After reading 52 non-fiction books in 2021 and 100 total books in 2022, I decided to read less in 2023 and focus on video games. And I failed 🙂 . Instead of reading less, I accidentally read 250 books in 2023 – a number my brain can barely fathom.
When I was working I was lucky if I found time to read a book a month and I was shocked I hit 100 books in 2022 and never thought I would surpass that number. Well I was obviously wrong 🙂 . I’ve mentioned why I think this ‘accidentally’ happened in posts before, but in essence most of my books came from recommendations and I kept discovering that I LOVED the author and wanted to read everything they’ve ever written. Then I couldn’t put the books down and read them in one sitting. Obviously all that helped this number increase.
I also had a theme for my reading for the first time. I wanted to read more books by queer authors and books with queer protagonists – or both 🙂 . That’s another reason I read so much. By trying to expand my horizons through this theme, I learned about so many books and authors I hadn’t heard of before. It was magical 🙂 .
I didn’t have a goal for the number of books I would read in 2023 and that might also be why it got out of hand. Who knew not having a goal would help you surpass one 🙂 ? I also had a vague goal of reading at least one non-fiction book a month so I didn’t only stay in fictional worlds. I surpassed that goal as well.
I remember someone saying they read 250+ books a year when I hit my 100 books read in 2022 and I thought “HOW?!” and yet, here I am. This is how. Retirement free time, a fast reading pace and amazing books.
My Costs
So how did I read all these books without breaking the bank? I ended up spending $7.69 including taxes, which I rounded up to $8. I spent that on:
- Buying the debut novel of a friend of a friend to support them: $6.60
- Buying the book of an author I love on launch day: $7.16* = $0 in 2023
- Paying for a 3 Month Kindle Unlimited promotion that was discounted 97%: $1.09** = $0.51 in 2023
*Technically this was actually free because it came out of a $100 Amazon credit I got for signing up for the Prime Visa Credit Card. I’m going to write a post about my experience with the card and if it’s worth people’s time (It was obviously worth mine 😉 )
**I only used a part of the 3 month subscription in 2023 so I’m only counting that portion here
And here’s what I got for free in 2023:
- 7 months of Kindle Unlimited
- Library eBooks
So how did I get 7 months of Kindle Unlimited (KU) for free you ask 🙂 ?
My 2023 KU Journey
2 Month Free Trial
It all started in January 2023 when I received a promo deal for a 2 Month Free Trial of KU. I was browsing the KU section of Amazon to buy a book, saw this promotion and thought “why not?” I signed up for the free trial and then was shocked at how many books are available on the site and borrowed their max of 20 books at a time.
Then the day that my 2 month trial ended, I was cancelling my membership and got the below message from KU. They were trying to keep me by offering a discount, but I declined and clicked “Cancel membership”:
3 Month Free Trial
The next day I went back to Kindle Unlimited out of curiosity, and they offered me 3 months for free. WHAAAT?!?
Obviously I took it. It was wild to me that they tried to tempt me with a discounted subscription only to turn around and offer me more free months than before. So I finished enjoying my 5 months of free KU and started looking around to see if these free trials are a common occurrence.
It turns out they are! I found this blog that keeps records of KU promotions, which Amazon doesn’t usually openly advertise. Apparently there had been a 2 months free trial that wasn’t widely advertised, and this blogger had been using that promotion every 2 months for literal years. That’s wild.
Another 2 Month Free Trial
So I used that 2 month free link and shared it with others.
It worked for all of us, but after one use it no longer worked for me. It looks like Bezos was onto me. Oh well 🙂 . Also just a note: at this point, Amazon increased the price of a KU subscription from $9.99/month to $11.99 per month.
3 Months For $0.99
So their racket had worked. I was hooked to KU and had resigned myself to paying full price for KU after my last trial ended until….November 19 (about a week before Black Friday) I randomly clicked on the Kindle Unlimited tab and it offered me 3 months for $0.99 plus tax so $1.09 total. Uh oh! #Temptation
This promotion is apparently annual and usually starts a week before Black Friday and goes through Cyber Monday, but it was a lovely accident for me. I signed up for this final deal and enjoyed reading all the books my heart desired over the holidays.
And I have a surprise plan for 2024 😉 . To give you a preview, I’ve discovered that you can buy KU gift memberships for yourself if you use someone else’s Amazon account (and your credit card because that’s polite 😉 ). And if you get a 24 month subscription, it saves 40% on the usual cost. If you buy a 6 month subscription it’s still at the old price ($9.99/month instead of the new $11.99/month). Nice 😉 !
KU Tips
In addition to these promotion hacks, you can cancel your promotion membership immediately after signing up so you don’t forget, and you’ll still have access to the full trial for your promotion period.
Another heads up: Amazon is shady AF 🙂 . If I go to an author’s page, it will at times tell me that I have to pay additional money for all the books they’ve written, but if I search the book name individually, it’s actually included in my KU membership for free – WTF?! So be careful to search for an individual book instead of browsing author pages since they’re apparently at times tricky and inaccurate.
