Hello and happy Sunday. This is the last Sunday of my vacation, which means that soon I’ll go back to reading one or two books a week instead of four or five. I’m very excited about this post because I realized that I haven’t spend any money to acquire most if not all the books I’ve read in July. I know that in some contexts, accessing books from public libraries is very easy and would be the obvious choice for me. However, even though Colombia does have a network of public libraries, they don’t have many books in English, let alone the ones in my wishlist, and getting there is not really easy for me since they aren’t close by. Going to the library for me would take like half a day and I’d have no guarantee that I’d find anything that I already knew I wanted. In this post I will tell you about two options that you might’ve heard about to access digital books without having to pay, at least during the first month. Keep in mind that this is what I did and what worked for me while I was not working and could dedicate several hours of my day to reading. These options might not be ideal to people with different lifestyles.

NETGALLEY

I have been a NetGalley user for years and I think this is the most straightforward way to get and read free books. You create an account, you browse titles and then you request those you’re interested in. There are some that are immediately available, and others that aren’t. In the case of the latter, you will get an email letting you know whether or not access was granted. You don’t need to have a blog or a platform where you are posting your reviews, although I’ve experienced that it helps in the long run to have one because publishing houses might seek you directly and offer you ARCs and the chance to participate in blog tours and other bookish activities. If you just want to post you review to the NetGalley site, that’s also fine. You can get carried away requesting books, so my suggestion is to have a system in place. For instance, I have a Gmail folder, so that whenever I get an email about an approved title, I get the book sent to my Kindle and then save the email so that I have some sort of a ‘To-Review’ digital pile. Getting the book send to your Kindle before it gets archived is key because once it gets archived, you can’t access the digital copy. In some cases, titles are only available through the NetGalley app, which I suggest downloading. In these cases, my suggestion is to read these books first because, again, once they are archived, they get removed from the app. Below is a list of titles I got and read via NetGalley and the price listed on Amazon.

Blessed Nowhere by Catherine Jones (paperback): $18.95

The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel: $6.79

KINDLE UNLIMITED FREE TRIAL

I have a series of posts that I’m going to write in the upcoming months about my experience paying for Kindle Unlimited. Granted, I have used it in the past and I think it’s worth it. In July, however, I took advantage of the free trial and I think you should, too. If you do, but you don’t want to pay $11.99 plus tax every month, though, remember to cancel your membership before the month is over. These are all the books I read via the Kindle Unlimited free trial and how much I would’ve had to pay for them.

If The Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell (audiobook): $1.99

The Prince and the Troll by Rainbow Rowell (audiobook): $1.99

Fake Famous by Dana L. Davis (audiobook): $1.99

Road Queens by MaryJanice Davidson (audiobook): $1.99

The Exception to the Rule by Christina Lauren (audiobook): $0.99

Same Time Next Year by Tessa Bailey (audiobook): $1.99

What is Love? by Jen Comfort (audiobooks): $2.49

Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa (audiobook): $1.99

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert: $12.99

Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte and Ann Xu: $9.99

I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston: $9.99