Can You Still Be a Book Nerd as a Low Waster? - SPOILER ALERT: YES, YOU CAN.
If you've read the title, yes that's right. You can be sustainable and not have to sacrifice your love for reading. If you've read my other blog posts on here, or follow me on Instagram, you're probably aware how much of an introverted bookworm I am (plus, tea and books are my essential sustenance, not that I can eat books but knowledge is a form of *superfood*... right?).
For the past 1.5 years of trying to up my game of being more low waste (I didn't feel I was being proactive enough to reduce my waste), one of the things I wanted to do was to consume less 'new things' in this plastic consumerist wasteland (Hong Kong). I've never had a problem buying secondhand clothes and books; most of my splurges while I was still at university were from charity shops and secondhand shops thanks to my obsessed passion for the nostalgic vintage past. A lot of my books on my shelves are bought secondhand because I've always felt it always makes it more special knowing someone might have enjoyed it but couldn't keep it for reasons. (Or they hated it and you get to enjoy the book at a heavily discounted price…)
Buying secondhand in general reduces waste and new resources being made, such as the water content that goes into paper making, and avoids such environmental and humanitarian issues (e.g, deforestation and unfairly paid labour). As an advocate for a more sustainable lifestyle, I try to get most things secondhand to give a second life to things like clothes, books, household items, furnitures and more. Not only do you reduce waste and prevent perfectly good items from going into landfill, but you save money at the same time. A near circular economy is better than a no circular economy as most of us live in a (corporate) capitalist first world society. Instead of buying new things where it may gather dust in the hidden corners of our house, to be forgotten and alone, it's better to borrow things on a short term basis especially when you don't know if you're ready to invest into said item for the long term.
When sustainability comes to mind, why use new resources when there are books that can be shared among a community? We've lost the old habit of sharing things and ended up with the mindset that it's necessary to own your things as an individual as we grew more and more into a more capitalist society. We focused on possessing things rather than sharing things in a community. Why do you need to own a book that you might only read a few times, or just once, because let's face it not all of us has the time to re-read books as many times as we wish to do so.
The other benefit is that it saves space. If you live in Hong Kong or in any metropolitan city, you would know that space in your flat is very important. Borrowing things on a short term basis saves space and the time and need for decluttering. We've all heard about #minimalism and #konmari, and how everyone is in the #decluttering craze, so borrowing things on loan would be very useful to those who wants to avoid clutter. You don't need to dedicate a permanent space, and waste space, for items you're not going to use regularly!
Image Credit to Edward Howell on Unsplash
How to read low waste in 2021? (And, on a budget!)
🂡 Friends and Family
Ask people around you if you could borrow books from them. If you ask nicely, hopefully they will! Do a book swap day or create a bookclub with friends and family to discuss the books that you are currently reading. What is better than getting a personal opinion on a book which you have been wanting to read from a friend! I still have my baby sitter’s club books from when I was nine that were passed down from my cousin, mostly because I read more of her books than she did.
🂢 Local Book Sharing Groups
Search online for any local book sharing groups, whether it’s on Facebook or any online platforms popular in your area. If you can’t find any, there is always going to the public library or asking the librarian for any book sharing or book club groups that you could join. And, even if you can’t donate or sell off your tattered paperbacks, there are plenty of creative ideas which you could do to upcycle them!
*If you are Hong Kong based, there is a lovely book sharing group on Facebook which I belong to: Hong Kong Neighbourhood Library.
🂣 Community Book Sharing Shelves
If you live in an area where community bookshelves are available in the streets, use them! I’ve always thought that book sharing street shelves are an awesome way to promote reading in communities as it gives more accessibility to those who can’t afford books. It has a very ‘community feel’ to it. There’s something nostalgic (and magical) about sharing books with complete strangers in your neighbourhood.
For those based in Mid-Levels and Sai Ying Pun in Hong Kong, look out for the yellow community shelf on Centre Street opposite the wet market building and the ‘upcycled commercial fridge-bookshelf’ on the stairs between Bridges Street and Caine Road opposite Common Ground. Comment below for any community book sharing spaces in your area! I’ll add it to a list for a future post!
Similar to using book sharing street shelves, most community and youth centre will have book sharing shelves. If yours don’t, perhaps request one and help set one up in your local area. Youth hostels are great for book sharing, and from my inter-railing experiences in Europe a couple of years ago, it’s a great way to swap your finished book with some other stranger / traveller’s book to continue your journey with. Just think about where the book has travelled to and who with! It’s a literal mystery!
🂤 Use the Public Library!
There’s something nostalgic about sitting and browsing books in libraries, because it’s so quiet it’s so easy to get distracted and be delved into another world. While growing up, I used to go the public library with my family as a weekend trip, so that my parents would allow my brother and I to borrow a lot of books without breaking the bank (we read a lot – we always maxed out on our book loans). It was free and easy to use, and saved a lot of bookshelves space (though we still had a lot of books growing up, mostly because of me).
The only thing we lacked growing up was the need for more English fiction books, although I have been finding that a lot of books on my list are now available in the Hong Kong Public Libraries so I’m pretty chuffed with their improvement in terms of their English Fiction range. It is very important to use community services, such as public libraries, as that IS what keeps it running and being funded by the government or your local council. (Still upset about the closing down of some public libraries in the UK. It’s ridiculous!)