If you’re going to download books to a Kindle, you have to click on each book for them to download before turning on Airplane mode or leaving Wifi. If a book doesn’t have a checkmark in the bottom left, that means it hasn’t been downloaded and you can’t read it offline.
Ad Free Kindle…For Free
Amazon usually charges $20 to remove the annoying ads that appear any time your Kindle is in sleep mode. I actually fixed this by buying this cute case and just not seeing it anymore but out of curiosity, I also took a friend’s advice to see if I could get them taken off for free.
Apparently you can talk to Amazon Chat, tell them you want the ads removed and they’ll just remove them…for free. I didn’t expect that to work, but it did. Wild 🙂 .
Reading Tips
Throughout my reading journey, I’ve stumbled upon a lot of websites that I had no idea existed and have made my reading life so much easier. Here’s a list of them:
- eReaderIQ: This website tracks Kindle book prices and alerts you when they drop. Very helpful for a book I want to buy eventually. (If you’re looking for a similar service, but for all Amazon products, I use camelcamelcamel for that)
- How Long To Read: I find the page count on books to mostly be unhelpful because books are published in different fonts and font sizes so it’s not a standardized system. However, this site lists the word count of any book you can think of, which is super helpful when I need to decide if I have enough time to ‘accidentally’ stay up late to finish a book for the 50th time 🙂
I just discovered that "following" authors on @Goodreads doesn't do the one thing you would think…it doesn't tell you when they have new releases. So what is the point? pic.twitter.com/6LEYeJHG2R
— A Purple Life (@APurpleLifeBlog) May 18, 2023
- Following Authors On Amazon: I learned last year that following an author on Goodreads does…nothing 🙂 . It doesn’t alert you when they have new books published or anything else as far as I can tell. However, I discovered that a lot of authors on Amazon have “Follow” buttons if you go to their author page. For example, here’s the author page for one of my new favs Talia Hibbert. On the top left there’s a “Follow” button and if you click that and have your author notifications on, Amazon will email you when that author has a new release. I then usually place the book on hold at the Library 🙂
- Author Newsletters: I started joining author newsletters that I found through their Goodreads account, which usually lists their website with a newsletter sign up embedded. I originally did this while looking for a way to be informed about new publications, but later discovered that it has other benefits. Namely, a lot of authors these days seem to write bonus material for their books, such as additional epilogues or even short stories, and share them only with newsletter subscribers. And I’ve loved it 🙂 . I also personally enjoy receiving more personal updates from authors I love instead of just receiving an impersonal Amazon alert when a new book is out
- Libby: I use the Libby app to get access to eBooks and Audiobooks from my local library. Strangely I’ve found that the desktop version is often incorrect or out of date compared to the Android mobile app, so I make sure to search for books on the app because if I search on the desktop site, they often tell me the library doesn’t have the book, which is often not true. Weird 🙂
Conclusion
So that was my wild reading journey last year. I guess I could have called this “How to kinda scam Bezos out of a few dollars,” but it’s not even a scam – just using promotions that aren’t widely advertised while making sure authors still get paid (they get paid per page read 🙂 ).
This is how I got 7 months of Kindle Unlimited free and between that, my local library card, and buying a few books, I was able to enjoy 250 books for almost free. Assuming the average paperback costs $15, I saved approximately $3,750 in 2023 with this system. Not bad 🙂 .
My reading plan for 2024 involves gifting myself a 2 year KU membership (which is 40% off the usual price), continuing to use my library liberally, and if I decide to get a new Kindle (because I want the newer waterproof version given all the pool lounging I’ll be doing 😉 ), I’ll take advantage of the free 3 months of KU that come with new Kindle purchases. I can also apparently get money from trading in an old Kindle, but it looks like it would give me $5 for my old model so that’s not even worth the trip to the post office 🙂 .
So basically I’m back on my bullshit in 2024 🙂 . I planned to seriously read less this year and double down on video games, but so far I’ve read a book a day and still found time to re-play Zelda: Breath Of The Wild for a ridiculous number of hours. I’m curious to see how many books I end up reading in 2024. I guess we’ll find out together!
What was your reading goal for 2023?
I used to read books at this kind of rate. Those were the days. Well done for exploiting Amazon’s endless free offers. As long as the authors whose books are in KU get their royalties for per page read, then it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.
The American Libby and Overdrive system is so good. I don’t know of an option local to me that I could sign up to for digital library books. It would be so so nice to have that as an option.
I’m 100% with you 🙂 . I’m surprised to hear there isn’t a library eBook option like that over there. I hope one pops up soon!
Haha, I continue to be amazed at what you can accomplish with your time and how you keep yourself entertained!
Small detail but my OCD can’t get over it. I replied last week and meant to type Purple but iPhone autocorrected to People lol.
