Monday, February 11, 2013

Attention Readers!

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For bloggers, not every single one of us will be accepted by the publisher to read an ARC of an upcoming book we're just dying to read. I bet that not all of us will get every book on our Christmas or birthday list and not every one of us will go out and buy every book we want. If I was rich, I would start expanding my shelves more, but since that's not the case, I can only fantasize.

So what do you do when you're a reader and you love books, but you don't have much money to spend? Here's the list. 

For bloggers:

1. NetGalley. Netgalley is a wonderful place. If you have good stats (sometimes that doesn't even matter), the publisher will accept you via NetGalley to read an e-galley of whatever ARC you request. The catch? In exchange of reading an ARC that isn't out yet, you must review it. It's only fair. 


2. ARCycling. On their website, it clearly states that you must be an active reviewer and can be a book blogger, librarian, and a bookseller. Get that? Must review. How does it work? Well, every Sunday, for a limited time, they post a list. On the list are books that kind people have donated. You fill out the form they put it up as fast as you can to request said books. You can only get a maximum of two at a time, but you can fill up the form to your heart's content, because you might not get the first two that you wanted. There's other rules in there, but you can just look at their website for more information.

For anyone:

1. YA Book Exchange. Like ARCycling and as implied in the name of this organization, you trade or exchange books. Traders will post what they are willing to trade in exchange for whatever book is on their wishlist. Some even say that non-wishlist books are negotiable. That new book that just got released? Somebody might have it and be willing to trade with you! 

2. Thrift stores. This past Saturday, I experienced my first time thrift store book shopping experience. I know, first time? Say what now? In one day, I got NINE books for under $10. You might ask me, "Well, are they even good books?" Three of them were Sarah Dessen novels, one was a HARDCOVER Gallagher Girl book (I was ecstatic since I only had paperback in this one), and one was The Princess Diaries. So to answer your question, yes. I also saw The Maze Runner, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, City of Ashes, tons of Nicholas Sparks', and Kate Brian novels. Amazing!
3. The clearance section in your bookstore. In my Books-A-Million, they have a nice size section devoted to books under $4. A nice chunk of that section is all YA books. For $3.97, I got Heist Society for one of my friends for Christmas. It's a lovely part of the store. 

4. The library. While yes, you can't own them, you can be in possession of a book for a certain amount of time. You don't know how many times I checked out one of my favorite books or roamed the aisles for new titles or squealed with joy when I saw a book I had been waiting for that became available. There's also the power of interlibrary loans. Check them out. 


5. Amazon. I'm all for supporting book stores, but unless it's in the clearance section or I have a gift card, I probably won't shop at them. Why? Because their hardcovers are no less than $18 and their paperbacks are $10. I love my hardcovers so why not pay almost half that at Amazon? Plus, if you have Amazon Prime, you get free shipping! 

6. The Book Depository. Like Amazon, they have cheap books. Unlike Amazon, you don't have to pay a fee every month or be a member to get free shipping. Just click on their button on my sidebar or down below to go to their site and search for cheap books!

buy the book from The Book Depository, free delivery

7. Giveaways. I'll be putting up a post of all the giveaways I have found soon so you can start entering, but do you know how many blogs have giveaways? There's Twitter giveaways, blogoversary giveaways, giveaway hops...it's endless! I personally recommend giveaway hops since those are the best places to win because you just go down the list and keep entering. To find them, I recommend starting at I Am A Reader Not A Writer because they host giveaways on a weekly basis. 

8. Free books. Freebooks.com is only for ebooks, but they're FREE! 

9. Half.com. Half.com is a branch of eBay and has great prices for a variety of things. What's in that variety? Books! I'm not sure about shipping, but it's worth checking out.

10. Garage sales. I had come up with nine places for this anyone section, but I wanted an even number. Why stop at nine when good, ole ten is right there? I know I sound like Monk (what a great character and show), but even so, I googled another way to find cheap books. Several places suggested garage sales. I haven't been to a lot of them, but the ones I have been to has never been successful. So it definitely depends on where you live and how many you go to and how good of an eye you have. While I'm not a big supporter of garage sales, it doesn't hurt to go check them out. 


~*~

I know there are lots of lovers of reading out there so I hope this list helps your passion and entertainment pastime. As I discovered while thrift store shopping, if you're patient and look carefully, there are some great treasures out there just begging to be discovered. 

Think of it as an adventure and go find books! 



Have any of you found really great deals in places like the ones I mentioned above? Where do you buy your books? 

