Frugal Pinoy

It’s no secret that I love books. I try to read at least 20 books a year (my former creative writing profs would argue that this isn’t enough). However, books are generally expensive. In fact, you’re very lucky if you find a brand new book from a major bookstore at only P 150.00. In fact, browsing through National Bookstore’s online catalog, the cheapest fiction book I could find was A Pocket Book of Short Stories from Simon and Schuster for 85 pesos. And guess what? You can actually download all those short stories from the internet for free.

If you’re an avid reader who doesn’t want to burn a hole in both your pockets just because you happen to love books, here are some frugal ways you can acquire them:

Where to find CHEAP books:

Used books stores. One of my favorite used books stores is Diplomat Bookstore in P.Tuazon, in the Daily Supermarket Complex. Scout and I acquired Robin Morgan’s The Demon Lover for a mere P149. When we went there this weekend, they even had a sale - some shelves were P99/book, and buy 1 take 1 to boot! That means P49.50 per book. We took advantage of this deal and added 2 new interesting books to our collection. Apart from the great price, many of Diplomat’s used books look good as new.

I also like the used book stalls in Riverbanks Mall in Marikina. There’s 2 of them there, and other stalls have a used books/magazine section as well. I found Michael Cunningham’s The Hours for P100 (it looked brand new) and a Woody Allen collection that was already out of publication (it looked new too, and cost me only P200).

The gigantic National Bookstore in Cubao (the one near Gateway) also has a huge used book collection at the top floor. Most of the books aren’t arranged correctly, but the collection is so vast that it’s unlikely you’ll walk away from there empty handed. They also have some great foreign language and art books that are at least half the price of their brand new counterparts.

If your local mall has a used book store, going through the shelves and grabbing a great find feels a lot like successful treasure hunting.

UP Diliman. There are several tiangge’s within the UP Diliman campus, and I found most of my memorable purchases there, such as: A Small Killing (an Alan Moore graphic novel) for a mere P180, The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams for P200 (it’s even hard bound!), and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway for P10. Just take a stroll around the campus and you’re sure to find a used book stall with UP student prices.

Online book sales. I just stumbled upon Book City, and although I haven’t tried the service, it looks promising. The prices range from P20 to P80, and I already have my eye on some of their books.

MyBooks.ph is also an option, but the price depends on the seller and most of the prices I’ve seen are higher compared to the prices of the same books in used book stores. However, some of the books available in MyBooks are very hard to find in stores, so if there’s something you haven’t had luck in finding in an actual store, you might want to try MyBooks (personally I’m eyeing some of the Roger Zelazny books on sale).

Another online used book store is Avalon.ph, where you can buy books based on their listed price or bid for it. This seems like such a great find for me, since someone seems to be getting rid of her Jeanette Winterson collection. The prices are generally higher for this site, so if you’re going to buy from here, you should opt for the books that are very hard to find (even in major bookstores) for the price that it’s being sold for.

If there’s an affordable bookstore I missed out on, please share it via the comments section and share it with other Frugal Pinoy readers.

Where to find FREE books:

Although there’s many ways to get books cheaply, you can also manage to get them for free.

Library. If you’ve got access to a public or school library, maximize it. Who says you have to own a book to enjoy it? Besides, if you borrow a book, the less you’ll fall into the trap of “buyer’s remorse”. If you absolutely want a copy of a book after borrowing it, then you can buy a copy of the book without guilt.

Swap with friends. If you’re friends with other bookworms, odds are they’ll have something in their collection that you don’t have. If they’re looking for new books and so are you, you can agree to swap books. You can take books from your friend’s collection in exchange for your own books that you’re willing to give away.

If your friends aren’t looking to swap, you can always borrow. I’ve discovered so many books I wouldn’t have read if my friends didn’t offer to lend them to me. Just make sure that you take care of your friends’ books while you have them (I even had a friend who’d wrap my books in plastic cover as ‘payment’ for the book loan).

Online. Websites such as Project Gutenberg, Wowio, and 2020ok have vast collections of free ebooks. You can download them and read them in your computer, PDA, or even your cellphone.

There’s also LibriVox, if audio books are more of your thing (a good way to spend your commuting time).

Other tips for frugal bookworms:

The following are general book-buying tips that don’t fall in the above categories.

Buy books from local authors/publishers. Generally, Philippine-published books are cheaper than imported counter parts. Not only are you supporting local writers and publishers, you’re getting books for a much cheaper price too.

Use the ‘balikbayan’ system. If you have relatives or friends abroad, you can ask them to buy used books for you (you’ll pay for them, of course). This is only cost effective if the book is really hard to find in the Philippines. Sometimes, you’ll find these ‘rare’ used books on sale for less than a dollar on Amazon.com (so that’s roughly P40 or less, plus shipping). Just wait for them to return to the Philippines (or wait for one of their friends) and you can get your books then. It’s amazing how many balikbayans return each year, so it’ll be relatively easy to find someone willing to carry these books home to you.

Being a bookworm can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. If you can enjoy books without breaking the bank, it’s likely to make for a better, guilt-free reading experience.

Do you know other ways to get free books? What’s your favorite used books store?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 10:22 am and is filed under Books, Freebies, Frugal Tips, Frugality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.