DISCUSSION: I cant afford to buy books, should I quit blogging/YouTube...the digital edition

Hello World! I'm back again with part two of my discussion regarding affording books, and what to do if you cant.

Today, I'm looking at the digital options. In todays society, pretty much everyone has either a tablet/Kindle/iPad, or a smartphone that can download apps, such as Apple or Android phones. Personally, I own a Kindle and an iPhone, and therefore, I also have the relevant digital reading options. On my Kindle I have way too many unread books (I'll explain how I got them later), all of which come to a total of maybe £10.00, and on my iPhone I have the Kindle app in sync with my Kindle, as well as iBooks, which comes with the phone, and I have about 5 or 6 books on there.

So, how do I manage to have so many UNREAD books on my Kindle, at a teeny tiny cost? I'll explain!

There are a number of options for digital books that cost very little, or are even free! So here's a couple of tips and tricks I use myself in order to drastically grow my TBR pile!

1. Overdrive app -  this app is a gem I've heard about on booktube (the part of YouTube where
people go mental over books, it's great, and if you haven't tried it yet you should). As long as your library is signed up, you can borrow digital copies of books and e-books, without having to leave the comfort of my pyjamas or bed. It's pretty straight forward to set up, and can be downloaded on both Apple and Android devices for free!
How to get it: http://app.overdrive.com/ 

2. Netgalley - This is a place the majority of people who review books already know about. Netgalley is a free site where you can request titles to read and review, usually before their release date. On some occasions, they also have the first book in a series available to request should a sequel be being released. The more you request, read and review, the more likely you are to be accepted for titles to read. I currrently have five or six books to read from Netgalley, but I have read and reviewed a few so far and really enjoyed them.
Where? https://www.netgalley.com/


3. Bookbub -  THIS SITE. My god. this site is brilliant. Basically, you sign up to their site, and they e-mail you daily with a bunch of exclusive deals to their site. All books are kindle books, and if you choose a book, it goes straight to the Amazon page where you can download it to the relevant device. They do a lot of free deals, but they also have a lot of bargain deals, such as £5.99 down to £0.99 for example.
Where? https://www.bookbub.com/home/

4. Kindle daily deals - If, like me, you have a Kindle, you will get emails daily about Kindle daily deals on books, and whilst the deals are not free deals, they are recent releases at a fraction of the price. In one instance, I got A Court Of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas for £1.99 instead of the retail price. For all I am yet to read it, it also means I wont be urged to buy the hardback or paperback versions instead!

5. Amazon (or iBooks) - Yes, I am well aware that this is where you get all of your books for the relevant e-reader, BUT each of these platforms have free books. Yes, I said FREE. One of my all time favourite books was a one that I found on my Kindle, for free. I downloaded it on a whim expected chick-lit mush, and it really wasn't!  For all there are quite a lot of books available for free on each domain, it is worth raking through some of them just to find a book you may fancy. You may also see that Classics are available on both platforms, completely free of charge, and there is nothing wrong with a good classic.

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Okay, I think that's it for now. I know it's quite wordy and things,  but ultimately it's my way of trying to advise you in finding bargains in e-books. If you read more e-books, and you feel unworthy of YouTube, DO NOT. Many many people film reviews for e-books or post blog reviews for e-books, and nobody judges them or looks at them any differently. I apologise if this post isn't relevant to you, but if you manage to get your hands on an e-reader, I'd definitely recommend checking out all of the options above.


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DISCUSSION: I can't afford books, should I keep blogging/ using YouTube?

Hello world! Today I'm coming at you with a response/reply to a certain video I watched this morning on YouTube, regarding the issues surrounding being able to afford books, and whether or not you should cease to blog or film if such money problems occur. 

The video in question:

The creator of the discussion is a man named Richard Denney (https://twitter.com/richarddenneyyy), who explains pretty much straight off that he's an author. He's an avid reader, booktuber and tweeter, and within this video he gets personal. As in he explains how he can 'afford' to keep Booktube going. How? It's simple.

You dont.

There are means and methods around having to 'afford' books. A lot of the time, as a Booktuber and blogger, you go through an introductory impulse buy when you join either community. I've been blogging and posting videos since September 2014 (it's now July 2015), and I still find myself impulse buying through recommendations of others. You bad influences you ;)        
However, this phase does need reigning in for myself personally, but if you can afford brand new books every single month, well done you! It is important to note though, that not everyone can afford this, and that's OKAY. There are other means to reading the newest books, or even older books that you want to read.

The methods:

SO, I've compiled a couple of things together to show different methods of being able to stay active on social media, whilst still being able to read new or newish books. Some of these Richard mentioned in his video, and some of them I have thought of on my own. 

1. Get a library card - if you live in the UK, you have the opportunity to get a library card from your local council, which doesn't tie you down to just one library, it opens you up to accessing several different libraries in your area, and some may have better options suited to your reading taste than others. You may need to pay a fee to get such a library card, but even if you pay £5.00 for that little bit of plastic (which is the most expensive I've seen), it is worth it in the long run, especially if you want to keep reading or prefer reading to deadlines in order to get another book out.

2. Bargain hunting - even if you begin in the big book stores, the majority now have SALE sections. That's right people of the UK, Waterstones have a sale section. Now, curb your excitement for a moment okay? Often, these books have been slightly damaged, or have been used for display purposes and may have nothing wrong with them at all. They're books at a fraction of their actual cost, and if it's something you really really want, maybe that slightly torn edge will be worth it?

