Reading isn’t an expensive hobby – or, at least, it doesn’t have to be. Of course, I, like many other people, would like all the prettiest special editions, the latest colored e-readers, the cutest stickers, and those stunning built-in bookshelves, but the reality is that most of us can’t afford that.
For the majority of my reading life, my budget didn’t allow for luxuries. Most special editions and fancy reading things (like my current e-reader) I own have been gifted to me by relatives on my birthday, and I rarely splurge on books if I know I can get them cheaper. But not having money teaches you to be thrifty, so, over the years, I’ve learned to find creative ways to still maintain my reading obsession while not breaking the bank.
And I’m here to share my tips. It’s important to note that none of these include anything illegal, and especially no piracy. Everything I talk about here is a perfectly legitimate, affordable way to read more, and I hope you find it useful.
Read Public Domain Books
If you enjoy classic literature, you should know that most classics are available in public domain libraries, completely free. Yes, I know that these books have some of the most stunning editions ever, but if your aim is just to read and enjoy, getting them online for free is entirely viable.
My favorite place for this is Project Gutenberg, and there you can find all Jane Austen books, most Agatha Christie’s, all the Sherlock Holmes books, L.M. Montgomery, Russian classics, all the Bronte’s, and so much more. More than 75 000 books wait for you there, all free of charge.
It’s the absolute best way to read more without paying or harming anyone in the process.
Get a Subscription
There are services like Kindle Unlimited and Everand which allow you to read with a single monthly subscription.
I explain more about how Kindle Unlimited works here, but the gist of it is that you pay around $14 monthly and then you can read all books in the Unlimited library for free. If you read a lot, this is a really good deal. You don’t even need a Kindle device for it, as long as you get the phone app. The selection leans more fantasy, romance, and mystery/thrillers, so if that’s your jam, I recommend this service.
Now, Kindle Unlimited isn’t available everywhere and it doesn’t feature all books, so you might want to look into Everand if that’s an issue for you.
Everand is (to my knowledge) available everywhere and it lets you read any book you choose. There are different tiers, though, and that limits how many books you can read in a month. On the first tier ($12), for example, you can only read one book (audio or e-book), and on the highest plan ($29), you can read up to 5. So this service is perfect if you don’t read a lot monthly and you like audiobooks.
Get a Library Card
Libraries are a seriously underused resource for reading. If you have one in your area, you should definitely get a card and start borrowing because it’s the best way to read an unlimited amount of books either for free or a very tiny fee.
Some libraries have also gone digital, which means you can get e-copies delivered to your phone or reading device. Apps like Libby handle this well, so I highly recommend trying it.
Now, I know that not all people have access to a good library. The one in my town is very small and doesn’t have anything more recent (and even if it’s recent, often it’s just the most popular titles), plus it doesn’t have a digital version. That might be you as well, and in that case, you should know that some libraries offer non-resident cards for a small fee, so you can give that a try.
Thrift Books
Instead of buying brand-new copies (which are getting more and more expensive), you can try buying books second-hand. Look up thrift or second-hand stores in your area or online marketplaces where people sell what they no longer need. You can often find great books (even newer releases) for much lower prices, and very little actual damage to the book itself.
Use NetGalley
I’m surprised that more people aren’t using NetGalley as a way to read for free, because it’s pretty great as a system. Of course, you can’t get books that are already out, but it gives you something even better: access to books that aren’t out yet!
And if you think e-ARCs are just for influencers, you’d be wrong. All you need to do is create an account (which is free and available anywhere) and start requesting. At first, you may get fewer books until your profile rating rises a bit, but then you’ll be getting more, sometimes even direct requests from authors and publishers to your inbox (!) to read their book.
Of course, in exchange for this, you will have to leave a review on NetGalley, but that’s no hardship for how many great books you can read. It helps if you share your reviews somewhere else, like on Goodreads and other reading trackers, or on your social media, but this is not necessary either.
Through NetGalley, I got an early access to The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, The Everlasting, A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, And Now, Back to You, and so many other amazing and now amazingly popular books. So give it a try if you don’t mind leaving your thoughts on books somewhere online.
Use AO3
If you mainly read romance, fantasy or some combo of both, I cannot recommend AO3 enough. Everything there is entirely free, and you can read it online or download it as an epub or pdf to your favorite device.
Of course, most of it is fanfiction so you’ll have to find a fandom you enjoy or ships (characters that may or may not be together in the original work) that you like, but you’ve probably watched a movie or a show at some point and thought “man, those two would be great together” or “I wish this world had X” or “I wish this story ended differently” or “what if X thing happened instead”. In that case, you can probably find some version of what you imagined online.
For example, if you love romantasy and enemies to lovers, the Reylo or Dramione fandoms have some amazing works. Most of it is wonderfully written and really exhilarating to read as the authors have all the creative freedom they need.
Not everything on AO3 is romance either, so even if that’s not your jam, you can find plenty of original plotlines for familiar characters.
The system is pretty easy to navigate. You can search by your favorite tropes (tags), favorite couples, amount of hits or kudos (this tells you how well-loved a work is in the fandom) and you can even exclude some tags.
Read Samples First
If there’s one thing worth taking away from this article, then it’s this: read the free sample before you buy the book! It’ll save you so much money, not to mention time. This way, you can triage what you read and avoid buying and wasting time on something that didn’t grab you in that sample.
After buying quite a few duds (which I thought I’d love), I’ve learned my lesson, so now sample-reading is an essential part of my process. If I enjoy the sample, the book goes on my TBR (or, well, my version of it). If not, then it’s bye bye book.
The amount of money this has saved me, it’s incredible. And usually, when I like a sample, I end up liking the book (bar some exceptions), so it also saved me from reading bad books.
Don’t Impulse-Buy
Look, I get it. I’m a mood reader. When I want something, I want it now. But over time, I’ve learned that sometimes it’s better to wait. The best example of this for me is The Road of Bones, which I wanted to buy, but it was kind of expensive, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. And then a week later, it went on discount at $1.28 or something! Imagine that!
So now, when I like a book (or its sample), I generally put it on my wish list and wait for a discount. Most places have daily, weekly, and monthly discounts, not to mention the holidays and various other sales throughout the year.
If you wait, you can get the book for so much cheaper, it’s not even fair. Once, I bought a book at full price because I’m an impatient little heathen, and then a few weeks later it was totally discounted. Nothing makes you more patient than that.
It’s also worth noting that some places give you free books. Amazon’s ebook store has books that cost $0 daily, you just have to check to see if there’s something you’d like. Early Bird Books gives you a free book if you subscribe to their newsletter (this is how I got The Proposition by Judith Ivory), and they also have incredible discounts every day.
Some authors also give away books for free, and there are “Stuff Your Kindle” days which you can follow on social media via that hashtag and find ginormous lists of free books frequently (if you don’t want to search the stores yourself).
Final Thoughts
I hope these tips have helped you find a way to read more for less money. Yes, it’s not the most “aesthetic” thing in the world (and social media is not helping anyone feel better about it), but reading is about reading, and not what book covers look like or what your shelves are like, or sprayed edges. If you follow my tips, you can read amazing stories (as many as you want) without breaking the bank.
Do you have any good tips for reading affordably? Share them with me in the comments below and I’ll give them a try!
