An important part of getting into books is building a home library. There are countless books that you will never be able to read, but then…where can you get more books?
The answer is: in your home, of course! You do not have to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful, large library. A reasonable budget would be about $10 per book.
The more books you have the more expensive it will be, but not by much. For example, if you got 5 new novels from Amazon within the next week then it would cost $50 plus shipping and handling.
You can make this work. Try searching online for tips on building a home library or search local bookstores to find your favorite authors and titles.
Contents:
Buy used books
new books are expensive. Even new books from stores like Target or Amazon can cost a lot of money.
The more expensive the book, the more money it cost to make it to your hands. Most new books are about $10-$20 USD, making this affordable.
Topping off your home library can be fun. Doing a month-long purchase may help keep you interested in buying additional titles. You also get the satisfaction of knowing that you bought the best quality book for your collection.
Some titles you will want to keep buying is popular fiction and nonfiction titles, which might help satisfy your need for more books. Your husband might want to buy some football games, so there goes another purchase!
This strategy of keeping expensive new books for a long time is called book patience. The more books you buy, the more costly they will be, as they become less and less valuable every year.
Buy cheap old editions
While it may seem odd at first, buying old editions of books and magazines can be a great money-saving strategy. Old books can have very minor markings on the cover or page, which indicate a previous owner had additional copies out for trade or personal use. These old editions are also likely to be well-loved by many owners, so they are highly valued.
These old books may also come with bonus material that was included in the original publication but was later added as an extra feature.
Request books for birthday and holiday gifts
When you get a book, you should return it if you do not like it. A small percentage of books that are returned as gifts are not liked due to quality.
Most times, book reviewers give a solid 4 or 5 stars out of 5. When looking at those reviews, they would average out at about 3.5 stars out of 5.
That is a little too low a score than what the person really desired!
When buying books for adults, there is something called the “readability” level. Books with lower readability levels have more points on the pages that have text on them.
People who get very reading in their own life may not want to give up some of the more visually appealing books for things like Christmas and birthday gifts.
Use coupons
When looking for new books to read, you can easily save money by using coupons. There are many online sites that have coupon codes and special deals for books, so you do not have to go out and buy every book that you wish to read.
There are even sites that offer special deals for new books, so that you can still spend less than what it would cost to buy the book new. New books are just released regularly, making them a nice gift.
When buying new books, try them out before investing in the full set. If you find that they are working your library well, then buy one more book to add to your collection.
Shop book sales
While you are building your library, consider working at a bookstore or shopping book sales. Many large bookstores have programs where you can tour their stores and pickup books for your collection.
Manuals are great resources for libraries as they are typically written by professionals and detailed. From tips on organizing books by subjects to organizing by authors or genres, manual books are a rich resource.
While shopping book sales have somewhat upscale appeal, the more affordable used books do have some nice quality new books at a discount.
Many larger bookstores have online sites where you can shop. Large Bookstore System has you create an account in order to upload your books, which is very helpful in this system.
Visit the library
Even though it may cost more, it is worth it to visit the library while home-bound. You can build a home library on a budget by visiting the library while you are otherwise busy.
Visiting the library is a great way to keep your mind and body sharp. You will learn new things and be more familiar with materials you have not been using recently.
You can also find good quality books that you would not have found at your local bookstore. While visiting the library, look through book storage areas and see if there are any books that you would like to give away or sell. You could do this even when you do not have time to build a home book collection on your own.
Keep an eye out for those books as well as those that need new homes.
Choose inexpensive cover designs
While having a home library does not need to be cost-prohibitive, choosing the right book cover for your books can. It is easy to get sucked into buying the most expensive book cover that you can fold down, but this is not the best approach.
Many inexpensive paper book covers are made of cheap, thin paper. These may break easily and not be very practical for keeping all of your books in. A better choice is a hard back book case with leather reinforcements attached.
If you want your books to look more expensive, then owning good quality materials is worth it!
Choose covers that are functional and fit your collection comfortably cruiserweight or heavyweight? Because these pieces will be in storage for some time, it is worth investing in quality materials that match my collection weight wise.
Use scrapbooking materials for cover design
Starting a home library is a great way to unwind and spend time with yourself. For most of you, it will be limited to books and an electronic book or two.
For the rest of you, building a home library will give you many reasons to look through your books and magazines and find new favorites. By keeping a large collection, you will gain some knowledge about how to organized them in order to find what you are looking for.
Using your phone as a secondary phone or computer device can help keep the collection clean as well. By using different devices, you will have ample room left over for new books.
If you are already having trouble finding whatyou want to read, starting a home library is worth it! You can also use these new books for reference while you prepare your collection.