How I read voraciously without spending too much money

In general books are reasonably priced. The price of a book compares well to other things I enjoy, and will usually keep me entertained much longer than a trip to the cinema or a glass of wine. However I often read a new book every couple of days, and it all adds up.

So I have a number of ways that I feed my avid reading habit without spending too much money, whether it's on books or on book storage. 

The local library is the most obvious source for free books. I've been using various libraries for years. My local library very small but it's only a ten minute walk away and I'm a heavy user of their current free reservation service. I'll read about a new release, or I am reminded of a book that I've always wanted to read, and I just pop into the app and request it for free.

There's also usually a trolley of old books for sale and I often manage to pick something up for 40p or so. The books are usually still in good condition and are often a hardback which is much sturdier and will last longer. 

I often swap books with friends and family, luckily I know people with similar tastes! I'm also always on the look out for the boxes of free books that people sometimes leave outside their houses. I would do this myself if we lived on a street with more foot traffic!

When it comes to buying books I purchase a lot of my books second hand. I love browsing in charity shops. I buy second hand books online too, usually from Wob which I have always found reasonably priced and reliable. I donate a lot of my own books to charity too, there's no way that I have the space to keep a copy of every book that I purchase or read!

Photo credit Lacie Slezak via Unsplash

When it comes to Kindle books I've found lots of options for free or very cheap books.

I regularly browse through the Top 100 Free Kindle books on Amazon. You have to be a bit careful as sometimes the books are part of a series or just a short story, but I've found some good ones. It's also worth having a look at the Top 100 Paid Kindle books on Amazon because this picks up the books that are on special offer for 99p, and there are often recent releases by popular authors in this selection. You just have to grab them quickly as the offer will only last a few days!

If you are an Amazon Prime member then you also have a couple of great options for free Kindle books. There is the Amazon First Reads selection where every month you can choose a book or two to download (it's 99p if you aren't a Prime member, which is still really good value). There is always at least one book from the main genres which clearly marked, for example historical fiction, romance, fantasy, so you can pick one that fits with the type of book that you enjoy reading. I've read lots of new books this way and I've not had a bad one yet.

The second is the Prime Reading Library which allows you to borrow up to ten books at a time from a large selection of recently published and popular books. Again these are sorted by genre, or you can browse the popular downloads. There's plenty of non fiction, books for children, even graphic novels and comics. The selection changes really frequently so I always find something new.

Project Gutenberg is another great online source for free e-books which you can download for Kindle or other e-readers. I like to browse the list of top downloads to get a good idea about which books and authors are available. There are also lots of other places to legally download free e-books, although these tend to be from newer or self-published authors. Searching for popular or top reviews is a good place to start with finding something that's worth the read.

So even though I always have a book or two on the go, I never run out of anything to read and I spend relatively little on my reading habit!