Tag Archives: libby

Reading Sustainably (and Cheaply)

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I love books. I love looking at them, smelling them, feeling them, and of course, reading them. I also love buying them, and take pride in what I consider to be a beautiful and impressive library.

But then I ran out of room. And then we had to move all of those books. And then, to my horror, our basement flooded shortly after we moved in and a number of those books were damaged or ruined (most tragically, my early editions of The Chronicles of Nania). And then, many of those I thought had been salvaged grew moldy. What a mess.

So, away went many of these books. I composted what I could and threw the rest out. But honestly, I shouldn’t have been holding onto many of these books anyway and took a hard look at those that remained. I started leaving books out front to be picked up by passer-bys and gave a bunch away to friends and charity.

Long story short, going forward I have essentially resolved to buy no more new books. There are some exceptions – namely, those I may buy at speaker events (when those are a thing again) and/or have autographed. But otherwise I am resigning myself to my old Amazon Fire and secondhand books as well as working through those books I already have. Here are two fun and easy ways you can free up space in your home, wallet, and ultimately the landfill when it comes to reading:

  1. Utilize your local library. The Chicago Public Library is back open, and along with its immense physical catalogue you can use your library card to access e-books and audiobooks that are delivered to apps such as Kindle and Audible. CPL uses Overdrive, which has a handy app called Libby. You just punch in your library card number and are given access to the library’s entire catalog where you can check out or be added to the list for any ebook or audiobook. I enjoy the Kindle and Audible libraries, but just cannot justify purchasing a book that I’ll only read once and cannot pass on (though Audible allows you to return an audiobook within a year with Audible Plus). But nothing beats free, which the library is.

  2. Buy secondhand. I love buying books for next to nothing at Nearly New Thrift Store and the Salvation Army. At a charity shop, your purchase goes to a good cause and you can simply re-donate the book when you’re done. If you’re looking for a wider variety, here are several used books stores that could certainly use your support:

If you need to buy a new book, that’s fine (as my dad aptly pointed out, writers need our support). But don’t throw it away…because that is literally sacrilege.