For those of us who are book-hungry, devouring book after book, those mighty tomes can add up to more dollars than we’d like to spend. If you’re looking for a way to add books to your reading list without adding an extra zero to your book budget, here are a few places you can find books online cheap or even free.
Start your search here. Or, if you’re looking for more guidance, check out this blog post: What Should I Read Next? Five Strategies for Finding Your Next Book
1. Go Classic with Project Gutenberg
If you’ve been reading Penny Magic for long, you’ll know that we love to pull a good classic short story out of the archives to bring it to today’s readers. The text of many of those stories can be found on Project Gutenberg, a website dedicated to publishing public domain content free online for all readers. With more than 75,000 books, you can find many classics on the site and read them online or download many as ebooks for your devices.
2. Browse Your Local Library with Libby or OverDrive
Libraries aren’t just for physical books. We’ve read books from our library all around the world as we travel by using ebook lending apps like Libby or Overdrive. Ebook lending apps allow libraries to support authors while making the books broadly available for their patrons. Most ebook libraries have regularly updating inventories, so if you don’t see something yet, you can check again later or even put in a request for your library to buy a digital copy.
3. Find a Library Far From Home
If your local library is missing the ebooks you’re looking for, consider getting a non-resident library card for a library that has more books you are looking for. Here is a great list from Everyday Reading that gives a run-down of non-resident library card options by state. Some of these come with an annual fee, but others may be available for free if you are living within the same state as the library you hope to borrow from.
Not Free, But Pretty Darn Cheap
If none of these free options work for you or you’re looking for a book that they don’t have, keep an eye out for deeply discounted ebooks on websites like BookBub. Publishers will discount ebooks seasonally, sometimes for a week, sometimes for just a day. A site like BookBub allows you to sign up for the genres you’re interested in, sending you emails to let you know when your favorites are on sale.