How To Save Money On Books

1. Borrow books from the library. Don’t buy them unless you absolutely have to. This is one of the easiest and most time-honored ways to save money.
2. Use AddAll.com, a book price comparison search engine.
3. Use LibriVox.org for free audio books. Before you buy an audio book, see if it’s available for free and legally on LibriVox.org.  If you’re going to buy an audio book, Audible.com is one of the most popular online retailers.  Audible.com books are much cheaper, though, if you search for the audio book on Amazon.com (affiliated with Audible) first and then click on that link over to Audible.com.
4. Never buy a new book, unless it is a gift. Instead, once you have the book title, save money by comparison shopping between Half.com (eBay’s used books website that frequently has books for sale for just $0.75), Amazon.com’s used books section and AbeBooks.com.  If you still like browsing through books in a bookstore, visit the store, find books that look interesting, write their titles down and then buy them online.  Even better, check them out from the library.
5. Buy children’s books at garage sales. Twenty-five cents per book beats $10-$15/book and it doesn’t matter at all if the books aren’t in the best condition if you’re just going to read them to your own children (as opposed to buying them as birthday gifts).
6. Trade books on Swap.com or PaperbackSwap.com instead of buying them.
7. Before you buy an “old” book, check to see if it’s in the public domain (after a certain time period, a book’s copyright expires and the book’s contents enter the public domain).  The text of many classics can be found for free legally online.  In fact, many of these classics have been recorded by volunteers and made available as free audio books on LibriVox.