It’s the week of Thanksgiving. You’ve got pies to bake and clothes to wash, and you’re so tired of running around that you can’t wait to sit down and read a great book – either on the road to the in-laws or while the family is sitting around after turkey time to discuss the outcome of the election. Unfortunately, you’ve don’t have time to go to the bookstore or the library to grab an entertaining novel you can lose yourself in.
This is when Goodreads Deals come in handy.
About a month ago, I started getting emails about “Goodreads Daily Deals.” Every day, Goodreads sends me snippets about five or so books that are selling for a super deal- usually three bucks or less. Just yesterday, my email included a deal for Be Frank with Me by Julia Clairborne Johnson, pitched as “perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette”. (This just happens to be one of my favorite books.) There were also two YA novels that looked appealing.
Initially, I thought this would be a great way to get Christmas presents for my friends and family. Unfortunately, the deals are only for e-books, in various formats including Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Google Play. Now I understand that it’s a great way to get e-books really cheap.
- Here’s how it works:
If you haven’t already, join Goodreads! It’s free, and there are plenty of great reasons to do so, like keeping track of books you read, saving books you want to read, finding reviews of books you’re going to read. See my Goodreads Guide for Word Nerds and Goodreads: How to Add Books for details. - Get the technology to read e-books. You can use a Kindle app, a Kindle, a Nook, etc.
-
It’s easy to pick your preferences for notifications. Set up your preferences in Goodreads Deals. You can choose to get notifications about books on your “Want to Read” shelf and authors that you follow. You can also select genres you like the Deals settings. For example, I have young adult, fiction, best sellers, and mystery and thrillers picked in my settings.
- Watch for the emails.
I researched Be Frank with Me. It was released earlier in 2016, and overall it gets favorable reviews and sounds like a story I’d enjoy. I bought it through the Kindle store and sent it to my Kindle Cloud so I can access it on my iPhone (with the Kindle app), on hubby’s Kindle, or on the iPad. Since I picked the Kindle format, I was charged through my Amazon account.
Speaking of hubby, he hasn’t read a book in a while, so I’ll be on the watch for a good thriller to grab his attention and reset his healthy bedtime habit. Hah! I can still use it to get books for other people.
Goodreads promises that more genres will be included soon, and I hope that includes Kid Lit. My kids are usually the one begging me for books last minute. This could come in really handy, especially over the holiday break.
The only downside to this program? The daily email. I get overwhelmed easily and already delete a fair amount of spam every day. However, it looks like it’s easy to unsubscribe from Goodreads Deals – just click the link at the bottom of the email.
Have you tried Goodreads Deals? What did you think? Where do you go to get cheap e-books?
Thanks for sharing!
I’ve seen the deals – I think I get an email once a week or so. I also get them from BookBub on Fridays. I love keeping my Kindle app stocked with books!
Huh. I didn’t know there were Goodreads deals. I definitely review all the books I read, but I’ll have to look into these discounted books. (Oh, I loved Bernadette, too!)
Julia,
There are a couple other services that provide daily sale lists of book. One is bookbub (www.bookbub.com). I also know that Simon and Schuster offer books at a discount. I have not much luck with it but you can also download the Kobo app and sign up with them to get discounts.
Happy Reading!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks Carol! These are great tips. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well. 🙂