Like many authors, I started writing because I love to read. I love discovering characters, twisty stories, imaginative settings, and storytelling in general.
I was one of those kids who read by flashlight under the covers. When my parents dragged me to my brother’s Little League games—or even a major league baseball game—I’d bring (and read) a book. I have a compulsion to read, and if nothing else is in front of me, I’ll read cereal boxes or ingredient labels.
But after the heavy reading of dry textbooks in college, I forgot how much I loved reading fiction. Luckily, the Harry Potter series reminded me of the power of the written word to engage my mind and imagination.
I signed up for Goodreads years ago to track my reading for my 2.0 love affair with books, but I didn’t consistently update the site until I discovered the Goodreads Reading Challenge last year. After blowing through my first goal, I kept raising the number of books I was challenging myself to read during the year until I finished 2017 with 87 books. A fair amount of “waiting room” time at doctors’ offices and novellas in my list helped. *smile*
This year, I again signed up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge, starting with a goal of 50 books. After all, I hoped to not be spending quite as much time in doctors’ offices with health issues, and the novella bonus might not apply. However, here I am, mid-October, and I’ve logged 52 books so far, so I just upped my goal to 65.
Suffice it to say that I’m a big reader, and my Kindle figuratively groans under the to-be-read pile I’ve downloaded. But of course as any reader can attest to, there’s no such thing as too many books. *grin*
Want an easy way to check your local libraries for books? Click To TweetThat said, my wallet’s not always happy with that attitude. Unlike many readers, I haven’t signed up for Amazon Kindle Unlimited. But as an Amazon Prime member, I have used their Prime Reading “Library,” and I watch for sales on specific books I want with eBookTracker.
Yesterday, I stumbled across another tool that I think will help me even more, and I figured to share it with all of you…
Want a Book? See If It’s at Your Local Library
For those of us who use the Chrome browser and live in the U.S., Canada, UK, New Zealand, or Australia, we can use Library Extension to search for books (and sometimes audiobooks, music, and movies) at our local public libraries while we surf book-related websites. Check out the Chrome extension:
All we have to do is install the Chrome extension, pick one or more local libraries, and start browsing. Whenever we visit one of the sites they support, the extension will watch for us to land on a book’s page. If we bring up a book’s page, it’ll do a search at our local library on the book’s title and display the results in the top corner of the page—all within seconds.
Depending on our local library’s system, the extension might be able to search and display the availability of print books, ebooks, and/or audiobooks (and sometimes even music and movies). The search results show format, availability, number of copies, etc.
Clicking on the link takes us to the book in our library’s system. From there, we can place a hold, check the current number of holds, or borrow from the catalog.
They currently support nearly 4000 libraries and the following book-related sites:
- Amazon (and amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.de, and audible.com)
- AR BookFinder
- Barnes & Noble
- BookDepository
- Chapters/Indigo
- Goodreads
- Google Books (and books.google.co.uk, books.google.ca, and books.google.au)
- LibraryThing
After installing this yesterday, I went through my Amazon list that I’ve used to save books I want but am probably never going to buy. ($16.99 for an ebook? No thanks.) Aaaaand I’ve already maxed out the number of holds at my local library. *smile*
Are you a big reader too? Are you a fan of libraries? Do you think this tool might help you (or your wallet)? Do you have other tips or tricks for feeding your reading habit?
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