23 comments:

  1. Great post, Sunny! It really is amazing how many outlets there are for acquiring books. I always forget about ARCycling, but after my post over the weekend, it's probably better that I never remember it until Monday. :P

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    1. Thank you, Jen! HA, yes, I think you should stay away from these places especially considering ;)

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  2. I'm so happy that I found this shop with second hand and bargain deals. I had a beautiful store with only second hand books, but they had to close down :( so I'm glad that I found a new store :D Netgalley is great, but also dangerous, haha.

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    1. I need to find more secondhand stores and bargain deals, I feel like I'm growing an addiction. Yay on finding a new store! And totally agreed on NetGalley.

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  3. This is such a great round-up for book sources! It is totally helpful, especially for newbies who might be lost as to where to start if they aren't getting approvals for ARCs just yet. Thanks for taking the time to compile such a great list.

    Wendy @ The Midnight Garden

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    1. Thank you so much! It's always great to know there are ways to get more books for less than $20 and to get ARCs!

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  4. You are very lucky! The ONLY bookstore I have around here is Barnes and Noble, a.k.a: Ridiculously Overpriced Books. At least Borders used to have their own stickers with their price, which was always a little cheaper. Of course, look where that got them. Anyway, I don't have thrift stores within an hour of my house. I did venture out once to one in a not so nice part of town but they didn't have much of a selection-or good prices. My library has a bookstore, but they refuse to sell YA books. (Where they go, I'll have no idea.) So I have resorted to almost all online shopping. I only shop Amazon's bargain and ebooks. I always check thriftbooks.com for every book I want-although it is a little sketchy because I ordered a hardcover and it came without a dust jacket-but they refunded me! Ebay is a great place to check for buying entire series. For new books, I go to Walmart or Target and buy the HC for about $13. I spend the extra because I get to have it in my hands right then and there. Sorry about this ranty self obsessed comment! Thanks for stopping by my discussion post!

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    1. Ugh, I feel so sorry for you! Although, I usually stick with Amazon anyways. My library doesn't have a bookstore (that I know of?), but they're getting way better at having better books. Psh, I love rants and I love comments so you won't hear a complaint from me!
      Thanks for coming by :)

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  5. The library is where it's at for me. Most of my books come from there and I love it so much! This is a great list, thanks for compiling. :)

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  6. This is a great post :) I always check out my local thrift shops and my books a million. I've gotten some pretty great books there. Also, I don't think people fully appreciate their libraries. I take full advantage :) Love this list!

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    1. Thank you :) Yes! Libraries are wonderful and it amazes me that people don't use them.

      Thanks so much!

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  7. I second everyone who is saying that this is a great post.

    I could not live without my library! I get about 95% of my books from there and, as someone who rarely re-reads even the best books, it is a perfect way to temporarily get "free" ones. You'd think it would be obvious. :)

    And ARCycling sounds amazing! I had vaguely heard about it but hadn't looked into it until now and I am intrigued.

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    1. Ha, you're so sweet :)

      I know, right? I know all the librarians (not by name, but by face and I know who are the best ones) and it's the perfect place to reread without having to spend your money.

      Oh gosh, Emily, it's a great place! You have to be quick, but I've gotten better and am actually getting books!

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  8. I love going to garage sales for books, you can usually find them for very inexpensive prices :) Also, I recently discovered a used bookstore next to my local library that's amazing. It has a bunch of brand new books for between $.50-$1. I really want to visit Books a Million one day, as well. Also, I agree with you about both ARCycling and Netgalley being awesome Great post!

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    1. Maybe it's because I only go to old people's and they only have things like figurines, kitchen appliances, and weird things that smell. WHOA, lucky! That's an amazing price for brand new books! You...you haven't been there? It's expensive in some areas, but really, they have an amazing clearance section. Just look carefully! Thank you :)

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  9. I'll definitely have to check out the YA Book Exchange! I love going to TJ Maxx to look for books, I got 3 Sarah Dessen novels there for about $3 each (I'm also obsessed with notebooks so I love going to TJ Maxx to look for deals on them too). :) Fabulous post!!!

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

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    1. Oh wow, TJ Maxx? I'll definitely look into that! Ooh, I love notebooks also :) Thank you!

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  10. Hi Sunny! Thanks for dropping by my blog. I'm glad you liked it enough to follow. I'm following you now too! Thanks for this post! It was a brilliant idea...and I learned a few things! *grin* Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

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    1. Aw, thank you so much! Ha, I'm glad you did! You too, Brandee :)

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  11. I'm not a fan of amazon but I support all the others! Great post!

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