library copy) and one author I like who writes very hefty novels that I order in paperback from the UK, because I cannot comfortably hold such large hardback books!
I hardly ever buy books anymore. At first it was a space issue. I just didn’t have room for all my books (I actually have quite a few boxes of books in our attic), but the I can to realize they really cost a lot. I use our library quite frequently, but I do it a bit differently. I pretty much reserve all my books online and just pop in to grab them when they are ready. I usually have 5 to 10 books in my queue at any time, so it is a surprise what book I am going to pick up! I still go to book stores, but I bring a little notebook and jot down the books that catch my interest, and then go home and reserve them at the library. We do go into the library to pick out children’s books though. And I do buy books every now and then for my daughter as we are trying to grow her little library and she loves books!
Oh – another tip for UK library users – I recently discovered on enquiring about a book i wanted to read (Soulemama’s ‘Handmade Home’), but wasn’t owned by any of the county’s libraries, that they would actually buy it in especially (and for no more cost to me than the standard reservation fee!). I love that they actually buy what people request! This worked well for me as the cost was negligible (80p), and I will be honest, if I’d bought it it would probably have sat on a shelf unused (not saying anything bad about the book, it just is parent-orientated, so I was just curious
).
This is such great news! I’m in the UK as well and I’ve just joined my local library today, so I’m sure I will end up taking advantage of this service!
I used to buy all my books new and keep them forever. I love reading and I still have a few bookshelves of my books. Since trying to be more frugal however, I no longer buy most books new. I purchase them in second hand shops and once in awhile take them out of libraries. If I purchase second hand they are anywhere from 25 cents (rare) to $3.00. There is a rare occasion I need or want a new book and I do not want to wait. In that case, I buy it. I agree with Alice that book buying and reading ranks above some other luxuries.
Book crossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com/) has a lot of books registered in its network. I find it a great way to get rid of books that I’m finished with, as well as to acquire some of those that my local library does not stock…. and it’s fun to see what travel adventures my books go on!
Dear all.
Thank you for your rocking awesome suggestions. I will be telling all my readers to come back & read through the comments. Such a wealth of information here! Thank you again for contributing!!
I admit to a weakness for books, but I rarely spend more than a couple bucks on each one. Library sales, garage sales, swap meets, online trades and if I absolutely need a particular book right now, http://WWW.BETTERWORLDBOOKS.COM.
I also absolutely LOVE bookcrossing.com. Though I probably buy more books than I used to just because I know that I can have fun giving them away! People on the site are often willing to do swaps, or even sometimes to send you a book for the cost of postage! Just remember to be polite. I’m jennannej over there.
Better World Books is awesome – such a great suggestion here! We support the National Literacy Trust at work (in the UK) and encourage people to bring in their unwanted books to pass on to BWB: they make donations to the Trust from the profits.
I read this earlier but didn’t have time to comment! Such a great post with lots of creative ideas!
I find it really exciting when I get a text from my library telling me a book is in. I purposly dont go on line to find out what it is!!
My library is ACE. I buy hardbacks of books that I know I will read time and time again (mainly Terry Pratchett and religious/reference), but pretty much everything else I get from the library. I have saved so much money over the past year it doesn’t bear thinking about. I read a vast amount!
I like to get books at garage sales. Usually there are great titles for less than $1 and you can usually bargain.
I love books & I always have at least one on the go, we have alot of Christian books at home but anything else comes from the library. My 2 daughters are the same, sadly my son hasn’t the same love for books, my husband always has to visit the charity shop before a holiday to but his holiday books!
Good point Deno! I do have quite a few Christian books, although my friends & I share/swap (I have 1 Christian friend locally in the UK), I was able to get several second hand and then a few of the others I bought new!
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I’m in a book club and i can’t believe the number of people in book clubs who buy a new book every month when the local library will get the books in for you. It is such a fantastic service (in the UK – not sure about anywhere else!). We give them a list of books every 6 months or so and they gather the books for us from libraries all around the country! We’re a group of 10 so there have been a few occasions where they haven’t been able to get 10 copies but we just share in those occasions. Another great thing is that there are no late fees on book clubs so we can have the books for two or three months sometimes.