My new favorite way to watch whatever movie I want and read whatever book I want. All of them. And without spending a frillion dollars. Without spending any dollars.

Now before I go into this great tip I first want you to know that
1)I'm not always quick to figure things out. Especially when it comes to the obvious.
2)I'm so excited when I do finally figure out the obvious that it nearly warrants a party in our house. Or at least a dance of celebration.
3)This tip would fall into the above category.

I love my library. But it is small in comparison to those in....well, anywhere. It would be frustrating to go in and find a book by my favorite author that was in the middle of a series....but not the books preceeding or after that one.

And I have watched every new release movie they have. And every old release that was ever any good. All 4 movies.

So here's how I reserve all of the new releases and bestsellers....
I am on an email list from borders bookstores. Once a week they send me an email about what new releases and bestsellers they have on promotion. But I don't buy them.
And I know they won't be at my library.
I Go to the library website. In my case this is not the Durant Branch website...but the Scott County Library System website.
Type in the title or movie I'm interested in.
It will show how many copies are available and what library they are at in the Quad Cities and surrounding area.
I "place a hold" on that title. And request it be delivered to the Durant library.
I just have to enter my Library bar code that is located on my library card. The pin # is the last 4 digits.
I wait for the library to call me.

So far since I've started to do this I've gotten in things like brand new cookbooks (think rachel ray and quick fix meals), all books in a Karen Kingsbury series I wanted to read, a brand new bestseller within days of the book being released, and I have on reserve some new release DVD's like The Nativity Story, Stranger than Fiction, Flyboys, Charlotte's Web, and Flicka.
Because these are all new releases, they probably will start to trickle in gradually. But even if they do come a few at a time....I can check them out for 3 weeks at a time.

I am so happy about this potentially life altering tip!
I'm actually dancing.

This would make sense to you if you knew how much I love to read. And I still buy books and movies....but not before taking a good look at it to see if it is shelf-worthy!

So if you wanna see if your library has something you wanna read or watch (or listen to), check out the website first. If they don't have it...they'll get it.

Labels: tip tuesday