(Writers do get some commission from public libraries, not so sure in terms of the Hong Kong libraries, but if you want to fully support them then of course buying your favourite author’s books is great! This coming from a writer too!)
If you are Hong Kong based, the public libraries allows you a two week loan. After two weeks, you can either ring the public library or renew the books online off their site. Of course, there’s always renewing in person but who has the time for that nowadays?
🂥 Secondhand Bookshops and Charity Shops
Who has smelled old / vintage books and secretly loves it? *raises hand* (Okay, I might be the only one… but it is a bookworm thing, right?? I’m not that weird…) Buying secondhand books is cheaper if you still want to own books, reduces the need for new resources to be used, and is generally a more sustainable way for buying ‘new books’. If you have the space for it, do so! Even better, buy secondhand books from charity shops as it supports and funds your local charity.
I haven’t bought many secondhand books, rather opting for library books, as I am currently running out of space to keep books in possession. Trying to sell them off – I need to the money to be honest. (;A;)
If you’re Hong Kong based, there is Flow Bookshop, Bleakhouse Books, Booksmart, and Living Bookspace (Yuen Long) for English books. There is Carousell, Asiaexpat and Facebook Groups for buying English secondhand books online too.
*Although, this tends to be more common while I was living in the UK (Bath and Bristol had a lot of charity shops!) compared to Hong Kong. Let me know of any charity bookshops (especially ones that has a good range of English Fiction Books) if you’re based in Hong Kong!
🂦 Read ebooks on your digital devices - yes, that includes your smartphone
Although I do love having a ‘real book’ in my hands, ebooks are usually cheaper and reduces the need for paper. It is space saving, a more eco-friendy way to own books and are often on discount. Despite owning (too many) paperbacks and using the library a lot, I still own a kindle as they are very useful for traveling (especially for long backpacking trips - I hope to travel around New Zealand in the future! Investing in one made sense to me even as an university student before for things like on loan textbooks.) If you’re trying to be more minimal (or is constantly on the move) and don’t mind living without physical books, then an ebook reader (like the kindle) or tablet would be useful for small living spaces / a ‘nomadic-minimalist-van-life’ lifestyle. Less physical things to possess!
Where to read ebooks:
Libby App; install in either iOS / Android based smartphones, tablets, or on your laptop. It’s great for borrowing ebokos from your public library as you only need your public library card / membership to log in! I tend to use it on my phone for reading during commutes.
Overdrive; similar to the Libby App but this is what most public libraries use for ebooks loans. The Libby App is run on this.
Amazon Prime / Kindle Unlimited; Normally I wouldn’t suggest Amazon due to their unethical labour standards and environmentally damaging logistics, but it IS the most accessible for a lot of people. If you do have prime, it’s not just for quick deliveries and films/ series streaming, but you do have access to a lot of (discounted) ebooks and audiobooks without the time limit of borrowed ebooks.
Radish; an app where writers release their newest chapters every month. Think of it like watching ‘on demand’ tv series on Netflix while you anxiously wait for the next episode release!
Wattpad; for all of you fanfic readers (:coughs: harry potter, supernatural, marvel fans…) … this one is for you. The app can be used on most digital devices including your laptop (but then again you would be using the browser anyway 😘)
Audiobooks… where art thou?
Audiobooks (Amazon); a classic choice by the many sponsored booktubers…
Listen FM; similar to Audiobooks but with the goal of supporting independent bookshops by sharing their profits with independent bookshops. (Mostly American based bookshops but they’re slowly growing in supporting international bookshops - email them to request in looking at specific Hong Kong based bookshops! The more the better!)
Not an ebooks and audiobooks fan? But still can’t be arsed to read paperbacks because you never have time to sit down and read? Read more for a list of fantastical fictional podcast series!
🂧 Buying Books Online from Independent Bookshops
As a last resort, there is always buying new books from your local or commercial bookshops if you can’t find a secondhand copy. I’m still guilty for this, particularly for poetry books as not a lot of English poetry books are widely available in Hong Kong. I do have to order some of my books online off bookdepository (the ones that I badly want to read and there aren’t any ebooks available or I prefer to have a paperback copy at least). I do try to find books in local bookshops, but sometimes it’s annoyingly cheaper to order books online! Who’s with me about trying to be sustainable on a budget? What I do is to try and order books in one order so it comes in one box – doesn’t always happen though as bookdepository have different suppliers in other places too. So, don’t feel too guilty if you end up buying new books as a zero waster! There are other ways to be more sustainable in other aspects of life.
Book Depository (Amazon); this is probably the most accessible for a lot of Hong Kongers thanks to their free (international) delivery.
bookshop.org (UK)
hive.co.uk (UK)
Wordery; similar to Book Depository but not owned by Amazon! Plus, they offer free international delivery to Hong Kong!
If you’re Bath (UK) based, Toppings and Mr B’s Emporium are fabuhlous local bookshops and they always have good recommendations. Recommended from this MA Creative Writing graduate - I spent most of my budget in these shops. (cries)
If you’re Hong Kong based, Bleakhouse Books (new and used), Books Mart (new and used), and Bookazine (new books only) offer local online deliveries. Note: Bleakhouse Books are sadly closing down on 15 October - they are doing discounted books right now for their closing sale! If you wish to give your last support, this is a great way to do so.
Looking for secondhand books in Hong Kong and don’t know where to stick your nose into some nice musty vintage paperbacks? Read more here.