5 ways your library could help you spend less

People tell me they don’t like the library because it doesn’t have the latest books. And I completely agree. If you strongly prefer new books, then buying them is the only solution. Plus, you get to read the book when it’s in the news and people are talking about it. You don’t feel left out. It’s much like paying the premium to watch a new movie with an audience instead of waiting for home video.

There are other reasons to buy books. I enjoy owning certain kinds of books: textbooks, cookbooks, comic books like Calvin & Hobbes, and books that my library does not hold, like Ebert’s Questions for the Movie Answer Man. These are things I’ll refer to over and over again.

That said, I am fine not reading the most popular titles and instead saving the money. Also, when I impulsively want to have a book to read, it’s quicker to get it from the library than to wait for Amazon to ship it to me. Overall, I am very satisfied with my library card, and here are a few of the main reasons:

1. You can save lots of money (and potentially not waste as much time).

I read about a book a week. If a book costs $20 on average, then that’s a good $1,000 a year that I’m saving. There’s another benefit to the library over buying: if I don’t like a book after 100 pages, I return it for a new one. I don’t waste my time on it. If I had bought the book, I’d be far more likely to waste time reading every page because of the sunk cost fallacy.

2. It’s easy to get introduced to other books.

Since older non-fiction books are organized according to a system like the Library of Congress, I find related books to ones I like very easily. Since I don’t have to spend any thing to try a book, I just get more than I can read and check them out. Recently I checked out three books on personal finance and two of them were duds, but that didn’t bother me. I can aggressively keep searching for the best books to read.

3. Did I mention the magazines and other periodicals?

I’m amazed how many magazines are available. My library even holds the financial magazine Barron’s, which is an expensive subscription. Sure, it’s annoying to hold the plastic bindering, but some sacrifices have to be made.

4. And they have fun things like DVDs.

My library now considers classics like Wayne’s World to be worthy of holding. I can get a DVD for one week for $1. I’ve heard of a few libraries that loan out DVDs for free too. They might even have TV series. I don’t see any education advantage and don’t understand how taxpayer money is spent here, but hey, since it is there, I enjoy taking advantage of it.

5. You can get E-books.

For the times I’m feeling super lazy, I can get books right at my computer. They come in pdf format and there’s no need to return them; the files just stop working when the book is due. I’m not the biggest fan of reading at a computer, but some times the convenience factor is too much to resist.