Speaking of reading books! In the day and age of We Are Not Giving Amaz0n Our Money and Audi1e is Amaz0n, I hope most of us are aware of Libby / Overdrive.
These are library apps that allows for you to electronically rent from your library for free. To use your own local library—which you should because it helps them get more funds and is good for the community and the workers there WANT to help you get this—you do have to go in to the library and get a library card.
PLEASE DON'T GO YET. There are alternatives. I will get to that shortly. Keep reading.
One of the most inconvenient things about this are the wait queues and time limits with the book. I can't help mood readers too much here, but maybe I can help some of you others.
I can't give a play by play on how to do it, but knowing it exists might help some of you to find it. I think the amount of time you check these items out for is set by default to 7 days. Most libraries allow you to change this to 14 days, and some even have 21 days available as an option. When you go to check out a book, check and see if you can change how long you'll have it checked out for!
"Okay, but my library still only allows me X amount of holds, and it's never enough." Fair! Valid! I've run into this problem many many times!
Look up Harris County Library, Queer Liberation, and Poudre Public Library. These places sometimes accept electronic applications for an electronic library card. I have managed to get one from all three of these libraries, and at least one of them allows you more than ten holds (though sometimes that's the same library that will have a strict 14 day checkout limit).
>> Please feel free to reblog and/or comment with additional libraries that allow electronic library cards <<
When you do reach your limit in time with a book, sometimes it allows you to renew it even though you've met your limit! I think I've personally only had to do this with ebooks, because that's my weakness, but always make sure to check!
Also, use the 'manage this hold' feature extensively to put off checking the book out without losing it. You usually stay pretty close to your spot in line if you let the next person have it, because you're still reading something else. I have enough books on hold now that almost every other day or so, something is becoming available to me, and I have to let the next person have it. This month is June, so I'm doing Pride books, so there's plenty right now I'm holding off for 30 days. Some of these books, I know I want to read in the fall, so I have a lot more days than that selected.
You won't have great control of when you'll get which book, but if you put enough on hold when you get more holds, before long, you'll be getting lots of notifications of books being ready!
Finally, of course, don't forget that Libro.fm exists and works very similarly to Audibl3. I believe Brandon Sanderson worked with Chirp as well to release his latest books that he won't let Amaz0n have, and it seems like they often have great sales. It's a buy-only site, but it's an option that often is pretty affordable if you keep eyes on sales.
Happy Avoid Funding the Ultra Rich Pride Month!