3. Use popular books to your advantage - okay so this one may seem a little confusing. Basically, many UK supermarkets (and possible US walmarts, I'm really not too sure), get a wide selection of best sellers to sell in their stores. For example, the beautiful covers of the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series by George R.R Martin are available in at least two of the popular UK supermarkets, on deals of two for £7.00, which I have no shame in admitting is where I got my copies of the first two books. Considering they retail at £8.99 individually, there really is no harm in using your generic supermarkets.

4 Shop around - Yes, this is basically the same as number 2, but at the same time it's different. In the UK, there are a chain of shops called 'The Works', and pretty much every single city or town will have one. In this shop, they have a wide variety of stock available at a fraction of the price, such as a George R.R. Martin boxset for £30.00 instead of it's retailed price of £65.00. They also often have a sale on, with the majority of the books included being reduced to £1.00 each.

Within this 'Shop around' section, I am also going to mention car boot sales and charity shops. Quite a lot of my books in my hauls are all second hand, and I may buy one or two new books every three months or so depending on how desperately I want a book. Sometimes, those urges for new books take over, and that is OKAY, I just don't make a habit of it, as I already overspend on books! 

Quite a lot of the time, I manage to find books in spectacular condition in charity shops, their spines still like new, and the majority barely touched bar the odd knock here and there from storage. Plus, the most I have every paid for a second hand book is (from what I can remember) is £2.50, which is a third of the price of a usual brand new book. 

5. Ask Santa! (or your birthday fairy or the Easter bunny) - when I was younger, I always used to ask the Easter bunny for a book, as the newer Harry Potters were released around that date. As it was an alternative to chocolate, and slightly more expensive than an egg, it was often more favoured, as parents and family knew I would get more joy out of a book that I could read over and over, rather than egg shaped chocolate that would barely last an hour!

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Now, I am aware that we are in a digital age, and therefore, a lot of people have smartphones and tablets with Apps on them that allow them to read. As this post is mainly focusing on my responses to being able to afford physical books, I shall post a separate post regarding digital books.

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You've seen my examples so what now? Do you still have doubts about posting reviews or using YouTube? All I can do is offer advice, and it is up to you to take it. However, I will say a couple of more things before you're free!

It is YOUR decision. Just because a bunch of people who have more popular channels than you with all the books you want and they havent had to pay for them, should not put you off. As I've previously stated, the library is a good source of newly released books, so you can always pick up a copy to get you through a new book hype, return it when finished, and purchase it after if you really really want too. 

If you have issues with buying second hand, I completely understand that. However, their is an unspoken rule in second hand shops in the UK, which is that no book should be sold on if it smells. Sometimes, books smell. Usually of smoke, and often the smell is not always prominent until you actually flick through the book. I found this out the hard way at a car boot sale on day, brought the book home and it absolutely reeked of smoke and made me despise reading the book. My advice to you is this. Smell the books.

I know it sounds crazy, but trust me. Smell the books. It is easily the best thing I've started doing at car boot sales, and usually if you point out it smells a tad funky, theyll knock a little bit off the price too!

Okay, I think that's it for now! Thank you all for reading the post, I know it's a long one, but if it's made someone think, even just a little bit, then it has done it's purpose. Many thanks also to Richard, for posting such a thought provoking topic discussion on YouTube!

*Thank you Google, for providing such wonderful imagery that i can use in my posts, such as this one.

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BOOK REVIEW: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

***please note, any spoilers will be in a different colour to my usual black text, and unless there is a block of spoilers, may occur without warning. I apologise in advance if this review spoils the book for you in any way, although you have been warned! ;)***


I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THIS BOOK.

Anyone who follows me on Instagram or Twitter (linked at the bottom of this post), will know how long it has taken me to get through this book.
7 months,

SEVEN LONG MONTHS.

Saying that, the book isn't all that bad.

It's a historical war fiction novel, set in WW2, and follows the stories of two characters who are actually destined to cross paths at somepoint, we just don't know when until it actually happens (but when it happened, all I could say was IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME, followed by IS THAT IT?!). The two main characters, Marie-Laure and Werner, could not be more different if they tried. One is a blind girl living with her father in Paris, the other a German orphan living with his sister under the care of the orphanage, until one day, he is enlisted in the army.

Werner likes radios. A lot. He enjoys watching how they work, and pulling them apart to fix them back up again. This is a skill that comes in handy throughout this book, as he becomes one of the only people who has the ability to receive radio transmissions unbeknown to the original transmitter.

Marie-Laure is blind, lives with her father in Paris, and has a miniature of the city in her room. Her father created this miniature of the city for her, so she is able to get her bearings of the city before being allowed to go out alone. In the throes of war, they are made to leave Paris, thus leaving the familiarity behind, rendering Marie-Laure helpless. Until they arrive at her Great-Uncle Etienne's home, where she is then cared for by her father, as well as her Great-Uncle and Madame Manec, her great-uncles help.

From then on, chaos ensues, for both Marie-Laure and Werner. Their paths do cross eventually, but it does take a while.

***

I struggled to complete this. In all honesty, it was a very well written piece, although lengthly, and in my opinion, often unnecessary. Why? This is because I picked it up and put it down again several times over the 7 months, as I found it difficult to read in big spurts. Some of the scenes for me, were unnecessary, as they focused on a lot of side characters, although personally, I believe they were the wrong side characters. I would have liked to have heard more not just about Jutta (Werners sister), but also Marie-Laure's father.


Overall, I gave this book 4 stars on goodreads, but it falls closer to 3.5 stars for me. I will be posting a full review on Youtube, and you can find the link to my channel on the blog home page.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully see you soon with another review!