I can go a long time without buying books (6 months? 8 months?). That’s not the same as without acquiring books. I have several ways of doing this:
- Sites like Netgalley where I can download ebooks I’ve been approved for.
- Sites like Amazon (leave me alone!) where I can get free ebooks sent straight to my kindle
- Authors and publishers who contact me directly to review their books
- Social Media interaction with publishers (twitter, google+ etc)
- Bookcrossing – having a wishlist over there so that people can offer me books, with the addition of the regular meetings and the bookshelves around the city where I can find books I might pick up.
- Oddly enough – the local library is not on my list. I simply have too many books, and use the city library for other reasons!
So what about you, constant reader? How do you survive?
Writing about books 
I get a LOT of review books too, both physical books and e-copies, and I seem to have a knack of winning book competitions – I still haven’t read all the Deborah Moggach books (8 or so) I won a couple of years ago, or the selection of women’s literary fiction from last Autumn. I also use my local library a lot – it’s only a short walk away across playing fields,very pleasant if the sun is shining 🙂 My greatest weakness though is asking for books I see offered on Freecycle/freegle – the latest acquisition was a HUGE stash – 4 large boxes – of sci-fi/fantasy novels, which I don’t have room for at all, so most will go back to freecycle or be passed on through Bookcrossing once I’ve read them.
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There is a special place in heaven (or he’ll depending on world view) for bookcrossers!
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I’m pretty boring. I get books from the library where I work and also on ebook from the Free Library of Philadelphia. That’s it. I don’t “do” ARCs so don’t worry about that and don’t always read the latest books, so don’t need to be on NetGalley…not that I’ve ever felt the need to use it.
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I’m trying to shift more to back list (again!) this year to shift some, so am moving away from arcs etc. maybe. Ha!
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Mostly the library. I occasionally except books from authors and publishers, but rarely because I prefer reading to my current interests and the library makes it easy.
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Library — and I do buy some books. I buy them because they are often new ones I want to read and they are long listed or not available at the library. I also pick up books at a book exchange at my local health club. I’m fortunate to live in a university town so tastes often run somewhat sophisticated.
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Oh I buy books – the new Neil Gaiman books for instance – it’s now just rare! Nice to see the health club has an exchange
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I use 4 different local libraries + library ebooks + ILL pretty frequently, on top of NetGalley and Edelweiss. But if you’re looking for physical freebies to keep, try the Goodreads giveaways! I generally get 3 – 5 free books each year this way.
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I gave up on goodreads after getting perhaps 2 books in 4 years. ;(
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I didnt last very long with my book buying ban last year – about six weeks I think before I succumbed.Though I didnt buy as many as in previous years. If I’m not buying then I rely on the library – thats how I get most of the contemporary books or via net galley. I just don’t have time to interact with authors on Twitter etc
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