Saving Money by Utilizing Your Local Library
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.
9 Responses to “Saving Money by Utilizing Your Local Library”
I like owning my own books. When you have your own place and need to accessorize, books are some of the cheapest and classiest decorations available. I also like looking at what I’ve read and feeling accomplished.
So as an alternative viewpoint; if you purchase used books from your library or amazon for a handful of bucks instead, you can amass a collection at your fingertips for a couple hundred bucks a year.
Which is assuming you read a book a week. Which is a lot.
By Joon on Sep 6, 2007
Also, how about a periodic book recommendation, oh well read one?
When my fiancee purchased a release copy of harry potter, I wanted to read it at the same time, but did not want to own another copy.
15 seconds later, I had a pdf copy of it (download time included). I also had a leaked copy of it in June.
That didn’t really have anything to do with your post.
By Joon on Sep 6, 2007
@Joon: true, used books are a good deal. I didn’t consider that. And wow for getting a leaked copy of Harry Potter. That’s amazing, since CNN felt it was newsworthy to devote a segment to how secret they kept the book.
By Presh on Sep 6, 2007
yeah unfortunately i was told what happened in mid june. i went to my public library and amassed my own public library for about a quarter per book.
By Joon on Sep 6, 2007
Yea, Joon’s right about used books, they’re insanely cheap compared to buying new ones…they might be missing pages, have a few tears, stains, but its just a book….
I didn’t realize libraries were doing the ebook stuff, that’s pretty sweet cause I am lazy.
By RohoMech on Sep 6, 2007
@Joon: I like your phrase of amassing a public libary.
@RohoMech: The ebooks are great. They even have popular titles.
By Presh on Sep 6, 2007
Of course…there are also nearly wholesale lots of books organized by genre you can get off ebay…
…granted they’re usually pretty old. Bought my first a few months ago (mostly mil fic like dale brown, clancy etc)…still ever so slowly getting thru it. Some of these are over 20 years old but surprisingly in decent condition.
After auction and shipping probably was about 75 cents a book or so.
By cchow on Sep 6, 2007
@cchow: I wouldn’t consider Ebay to have 20 year old books in good condition, but that’s great to know.
By Presh on Sep 7, 2007
Books keep surprisingly well considering for the most part they get leafed through once, then put neatly back on a shelf never to be touched again. I personally like the aged look of my used library books.
By Joon on Sep 7, 2007