It's that time of year, folks. Time to buy books for your favorite reader in the family! But how can you buy good books? Not just OK ones, but excellently written, clean, fiction without breaking the bank? Well, fortunately, I have quite a lot of experience in the literature finding and buying realm, and a few tips for your holiday book shopping.
How to find clean, excellent books.
This specifically applies to fiction, before we begin. Clean fiction that is well written is hard to come by these days. The most popular books are by secular authors, and may or may not contain subtle depictions of things Christian readers would not want in their literature. While not all books written by non-Christian authors are bad, the majority of what Christians should be filling their minds with needs to contain and reaffirm the truths God gives us in his Word. This is the key to good books, in my opinion, and why so many times good storylines fall flat. Because they don’t reflect the Light.
So obviously, if you're buying a book for someone this holiday season you’re going to want it to be a good novel worth spending time and money on. So how do we find new books not only to buy for people, but also to ask for?
Subscribe to Christian Author Blogs. People such as Bella Raine give honest reviews of books from all kinds of genres. If you get on Goodreads and find some people that call themselves Ydubbers (part of the Young Writer’s Workshop, which is a Christian writing program for teens) they often give reviews with Cws (content warnings) that are very precise so you can know exactly what you’re getting into. Another great person to follow on Goodreads is Lindsey, whose reviews are very in depth and give you content warnings that are super helpful.
Look up the book you're considering on Plugged In (by Focus on the Family) or Common Sense Media. They also give good content warnings with categories for different types of Cws, and also let you in on how the book portrays authority roles and religions.
Do a lot of Googling and go through Christianbook's fiction catalog. This works super well if you're looking for new books to read. Not that internet savvy? Try Googling “clean books in the ___ genre” or “Christian authors in the ___ genre.” Again, following Christian book reviewers can come in handy here, especially people like Lindsey on Goodreads, because they often have a treasure trove of books they’ve read that you may or may not have ever heard of with good reviews. Christianbook tends to put out five or more new novels every season, and reading through their catalog is one of my favorite afternoon pastimes. Just make sure you scribble down the author and title names. Sometimes you’ll find a book that has the same name as a different book you absolutely do not want to read.
Buying Books… Cheaply
Now that you’ve hopefully found some books, how can you possibly choose which ones to get? Cost is probably a huge factor in this. So what are some ways to get books cheaply without using sketchy sites like Temu?
Use Christianbook. Except for if a book is really new (as in, released within a month of you trying to buy it) you just about can always get it cheaper here than any of the other big booksellers.
Don’t use Booksamillion, Barnes & Noble, etc. The big name booksellers will always sell their books at full price unless it's a big sale. The likelihood that the book you want is on sale is also super small, because most of the fiction Christians would be reading comprises a small majority in the largely secular selection they have. This of course doesn’t apply to situations where you have a gift card.
Amazon… a place of wonders. This is where you’ll usually find a book for the cheapest, sometimes outdone by Christianbook. It really depends on what and when you shop. They have regular sales in the book department and rotate it regularly so the chances your book is on sale at some point in the year is very high. You can also sometimes find books slightly cheaper than listing price in the marketplace sellers (aka, the non-amazon sellers that amazon allows to sell on their site) the biggest problem with that is making sure you actually get the book and its in good shape.
I live in a town with a publisher's outlet. This is hands down the best place for me to buy books, because they’ll be at a fraction of the regular price. If your town doesn’t happen to have a publisher’s outlet, I highly suggest trying out the book sale at your local library. This isn’t the ideal place to find books for gift-giving, but I’ve never seen them charge over five dollars for anything.
In the event that none of this worked for you, I highly recommend shopping locally at a small business bookstore or going to an author’s website to buy their book. This can sometimes mean it's more expensive, but if it’s a cost you're willing to incur it will help support small business owners and more directly help authors we know and love.
I hope you had a fantastic week! All the rest of November’s posts, except the guest post (which may be delayed until a later date), have been canceled. Enjoy Thanksgiving with your family! As always, Ad Lucem.
-L.E. Levens
Oo, these are great tips. Thanks so much! (And, aw! 🫶🏻 I'm glad my Goodreads reviews can be helpful to you!)