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Walk into any bookstore and you may experience sticker shock. Book prices have risen dramatically with new books costing $20, $25, even $30 or more. You can, however, fight the high cost of books. Here’s how.

Attend Friends of the Library Booksales

Friends of the Library booksales are a great source for inexpensive books. Here you can find gently used books for 50 cents to $1! Friends of the Library groups are volunteer organizations that work to improve their associated libraries. These volunteer organizations accept used books from the local community. Once or twice a year these donated books are then sold to the public at booksales. Profits from these sales are used to improve library facilaties, buy new library books, or to buy new equipment for the library.

Everyone wins. Gently used books are re-sold instead of sitting around in people’s homes collecting dust. Because Friends of the Library collect books every year, collected books are often recent releases. This means you get to buy former $16, $20, or $25 books for $1 or less. Best of all your local library raises money. You can find the dates and times of the Friends of the Library booksales nearest you by visiting booksalefinder.com.

Rent or Borrow Your Books

Why buy a book, read it, then set it aside to collect dust? Smart readers are increasingly borrowing or renting books, saving huge amounts of money in the process. Surprisingly, your local public library may be the best source for great best-selling books. An increasing number of public libraries are now stocking best-selling books as well as popular DVDs for your borrowing pleasure.

In addition to borrowing books from your library, consider renting your books the same you rent DVDs. A company called Booksfree (www.bookrentalservice.com) has become the Netflix of the reading world. For a low monthly fee, you can rent an unlimited number of paperback books. Depending on the plan you chose, you may have 2, 3 or 4 books rented out at any single time. When you are finished reading a book you return it in a prepaid mailer and wait for your new selection to arrive.

Form A Book Circle

Most people enjoy a great book and then place it away never to be seen again. We suggest forming a book circle with a group of 2-3 friends. Chose 2-3 books that everyone in the group wants to read. Each member purchases one of these books and, after reading it, exchanges the book with the other members of the book circle. Rotating the 2-3 different books among members allows each member of the book circle to triple their reading dollars.

Use a Book Club

Book clubs provide great savings to savvy readers. Zooba (www.995bookclub.com) is a particularly impressive book club, offering the lowest price we’ve seen for new books. Zooba allows you to buy bestselling books for $9.95 with free shipping included.

Here’s how it works: You pay $9.95 a month. You create an online list of books you would like to purchase. At the beginning of each month, Zooba sends you the number one ranked book on your list. What we like about this book club in particular is that you can buy as many additional bestselling books as you like, all for the same $9.95 price. Visit www.995bookclub.com for additional details.

By employing a few of the techniques mentioned above you may never pay retail prices for best-selling books again. The savings can be dramatic.

Chuck Peters is author of PayLessForBooks.com, a website that shows users 9 effective methods to get top-selling books for the lowest price possible.