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Are you an avid reader? Are you trying to instill a love of reading in your children?

My whole family loves to read! Right before bedtime every night, every one of us can be found with our nose in a book!

It would be very easy for us to spend a fortune every month on books. But, since we don't have a fortune to spend every month, over the years I've found several ways to get good books and never pay full price!

1. Garage and yard sales are a prime source for both hardback and paperback books. There are people who will buy a book, read it once, and they're ready to get rid of it. I pick up lots of books at yard sales and never pay more than 50 cents each.

2. Used bookstores are another place to find good reading material. Store policies differ but most do something like sell the books at half the cover price. If you bring in books to trade, a store will usually give you credit for one-fourth of the original purchase price. I sometimes buy books at garage sales for 50 cents, read the book, and take it to the used book store where I get more than my 50 cents in credit.

If I find a book in very good condition at a yard sale for less than 50 cents, I will buy it even if I don't want to read it because I can trade it in for credit at the used bookstore.

3. Trading with friends and family is yet another way to get good reading material. My mom and I live 200 miles apart, but we always have a bag of books to trade whenever we visit each other. After we've both read a book, then it goes to the used bookstore.

4. I have recently discovered that the Dollar Stores in our area (and probably in yours, too) have books, hardback and paperback, for $1.00 each. The selection is not very large, but they have fiction and non-fiction and books for grown-ups and children, too. A book can make a great gift and at a $1.00 price it makes great economic sense, too.

5. Bookstore chain stores, like Hastings, have clearance tables somewhere in the store all the time. It takes some time to look through them, but I have bought many gifts from these clearance tables.

6. If you know of a book you'd really like to have, why not just let your family know? Your mom or your sister or husband would probably love to give you a gift for Christmas or your birthday that is something that they know you really want.

7. And don't forget your local library! The library is a wonderful place to get a book you've been wanting to read without having to buy it. You can also read the latest issues of most magazines at the library. I consider public libraries to be one of the "finer things in life"!

So, if you, too, are an avid reader, or if you're guiding your children to a lifetime love of reading, there are lots of ways to "read on the cheap"!