Book Access When Stuck at Home

   So many of us are trapped indoors per safety regulations – please stay inside, guys don’t be dumb. And even if you’re getting out because of work or care obligations your library might be closed. So here is how I wanted to talk about accessing books while at home. 

    I’d like to add this works at any time really. Because I’ve been home with a newborn for a few months now this is how I’ve gotten anything read.

For physical books I’d think about the following (limited) ideas:   

      The first and most obvious step is to browse your own shelves for anything you’d like to read or reread. A lot of people don’t consider rereading, but at this time the comfort of it may be just what you need. 

       If you don’t mind a walk, and have access to one, Free Little Libraries are an option to exchange or pick up something new. I would recommend wearing any protective gear, if advised in your area, and wiping the books down with a Lysol wipe or keeping it bagged up for 24 hours to try and keep safe. 

       I’ve also seen rumors (my library is not doing this, so I can’t confirm) that some libraries are doing delivery services? Visit your library’s homepage to see if this is something offered where you live.

     If you’ve got the money to spend I’d really recommend ordering books from your local indie bookstores of course, but I know this isn’t a possibility for everyone. If you’re one of those and have to order from big box stories I would just recommend you clean or let the books sit (24 hours is the recommended time at time of writing this) before diving into them. 

For eBooks you have a lot more options!

    Having said that, eBooks are always an option, but especially worth exploring currently. I have been told many times by readers that they don’t believe eBooks count or they don’t like reading eBooks. At this point I have to say – well that’s going to make this hard. The beauty of eBooks is the ability to change the screen brightness, font, color, style of page (scroll verse tap), etc. So unless you have a problem reading screens (which is fair, I did at one time), it’s worth trying. You can read eBooks on phones, readers, tablets, or computers. Investment into an expensive reader is not required. In fact I currently read far more on the app on my phone than I do on my Kindle itself. Additionally you can find a lot of free classic novels on these eReader systems – always a huge plus.

      First, I’d recommend checking any Daily Deals your preferred eBook service uses. I have a Kindle myself and every day they have quite a few daily deals plus the monthly deals. For daily deals you have a few days afterwards to return it if you don’t enjoy it. For the Monthly deals I like to download a Sample and try it, especially if I catch it at the beginning of the month (April’s Deals have just dropped!). Go ham on those books trying Samples.

      I would also recommend signing up for something like eReaderIQ where you input the author or book you’re wanting to read and it will monitor it for price drops. You can even customize how cheap you want it to be. 

      Next up requires a library card but as long as you have one – go through OverDrive/Libby. This is a free app to download and read ebooks from your library systems. I know there are a lot of wait times for a lot of systems but it’s worth a shot to try it out. 

      If you haven’t tried it before Scribd has put up an offer of the first month free for new accounts with everything going on. I also use Scribd and recommend it if you don’t mind a monthly subscription fee. The non-fiction selection is pretty amazing and they have some great audio books as well. Additionally you have other paid options such as Kindle Unlimited. You can almost always find some sort of promo or deal and get your first few months for half or less, just keep an eye out. 

      I would always throw on – try audio books. You can get them through all of the services I mentioned above for eBooks. I’d also like to add that some people weirdly also don’t think audio books don’t count (my traitor of a sister…). They do, that’s all I’m going to say about it. 

      And finally comics! I get mine through Kindle and Kindle Unlimited so they are available on a digital level. Go digging through those digital comics, it’ll support the comic creators and scratch that itch if you need it scratched. 

 

    That’s it on this one, I’m sure I’m forgetting something. If you have any suggestions drop them below.