Sadly, my local library is on its way to dying. Of course, when it’s gone probably the best way for me to read books for free will perish too. The waiting lists to receive a certain book can vary up to a year due to the fact that the library has little copies of books which are high-demanded. Not long ago, if someone had asked me which the best source for free books is, I would have said the library. Sadly, that’s no longer the case and you’ve got to search for other ways to obtain free or cheap books. Here are a few ideas of mine:
eReader – If you have it then you can obtain a lot of free books from there. Barnes and Noble and Amazon offer sometimes free books. From time to time, there are publishers and authors who also use these sites to offer books.
Swaps – swapping books is an efficient way for the obtaining of free books. There are already numerous sites for book swapping online. If you like, you can start a swapping site of your own. If you have alliance to any clubs or groups for books, you may always check if they are up to starting a book swap.
Stores for used books – there are a lot of people who are selling their books to such kind of stores. There, you will be able to find all kinds of books from almost every genre. Also, nowadays there are a lot of online places where you can get used books. Online, you can find not only all genres of books but even books that are already out of print such as some old favorites. However, make sure that you are paying the right price, because there are many sites, which overprice their books.
Book sales – your library is probably hosting sales of books. There they sell old titles and donations, which they don’t want to keep. Also, you get to support your local library, as when you buy a book from there your money will be probably used for the obtaining of other books which you can read for free. Book sales are an awesome way to obtain cheap books (we Danes say Køb billige bøger) .
Other places – you may take books from your family or friends, check at the library, book fairs, estate sales, yard sales or flea markets. You can find cheap or free books at each one of these places.
Even if you end up buying a book at full price, you still can earn back part of your investment by simply selling the books after you have used them. You can use sites such as Craigslist and eBay to do this or you can always go to the store for used books and sell them there. Another way is to donate part of your old books. So here are, for you, some of my ideas for places where you can buy cheap books. All you have to do is search a bit.