Books, E-Books, AudioBooks Oh My!
Where to get them, how to save some money and the Amazon of it all
Yes serial-killer and book-lover Joe Goldberg (new season out on Friday 2/10!), I also love books, but my love can get expensive and take up space in a city apartment. I read ebooks and book books and listen to audiobooks - no shade to any format. I also want to support authors I love by actually spending money on their books so that publishing continues to support broad and diverse storytellers with book deals and marketing. Here’s where I source them all at full price, discounts and free!
I thank goodness every day for my public libraries- the Memphis Public Library that I grew up on and the New York Public Library that I thrive on now. (just realizing I never took advantage of the DC public library in my 11 years there 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️). There’s an app for libraries. The Libby app is pretty simple to use (even though I prefer Overdrive but they are phasing it out this quarter )- just have a valid library card and you can start using it ASAP. You can check out book books to pick up, put any format books on hold, check out ebooks and audio books with Libby. You can read the ebooks via kindle and/or their app if you want to avoid Amazon empire (more on that below). You listen to audiobooks via the app. Support libraries and librarians who are fighting bans and censorship everywhere!
If you are lucky enough to have an indie bookstore (meaning not a Barnes and Noble or Amazon) in your community, then shop there in person or via their website whenever you can - they will also order books for you if they dont have them! If indie bookstores aren’t convenient for you for any reason, use Bookshop which donates percentages to support indie bookstores across U.S. Your fav indie bookstore might also have its own shop on Bookshop to order from and support them. You can buy books, ebooks, audiobooks at your indie bookstores directly and/or through Bookshop. These are the ones I order from when I “need” books of any format.
Book Culture (New York, NY) - all books
Cafe Con Libros (New York, NY) - a feminist bookstore *BIPOC owned
CafeNoir (Memphis, TN) - focuses on books by Black, PoC, & LGBTQIA+ Authors. Online store and pop ups currently, opening brick and mortar soon. *BIPOC owned
The Lit Bar (New York, NY) - the only indie bookstore in the Bronx! *BIPOC owned
Loyalty Bookstores (Washington, DC area) - all books *BIPOC owned
Novel (Memphis, TN) - all books
The Ripped Bodice (Los Angeles, CA) - Romance books of all genres!
Yu and Me books (New York, NY) - Showcases immigrant stories and creates a home for the community *BIPOC owned
This is basically an independent bookstore for AudioBooks. You join for free and pick an indie bookstore you want to support anywhere in the country and then go from there! You can use this link for deals that are curated by someone I follow for ebook deals (see below)
This is my non Amazon source for audio books. I joined for free (**this is my referral link), picked the genres I like and get an email of audio books ranging from 99 cents to $4.99 that you can easily purchase and download on their app to listen. They also sell full price audio books. This is one way I am moving to divest from Amazon (more on that below).
I joined for free and picked the genres and authors I like. They send you an email with free and/or cheap ebooks, and these ebooks can be used on the platform you use- Kindle, Kobo, Google Books, Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, etc
Daily Ebook Deals - Kindle Only
This is an instagram account/amazon affiliate that shares daily and monthly ebook deals (0.99 to 5.99) for all genres so you don’t have to search for them. She also looks at and compiles LibroFM audio book deals
Goodreads vs. Storygraph
I’ve been using Goodreads to track my completed books, to read and did not finish lists for a long time - it’s how I look back on my year and keep track of books I hear about that I want to read. I have entered every giveaway that GoodReads offers for authors/books/genres I like and have received a few free books from publishers that way. Goodreads is also owned by Amazon. I’m ending my Goodreads membership at the end of this quarter, and switching full time to non-Amazon owned, Black Woman created StoryGraph yet another step toward Amazon divestment (see below).
It fulfills all the same functions as GoodReads for me, and you are able to import your Good Reads history when you start using it. Their graphs and reporting are superior to GoodReads, and best of all they don’t share any of your data with a huge entity and business. I’ve been a member of Storygraph for almost 18 months after a friend told me about it and they have much improved their functionality so I’m ready to cut off GoodReads entirely later this quarter! Join me at Storygraph!
The Amazon of It All
I really hate Amazon, how it operates, its business model, what it means for our environment globally and locally, labor rights, human dignity, and growing income inequality. Bezos is truly the worst of many horrible billionaires. I know from my favorite authors that Amazon has changed publishing for the worst and yet they feel like they have to be on there to be successful.
I stopped shopping on Amazon in 2022. Immediacy and convenience is a heady drug, and I decided that I rarely need anything that urgently. And yet, Kindle books are my go to ebook platform and device and I feel a lot of guilt and shame about it. As I learn more and more about how deeply entrenched Amazon is in the non shopping/books/streaming sectors, like their AWS servers, I realize that being ethical and cutting it off totally may be impossible - intentionally designed by them in my opinion - especially when our government and many others have allowed Amazon to grow unchecked into so many sectors.
So I do the best I can.
More and more options exist (LibroFM, StoryGraph, Bookshop, Chirpbooks, etc.) and are standing strong against the Evil Empire and I hope that means it can be something I can fully divest of in the future. It also means that these other sources might be soon bought up by Amazon too. Sigh.
So many great book sources in here! As a reader based in Portland OR, sharing this as another source:
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