Since lockdown 1.0, reading has really become one constant in my life that has been so positive for me mentally and it has meant that I spend a reduced amount of time on my phone, which is always a winner. Through my recent journey of book reading I have learnt some tips a long that way, especially when it comes to buying books on a budget and I thought it would be the perfect time to share with you my booking buying tips.
Here are a few book buying tips in order to save you money when buying your next read!
When I first started getting into reading during lockdown 1.0, I was quite lucky to start with books that I already owned and just hadn’t read or ones my Mum was due to give to charity but just hadn’t got round to doing so, but once I’d read those I suddenly got the itch to purchase a few books that I’d had my eye on. Being fairly new to book buying I did the obvious thing of just going on Amazon and purchasing books through there, but then came the dilemma of a book I really wanted being out of stock which is what led me to expand my book buying avenues and also made me realise that Amazon aren’t always the cheapest for book buying. Although in reality books aren’t that expensive, but it doesn’t hurt to try to save some pennies especially if you purchase a lot of books so I thought I’d share some book buying tips that I have learnt over the last six months!
Shop Around Before Purchasing
The first of my book buying tips carries on from what I’ve touched on above, where I’ve mentioned that sometimes Amazon isn’t the cheapest when it comes to books and I would always advise people to shop around. Although Amazon can be a convenient option, let’s face it it’s not the best and like many of us I do like to support smaller businesses in anyway possible. One of my favourite online book shops is Blackwells as they often have offers on popular books, as well as often having books that are sold out on Amazon and also offer free delivery on all of their books. I purchased a fair few books from them during the summer and I cannot recommend them enough!
Charity Shops Are Amazing for Popular Books
Over the last few months another book buying tip I have learnt, is that when it comes to popular books you’ll no doubt be able to find a copy or two in your local charity shops a few months later for a fraction of the original price. Just before Christmas I picked up quite a few books from my local charity shops and I was able to find three books that had been on my Want To Read list on Good Reads for a while. Safe to say I was chuffed when I found The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes for £1.75 and Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healy for £1.50, both of which have been massively popular reads. Although we can’t shop in charity shops at the moment, when we can I would really recommend checking them out especially if you’ve got your eye on a few popular reads!
Book Swap With Friends Where You Can
Another of my book buying tips is book swapping! I get so excited by this one because I love the feeling of sending my friends books that I’ve read knowing that they are going to enjoy it just as much as I did. Over the summer I did a couple of book swaps with my pals and it was a great way of getting my hands on books I’ve wanted to read but without paying for them.. if that makes sense? More so recently my house mate and I have started a book shelf in our lounge where when we have finished a book we pop it on the shelf for each other to read and when we’ve both read it, we’ll take them to our local charity shop for someone else to read. It’s such a lovely thing what we’ve come up with and I have discovered some books that I probably wouldn’t have picked up otherwise, so I would recommend doing something like this if you can.
Take Advantage of Kindle 99p Reads
The last of my book buying tips is one that I actually forgot all about until it came to typing up this post, but another great way to save money on books especially newer books, is checking out Kindle’s 99p Books. Although some books are more expensive than 99p, still they have some amazing books for the fraction of the price meaning you’re still saving some pennies. Of course you don’t get the book in physical form, but you still get to read and keep the books in a digital form and it means the books aren’t taking up room on your shelves. All you have to do is download the Kindle App if you don’t have a Kindle and you can then purchase the books through that to read!
So those are a few of my book buying tips that I have learnt over the last year and ones that I would recommend to anyone looking to get into reading more. If you’re wanting a few book recommendations, then make sure to check out my Favourite Books of 2020 post!
Do you have any book buying tips?
