In the past, books used to be extremely valuable items that were not easily available for the common man. They were a premium product that only the wealthy and the well-connected could afford to have. Today, books are far more available but it can be difficult to get your hands on your favorite titles for those that are looking to buy on a budget. Here are a few ways you can get your books for a better price, if not free.
1. Library Sales
Libraries are constantly being flooded with new books and new titles and they need to make physical space to accommodate all these books. Every year, sometimes multiple times a year, libraries will sell old books in their stock. You can get all kinds of goodies at these sales and they are available for next to free.
2. Free eBooks
One big benefit of the internet is that you can get free eBooks. You might not get the satisfaction of turning over a page and having something that you can put a physical bookmark in, but it’s still exactly the same as the printed version. Whether you are looking for a non-fiction thriller or just a comic to kill time, you can get all kinds of eBooks for completely no money.
3. Discount Stores
If you don’t want to pay premium prices at the best book stores, consider discount stores. There are a number of physical and online discount stores that offer books at prices that are below market prices. If you are lucky you might find them offering 15 percent off the entire Thrift Books order giving you access to all kinds of resources. The challenge is finding the book you want as these stores can have hundreds of thousands of titles and they aren’t always well organized. Even online stores don’t have the best databases so you do have to look for that diamond.
4. Paperback Versions
You might have a hard time finding paperback versions of new books, but for older titles, the paperbacks will be easier to find and cheaper. The simple reason is that manufacturing hard-back books is more expensive. If you get even more premium and go for leather-back versions, you can easily end up paying 5 times the price of a hardback version.
5. Buy Used
If you do want to get a hard-back, consider getting a slightly used version. There are used books available at the local bookstores and there are also a lot of sellers online who are selling original books at much cheaper prices. If you are lucky you might even get a leather-bound version for cheap.
6. Audiobooks
Another completely free version of books is the Audiobooks. This is also great if you like reading books on the go, you can just plug in your headphones and listen to as many books as you want. Audio versions of all the latest books and the classics are available online.
If you don’t want to spend money on books, there are still a number of ways that you can get the same knowledge. In many cases, you can get the books at a fraction of the retail price but you will have to put in a bit of effort in finding them. Sometimes it is also a matter of luck. You go to all the bookstores but you just can’t find that one book, and sometimes you will find the title you need in fantastic condition, with a leather cover.
Markus lives in San Francisco, California and is the video game and audio expert on Good e-Reader! He has a huge interest in new e-readers and tablets, and gaming.
