Easy Hacks to read/get books cheaply!!!

The odd thing about people who have too many books is how they always want more. Me being one. Now I personally feel I don’t have a huge collection of books but it is my dream to have a room full of books something in lines of the library the Mayor’s wife had in The Book Thief. If only books weren’t that expensive ( especially hardcovers). I know I don’t feel much of a tinge if I spent three times for a piece of clothing compared to a book but well I am cheap like that!! The ebooks and audiobooks are comparatively cheaper but I don’t prefer it. So I am always on a lookout to get as many books as I want at great prices and here are my hacks or suggestions:

1. Be a member of a library:- There is no cheaper way to read as many books as you want other than being a member of a library. 80% of all the books I have ever read have been borrowed from the library. The best thing about this is that a) You can experiment with new genres you are unsure about liking. b) In case you don’t like a particular book you can just return it and won’t feel the pinch of buying it ( read: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child ). Also libraries have a very warm cozy feel to them. I for one can literally spend whole day in the library.
2. Sneaky Reading in Bookstores:- Come on we all have done this at one point or the other. Going to the bookstores to read books. And if there’s a cafe inside the bookstore you are never getting me out of there.
3. Book swap Groups:- Book swapping is another way to read lots of books and one can find multiple such groups on Meetup. How it works is you get to give the genre and kind of books you would like to read and then you get an address and name of the person to whom you need to courier the book. In return you receive one or more books. I personally don’t do this since I am very possessive about my books and rarely share them with others.
4. Streetshopping:- Yea we can street shop books just as clothes, jewellery, bags, etc. They are pirated or duplicate copies of the original book. But you can get them for like 70-80 % off. In Pune you can get them on FC Road, JM Road and in Aundh opposite Crossword. One thing to take care of before you buy any book just go through all the pages cause sometimes I have found blank pages or smeared inks. You can also get them at second hand book stores.
5. Per kg book sale :- Now I don’t know if this happens in other cities or not but in Pune we have this half annual sale at COEP hostel wherein they sell books at 200 or 250 per kg. And they have like thousands of books though you need to look a lot to get what you need.
6. Amazon Carting Books:- I do this thing wherein whenever I wish to read a book I Amazon cart it and usually after a few days I get a mail from them saying the price has decreased after which if I like the deal I’ll buy it.
7. Bookstore Membership:- These days we have all the major bookstores offering membership cards using which you can get good discounts. For example Crossword gives a flat 20% off on all your book purchases which is awesome when you want to buy a newly released book.

So yea these are the ways in which I get my books. Do let me know how you guys get your books in comment section below.

Cheers!!
XoXo