How to Read More, On a Budget

I wouldn’t say I’m a budgeting queen, but I do strive to become one! 👸 Since discovering the pleasures of reading, and since committing to this blog, I’ve come to the realization that life is expensive, and things add up. Heck, a previous experiment showed me I can spend 40.00 Euro a week on just coffee and stupid things. At those steep prices – and in this economy – being budget friendly pays off.

If you decide to take up reading as a hobby, it can quickly add up. Fortunately, there are a few ways you can circumvent this and actually read a lot of things for free. Here’s some ways that have worked for me:

1. Read online. 💻 Did you know that all classics are hosted for free on Gutenberg.org? I didn’t. You can ready anything you like on there, through their HTML view, or you can download the free Kindle app for your computer, and load the e-publication file on there for a more authentic experience. If you then find yourself really liking this, you may go ahead and splurge on a very cost-effective e-reader, like a physical Kindle, and just load all your free books onto that.
2. Audiobooks on YouTube. 🔉 Similarly to above, most classics are also available online as audiobooks, primarily through Librivox.org. And if their interface puts you off – it low key does for me – you can find most of these audiobooks, and more, also reuploaded on YouTube. I particularly like this option for non-fiction books, where I am less invested in the plot / dialogue, and am more looking to get the general gist of the author’s points. Free audiobooks like these are great, because you can also turn them on while you’re doing something else, like doing chores or getting ready in the morning.
3. Read books you already own. 📚 Let’s be real, did you really read every book you or your family have lying around? Probably not. If you’re in a pinch, and looking to save money, it might be worth exploring what you already have lying around your library, before you venture off to the book store. In fact, this is exactly how I picked up Anna Karenina, which ended up inspiring me to start this blog! It was one of those books I had lying around for ages, until I finally decided to give it a go. You never know what you might pick up!
4. Libraries are still a thing. 🏫Last time I checked, libraries were still a thing – and I tend to really forget that. You don’t have to buy a book, to read it. There’s a really legit solution already in place since whenever libraries were invented (can’t be bothered to look it up!). In fact, I’ll even go so far as to say, that this idea of purely purchasing books is so capitalistically modern, it wasn’t even a thing when I was a child (and I was a child very recently). I still remember going with my best friend to our local children’s library to get our fix of books and race to fill out our library cards. Wholesome! This wasn’t something we did to be aesthetic, it was just something we did to be reasonable. You’re not supposed to own every book you plan to read, nobody has the money or square footage for such a luxury.

Any special ways you read that’s budget friendly that I might’ve missed? Do let me know – and, as always, thank you for reading!

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