How to get free/very cheap books...

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OK. I'm very very broke. I've been unemployed for a couple of months. The Chicago library system is pretty shitty. I can't even afford the books at the used book store (or at least I can't justify the expense). I don't really have any friends here yet that I can borrow books from. How else can I get some fresh reading material, hopefully not by Danielle Steele or Stephen King?

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 29 March 2004 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Do you have regular access to a computer and can you read from a screen for an extended period of time?

If so then a site like project gutenburg is perhaps your best alternative http://promo.net/pg/. Because of copyright laws you can get access to basically any book from before the 1920's. Reasoably simple but free ebook readers can be obtained from download sites on the web.

― oblomov, Monday, 29 March 2004 01:50 (twenty-two years ago)

There is always interlibrary loan. The library by where I live in Houston is pretty unsatisfying for me, so I am a frequent interlibrary loan user. It is free and you can get almost anything, in my experience (I think there is some kind of restriction on best sellers in the first few months of publication or something, but as it hasn't ever affected anything I want to borrow, I don't know what it is).

― Sara L (Tara Too), Monday, 29 March 2004 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to find a decent book every now and again in the laundry room at my old apartment complex, and I'd return the favor by leaving books of my own there. Chicago is a big city, and you're sure to find the odd laundromat here or there =)

Yard sales and thrift shops are great places for very cheap books as well...the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores here in my Florida burg have shelf after shelf of books, and I've found some real gems in my searches.

― Natalie (Penny Dreadful), Monday, 29 March 2004 04:08 (twenty-two years ago)

spend weekends walking around. Lots of people throw out books, for some reason.

― hstencil, Monday, 29 March 2004 05:11 (twenty-two years ago)

All good ideas, thanks. I can't get a library card until I get a new driver's license (or ID card), but I have to do that in the next week anyways.

― NA (Nick A.), Monday, 29 March 2004 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

The best way to get free/very cheap books is to work in a bookstore. Or, apparently, to write a shitload of Amazon reviews so the publishers court you with freebies.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Monday, 29 March 2004 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

if you're in chicago, what you do is walk down n. milwaukee. more than a couple of times i've seen books laying out - i think from people who try to sell to myopic. i picked up a camus and d.h. lawrence novel on the way back from picking up noodles on saturday night.

― a spectator bird (a spectator bird), Monday, 29 March 2004 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Myopic only buys on Fridays and Saturdays, so keep that in mind.

You could always become a reviewer. Bookslut always needs a steady stream of new reviewers. New City barely pays, but they run one review a week.

― Jessa (Jessa), Monday, 29 March 2004 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't get a library card until I get a new driver's license (or ID card), but I have to do that in the next week anyways.

Just tell them this violates your civil rights and insist on talking to the library director. They'll do whatever you tell them. No, wait, don't do that. (Even though it probably would work.)

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 29 March 2004 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

email me your mailing address.
I'll hook you up with the stuff my local used bookstore does not want.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Monday, 29 March 2004 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

You've got to get a job with a bunch of bibliophiles who aren't stingy with their books.

What are your skills?

Let's find you work.

― Clellie, Monday, 29 March 2004 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

new bookstores always get not-for-sale advance copies. in the trade they're called "advances". they usually keep them behind the counter until they get sick of them and then put them out in a box.

you could always go up to the counter and ask if they have any free advance copies. when people did that at our store we always gave them the best stuff, just for asking.

usually people who work there will grab the really good shit but you can get lots of first novels, second novels by obscure MFAs, good literary nonfiction this way.

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

they're usually worth some money though, so don't expect to be getting bestselling literary author handouts or anything.

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 00:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Landromats sometimes have a few paperbacks laying about. Steal them out of donation bins before they get to the op shop. Or just, you know, *take* them from the bookstore.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 01:59 (twenty-two years ago)

There are many coffeeshops in Chicago that have piles of books. Most of them have a take one, leave one policy. The Bourgeois Pig, I think, has a pretty big selection upstairs.

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Jessa,

You have been in Chicago how long? And you have already scoped out the coffeeshops (plural)?

Well done.

― Clellie, Tuesday, 30 March 2004 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

You've got to get a job with a bunch of bibliophiles who aren't stingy with their books.
What are your skills?

Let's find you work.

I would love to work in a bookstore or around book-lovers, but I need a job, period. As long as I'm working with people who don't drool, or at least wipe up after themselves, I'll be happy.
Jessa, thanks for the reviewing idea, but I am a notoriously unreliable and average writer. I've already unintentionally screwed over three different websites that I was supposed to write for. I suck. That does remind me that I need to look at Bookslut though.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Seriously, NA, I'll send you free books in the mail, many of which do not suck.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Okey doke.

― NA (Nick A.), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

You can always go hunting.

― Su (BoredInsomniac), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been in Chicago for five months now. In order for it to feel like home, I had to find my favorite bookstore, my favorite movie theatre, my favorite restaurants and my favorite coffeeshops. Otherwise I'd just continue to feel like a tourist.

― Jessa (Jessa), Tuesday, 30 March 2004 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

N -- both Northwestern and UChicago have big library sales, usually (if I remember right) in spring. Obviously better for non-fiction, but you never know.

― nabiscothingy, Thursday, 1 April 2004 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I told you you should have moved to Portland, we have loads of books.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 2 April 2004 04:42 (twenty-two years ago)

It wasn't lack of books, but lack of funds, that was the problem. Do you have money trees in Portland. Anyways, I got a job, so this thread's somewhat obsolete now.

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 2 April 2004 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"We" meant "me and my friends, who would have been willing to lend them to you."

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 2 April 2004 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I worked in n office years ago and a group of us would share books. We would have some one in the mailroom photocopy the book and divide up the chapters. You could sit at your desk and read all afternoon and everyone assumed you were reading some legal docs. The trick was to have another book goin at the same time incase you read faster than the circulating chapters.

― lowbmi, Sunday, 11 April 2004 16:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Try BookCrossing. It's an online site where people post books they've "released into the wild". They say that Chicago has 210 books waiting to be found. Happy hunting!

― Karl G. Siewert, Tuesday, 13 April 2004 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

NA - if you'd like to email me your mailing address (and the sort of reading material you enjoy), I'll gladly send you some books. I have heaps, far too many, I'm a hoarder, and I need to have a clear out.

― C J (C J), Saturday, 17 April 2004 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

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