I Just Got A Library Card and Quit Buying Amazon Audiobooks
I’m totally one of those people that bought books/audiobooks from Amazon and other stores. Honestly, it was fantastic and I would continue to do it if I had an infinite supply of money. However, like you, I don’t. Thinking about it, here are all the reasons I bought books/audiobooks in the past.
Reasons Why People Buy Books/Audiobooks
- Owning a book is special – When you read a book that has a significant impact on you, it’s comforting knowing it’s always on hand to revisit again.
- Never have to return a book you own – No late fees, ever.
- You can lend it to others – Ever have a book that you want to share with others? Sharing books is a great feeling, letting others experience what you did.
- Availability – Especially digital copies of books are always available for sale, you never have to wait till someone returns a book. The instant access to a book is very convenient.
- Convenience – There are bookstores everywhere and online, they outnumber libraries. Although apps like “Overdrive” make it easier to borrow books from the library online, we’ll talk about that later.
- Libraries are sometimes gross – I live downtown Denver, many of the city’s homeless utilize the library as shelter during the day. I think many libraries do around the country. People unfortunately often feel uncomfortable around these disadvantaged individuals and refuse to go to libraries for this reason.
Reasons Why People Borrow Books at the Library
- It’s FREE to borrow books – This is a big freaking reason! People, like me, who want to save money should consider this reason as to why to give libraries a second look.
How Easy It Was To Get A Library Card Now-A-Days
I haven’t had a library card in years, I wasn’t even sure how hard it would be. Yet when I walked into our downtown library there was a large “Get A Library Card” sign, so I followed it.
I literally handed them my driver’s license, they copied the info and gave me a library card. The whole process took less than 5 minutes and I was told I could borrow up to 100 books at a time. 100 books seemed a bit much, I just needed one.
You Can Borrow Library Books/Audiobooks Online Now (It’s Called Overdrive)
The main reason I got a library card, and the reason you should too is the app “Overdrive”. Overdrive is an app on both the Apple App Store and Google Playstore that lets you connect you with your library’s online book collection. It allows you to borrow books & audiobooks online so you never have to visit a library. You’re just utilizing their online collection of books.
So Overdrive becomes a free Amazon where you can download books and audiobooks for free!
The only drawback is each library has a limited selection of books (still fairly big) and limited copies of those book licenses available. So your local library may have “Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone” but they may have only 5 copies. If those 5 copies are already “borrowed” you can be added to a waitlist and notified by email when it’s ready. Otherwise, if it’s available, you can download and listen immediately.
Cost Savings Over A Year
This is a significant re-discovery for me because I’ve been going through audiobooks like crazy lately at work. I put my headphones on and listen to some awesome books while working.
Recently I’ve been going through 2-3 books a month via audiobooks while working. Considering most Audiobooks on Amazon are around $25 (usually cost more than reading), those costs add up. If I were to listen to 3 books a month for a year, that would be $75 per month or $900 for the year. That’s crazy!
So now I use my library card and “overdrive” to listen for free. Sometimes they don’t have the books I’m craving at the moment, but I’m happy to find new ones in their collection. It makes me a bit more creative with my audiobook selections but I’m happy to be flexible in order to save money. Wouldn’t you? =)
Question: How Do You Get Your Books?
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
Just curious by chance if you ever have promoted the Amazon affiliate program and how your Revenue potential turned out. If you did promote the Amazon affiliate program back in the day, did you use their affiliate data feed RSS by chance?
I didn’t see why people would buy Amazon audiobooks anyways. In my personal opinion, it was just another ply for Amazon to make money off of the strength of just adding talking to content. Anyone can do that if you personally ask me. Just create a blank .pdf file, add infographics, evergreen content, and an audio clip that enables itself to auto-play, and market that for sale. Even if I put my mind to it, that could be one of my side hustles to make money by selling audio books on file sharing sites.
With a library card, you can use your smartphone to write content based off of what you read in a library-borrowed book. Doing so will organically improve SEO, online sales, and put you closer to becoming a near future “side hustle millionaire.”