Just curious if you may have the info handy or just what your intuition may be. Do you know what ratio of non-fiction to fiction you typically read? Do you just go with the flow with what you decide to read next? I notice sometimes paralysis analysis with deciding what to read, or watch, or listen to. Perhaps that could be a blog topic if it hasn’t already been explored
Lol yeah I’m pretty ridiculous 😉 . As for that comments, I think I can change “people” to “purple” so your OCD is assuaged. I’ll look into it!
I try to read one non-fiction book a month, but last year I read 17 – so like 7% non-fiction lol. Library eBooks help with my analysis paralysis since I have a book on hold for weeks so when it’s available I read it and I have 3 weeks to do so. Deadlines are very helpful for me in that way. Otherwise I just start reading the next book I’m most excited about.
Ohhh I loved when I had KU, but I dropped it a while ago. Probably when I started borrowing books from the library. I had forgotten kindle does the adds. Reading on an iPad you don’t get the adds. Though it’s not waterproof either. Loved this. Thanks so much. Now to see if I want to get KU again.
That’s interesting about the iPad. Does that use the Kindle mobile app? If so, those don’t have ads for me either when I read on my phone. It’s just the actual Kindle device when it’s sleeping. If you enjoyed KU and can’t find some books at the library I would definitely recommend checking out some of the KU promos. They seem to be happening all the time.
Hello,
since you are such a nomad, how do you work the “local” library angle?
Hi – I’m a legal resident of WA state so that’s my library.
I spend too much money on books – book hoarding is definitely my biggest vice 🙂 – but I’ve started visiting the library a lot more since I FIREd. It’s an amazing resource. Everyone should patronize their library more often. My library doesn’t just have books, but free DVDs of movies and TV shows, free scanning and printing, and even free COVID tests.
I read lots of e-books on the Libby app, although I prefer to check out physical books when I can. I’ve heard that’s better for the libraries, because e-book licenses expire after a certain number of reads and then the library has to buy another copy.
Haha I did enjoy some book hoarding in my day as well 🙂 . That’s awesome about the library! I heard that our one in Seattle also gives out free museum passes. Good to know about physical books! I didn’t know that. I’ll definitely prioritize them if/when I settle down somewhere. I usually prefer reading physical books anyway 🙂 .
My genre of choice is currently historical fiction (WWII) but I’m also interested in true crime. My mom typically keeps me entertained with a bag full of books a few times a year. However, I keep my kindle library full through Amazon Prime. I get at least one, occasionally two “first read” books per month and they almost always have something that catches my eye. The Prime membership also allows 20 books at a time to be “checked out” from their free reading section. Occasionally I will find other books of interest for free or find a kindle version of a book on my wishlist and pay with amazon digital credits. The books are another avenue of claiming my yearly prime membership is “worth it” 🙂
I also read using the Kindle App on my iPad. No ads!
That’s awesome!
This is wonderful information. I think the FIRE community reads a lot, and I love referring back to my copies of A Simple Path and Quit Like A Millionaire, among others. I’ve been reading your blog since 2020 and I’m still not quite there, but close to independence. I go to the local library 2-3 x a month, and I was considering a Kindle, although I love the feel of a book, marking up sections that are important, and flipping the pages. It isn’t very cost effective though, so this post is well received.
I’m so glad it was helpful 🙂 . This community does seem to have a lot of readers – my kind of people haha. And oh wow that’s amazing you’ve been here since 2020 – thank you for reading!! That’s awesome you go to your local library so frequently – I love the feel of physical books too and would read them more if I didn’t move every month. I’ll get back to it if I ever slow or settle down. Anyway, thanks again for being here!
I need to get busy reading…I am way behind!!!
There’s no such thing as behind 😉 . Go at the pace you want – you’ve got this!
Last year I started making myself write a review of each book I read before I started the next one, so I would balance my consumption with creativity. Most of what I read comes from the library (either in physical or ebook form), although I do like owning a copy of books I’ve enjoyed enough to want to re-read them.
As I’m writing reviews, that also mean I qualify for a netgalley account, and have had a few free (in return for a review) books from there, as well.
That’s a great idea! NetGalley is a wonderful ARC resource and I’d forgotten about them so thank you for that too 🙂 .
Because you mention wanting to read more books by queer authors / with queer protagonists, I highly recommend the Monk and Robot series by Becky Chambers. The first is A Psalm for the Wild-Built. I admit I had not read many (any?) books with queer protagonists, and on my first reading it was very disconcerting to keep seeing “they” in sentences instead of he or she. But I really loved the book and have reread it at least twice, along with the sequel, and am looking forward to the third coming out.
Thank you for the recommendation!
Thanks so much for this! I love KU, but don’t have the time to make it worthwhile for me, but I’m definitely bookmarking the gift page for my mom. In your post you indicated that trading in your old kindle wasn’t worth the trip to the post office, but Amazon also includes a 20% off coupon for the new kindle, so that might change your math.
Happy it could help 🙂 . Oooh thank you! I’ll look into that 20% again. I think I shied away from it because it sounded like I had to send them my Kindle to get the 20% before I could buy a new one and being without a Kindle for a period of time isn’t worth the $28 I would save. Good reminder though!