Antonia Bernardin

Reading can be an expensive hobby, although physical copies in the UK aren’t as costly as other places, if you’re looking to compete with your favourite booktoker’s read count without spending a fortune, you’re going to need cheap ways to get a lot of books.

These are options besides the obvious such as Amazon and other book stores. This is just ways to read more without buying loads and loads of books.

Let’s start with subscription services*:

*the below details were correct February 2024, please do you own research on pricing and terms before committing to a subscription in case they have changed!

Audible

With Audible UK, the subscription costs £7.99 a month, which entitles you to one of the titles in the library for one credit. This can be very cost effective because you technically get that book for that price, regardless of what that audio book is worth. For example, I found an entire series as a compilation worth like £30, for the cost of one credit.

You also have access to the Audible included library, which doesn’t tend to have a lot of the current popular titles in it but older books, books by smaller authors etc are in the included library. You can listen to as many of them as you want per month.

Audible is, unfortunately, usually the easiest place for the latest titles, because of its ties to Amazon.

Libro FM

With Libro FM you get sign up for an account and buy individual audio books as and when you want them, or, you can pay for membership at £7.99. This entitles you to one credit per month and then 30% off other titles.

Scribd/ Everand

So, for £10.99 with Scribd you get digital books, audio through their sister app called Everand, as well as documents, articles and some podcasts.

I love Everand!

The limit with Scribd is a little less clear, as it seems to go by some kind of weighting system. Basically, I have listened to nine titles in one month and hit the limit, but it was an old series. Another month I listened to two newly released, big titles, and hit my monthly limit. However, even with the limit being a little loosey goosey, they do have some really good titles on there, especially for some of those booktok books you don’t care to own long term, or older series’ that you want to try out but not buy.

If I’m being honest, if I was forced to choose just one out of these three for audios, Everand is my preference. Sometimes they don’t always get the big books and sometimes they do, for example, they had Fourth Wing on release.

Kindle

Kindle unlimited subscription costs £9.49, which gives you access to the Kindle Unlimited library and you can ‘borrow’ up to 20 books per month into your personal Kindle Library. Bigger, more popular, titles are not in the Unlimited library, so you may need to pay an additional cost; this cost varies but I’ve often found it to be more than the physical copies cost.

You don’t have to own a Kindle to use Kindle Unlimited. Also, some books in the Kindle library are ‘audio book enabled’ so you can switch between reading and listening.

The basic Kindle devices such as Paperwhite don’t allow you to download other apps, so you aren’t able to use other e-reader services such as Scribd on your Kindle.

Prime reading

Included with an Amazon Prime Membership, this is different from Kindle because it gives you access to selected titles in the Kindle library… there’s not much information on what this means however. For a reader like my dad, it’s perfect, but from a scan through the books they list, it doesn’t seem to have those titles popular on the internet right now.

Prime reading audiobooks

Also included in your Prime membership, similar titles to Prime Reading.

Both are listed as Unlimited listening.

Comparing between the services

The thing to bear in mind for both Libro and Scribd, is that many authors are forced to to be exclusive to Audible/ Kindle, because they earn more commission that way and they need the big Amazon money and reviews behind them.

Other options besides subscription services

Second-hand books!

Vinted or Charity shops (thrift stores) are a great option, especially for books you know you’ll just read once, as you can sell them or re-donate after reading. For people who read a lot this can help with over consumption of books as well! Instead of adding a new book to the cycle, you’re recycling an existing one. Sometimes I’ve even spotted pretty good books on Facebook Marketplace too.

Libraries

As long as you have the kind of memory that allows you to remember to return books (unlike me, which is why I don’t use the library!), go to your local library! It helps support a community resource, authors still earn money when books are taken out, they can request titles they don’t have and it’s a way to read physical copies of books without spending a fortune and ideal if you don’t have a lot of space. Some libraries also have their own apps now, which have digital and audio available to borrow.

Besides just asking for books as gifts, that’s all the ways I know of/ use to get access to more books. If you have any tips I’ve missed, feel free to comment!