Books: to buy or to rent?

 

The Public Library

As an adult with kids I have spent many hours at various public libraries.  Whether it is for a book reading, movie time, or other activity.  At some point as my kids have grown a bit we spent less and less time at the public library.  It may be because they get to visit their school library during their school day or, maybe, the activities at the public library are geared towards younger kids.  In either case, we spent less time there.

When we needed a book we would visit our book store or order it online and wait for it to arrive.  Our kids and their parents would read the book in less than a week.  We would then put the book aside and either order another book and put this book on the shelf.  Or, we would put the new book out in our little free library.  I don't mind feeding the little free library to help our community get some free books.  However, this isn't a cost effective way to get and read books.

This was the aha moment for me was that the public library can help fill our families needs!  We can "rent" books and other resources (movies) from the library.  We read the books and get to take them back for others to enjoy.  They have a network of other libraries that they can book share.  So, if you can't find the book you want to read they can work with another library to barrow the book so that you can read it.

The new to me item that I have recently found is the libby app.  This application allows you to barrow books electronically to read and they also have audio books that you can listen to.  You will link your library account to barrow books and listen or read right in the app.  

Conclusion

There will still be times when my family buys a book.  However, we have been saving some money by utilizing our wonderful public library for books and utilizing the libby app to read and listen to books from our library.