Book worm? Save a few!
Image by chrischapman via Flickr
First of all apologies for not finishing off the €50 challenge post… kids got sick and things got out of hand. Am working on same menu this week, so expect updates soon.
Do you like reading as much as I do? If so, you know how expensive the habit can get, especially if you anxiously await certain authors’ latest hardbacks! I thought I’d outline a few ideas on how to stop spending or at least save a little bit.
- First and most obvious, but not often used, is the library! Your library is free after a small joining fee and usually allows you to keep up to four books at a time. Even if you live in a smaller town with less catalogue, you can use the BorrowBooks service to reserve and request titles from any library in Ireland.
- Another free and obvious one is to find people with similar taste in books and swap with them!
- If you don’t mind hitting the post office to support your habit, you can use the free service BookMooch. Bookmooch basically allows you to send and receive books to other members. For every book you send you get a point which you can use to request another book. If you are willing to send abroad you get three points. It’s a great service and if you keep things local you can save a lot of money on decent copies of books you read whilst helping out other readers as well. Did I mention it’s environmentally friendly too?
- You can purchase discount books online as well. You won’t save as much, but it’s certainly cheaper than hitting Easons. Amazon
can save a bit of money, although personally I won’t touch them out of principal. Most of the books are shipped from Dublin, yet Irish orders do not qualify for their free shipping options, when UK orders do. The Book Depository works out SLIGHTLY more expensive than Amazon, but has free shipping worldwide which will usually save you in the long run. If you don’t mind buying second hand, Better World can save you a fortune. It is a US site, but ships globally for $2.97. It’s a great cause too, as a portion of profits go to support literacy programs around the world. I have literally gotten 7 books for under $10 here before. You’ll wait a little longer on shipping, but it’s worth it in the long run.
How do you save on books? Any tips and tricks we can learn from?
UPDATE: I just went to place an order with Better World (see above) and not only have they raised shipping costs to $3.97 (which would be more than acceptable) but they changed it to $3.97 PER BOOK! Not such a feasible international option any more. I won’t withdraw my recommendation, they are a decent company to deal with, but they have lost this customer. I’ll let you make your own decision. I think we’d be better off sticking to The Book Depository. My only complaint is that they don’t accept Paypal! 
Great post Deb. As an avid there’s some stuff there that I’ll be following up on soon.
One possible addition - I use my Pigsback.com points now mostly for book vouchers for Hughes & Hughes. Its a handy way to pick up a few free books every so often.
@ValueIreland: Ooh good point Diarmuid, I actually have a H&H gift card sitting around from Pigsback!
Thanks for mentioning Better World Books! As a token of our appreciation, please feel free to use the coupon code JHAL08 for a 10% discount (Coupon good for a one-time use on or before 12-31-08). 2 million New & Used Books. Free shipping in the USA and $3.97 worldwide.
I’m a member of the local library which is a great resource for books alright. Have lots of books at home waiting to be read so I haven’t been to the library for a while but it is something I always go back to.
Also I have a lot of unwanted books at home that I was considering giving away or selling until I heard of BookMooch so I think I will catalogue them all and load them up there instead!
Great post Deb
Four books! Here in Toronto we can keep 50 library items at a time. I think the “swap with other people” one is underused. People can be a bit … odd … about their books, and it’s sad to see them piled up or dusty on bookshelves.
@Jozi Thanks so much Jozi, that’s very generous of you and I will certainly take you up on it as I’m sure some of our readers will as well.
@Daisy Thanks! Bookmooch is great. Now that I have the second car I should really get back on there. My Granny is my book source. Everyone brings her books and she gives them to me when she’s done - it’s brilliant!
@Guinness - 50 items? Wow! You’re right about people being odd… some people are downright fanatical… better not fold a corner!
The library service is great. I ordered an old Top of the Pops CD via borrowbooks.ie months ago. As it turned out, the holding library didn’t loan CDs via borrowbooks, so my own library went out and bought the CD for their collection. I picked it up this weekend, so I’m rocking around to Echo Beach by Martha and the Muffins all weekend!
I went and got a few books from betterworld. Even at $3.97 per book they are cheaper than Amazon and had a few books I hadn;t come across before.
I use Paperbackswap.com. I am in the US though. Basically you look at your bookshelf and list 10 books you are willing to swap. They give you 3 bonus exchanges to start you off. You earn an exchange point for each book that’s requested by a member and you mail it off to them. Then with your exchange points you order books off the site for free. Each book costs one point, audios usually 2 points. Swap a book earn a point, order a book- use a point. You can create a wishlist of books that you would like and when they are put into the system you get an email notifying you. I have read some great books this year and swapped out books to fellow book lovers. My username is RDRKM
I use fetchbook.info It is a price comparison book site. Search by book titel, author or ISBN and sorts the stores by price it includes amazon, betterworld and abe and many others. You can set default to Euro and Ireland to calculate the postage. It also has a neat Wish List feature where you can set a price for a book and it emails you when the book becomes available below your price limit. Great way to control those impulse buys that end up on the table with all the other books waiting to be read. Not 100% accurate on postage but pretty good. No ads, spam or other rubbish.
I find Play.com great for books (bothe new and secondhand), the prices include delivery