12 Ways to Save Money on Books

5. Online

If you know that you want a book, getting it online can often be cheaper than purchasing it at a bookstore. The key to making sure you're getting a good deal is to calculate the shipping costs, since this can greatly inflate the price of the book. Online bookstores such as AbeBooks.com and Amazon.com also offer numerous reviews that can help you determine if the book is truly something you want to read. You can also checks sites such as eBay and Half.com to find books. If you are willing to purchase used from these venues, you can save even more.

6. Comparison Web Sites

If you don't want to do all the searching yourself online to find which site has the best price on the book you're looking for, there are a number of book aggregators that will pull the best prices from the popular bookselling sites.

Here are a few worth considering:

• BooksPrice
• Compare Book
• CampusI
• AddAll

On any of these sites, enter the title of the book, the author's name or some other identifying information, and the aggregators will search for the best price around. This can save you quite a bit of time locating the best price on the books you are interested in while saving you money.

7. Buy What You Need

It sounds ridiculous, but most people buy far more books than they ever read. Many times you pick up a book with the intentions of reading it, but for various reasons it never gets read. Taking the time to consider whether or not you will really have the time to read a book before purchasing it can go a long way toward saving money.

By choosing the saving ideas that work with your reading habits, you should be able to read all the books you want at a fraction of the price you're currently spending.