Despite the fact I've been a major bookworm my entire life, I found myself in a bit of a reading rut as soon as I graduated college. Did I stop reading altogether? Of course not. But once I was done reading a variety of books for my college courses, I realized I was reverting back to the same genre over and over again: thrillers.
Now, don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for a good thriller. Between Paula Hawkins's Into the Water and An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, there was no shortage of suspense-filled page-turners I couldn't put down over the last year. But while any type of reading is surely a good thing, I felt the overwhelming need to broaden my horizons, genre-wise. Enter Book of the Month Club, a company with nearly 100 years of experience — yep, it was founded in 1926! — that caters to readers who are looking for something new.
Book of the Month has a fairly straightforward process. After you sign up and load credits onto your profile — you can get charged monthly or purchase a whole year at a clip, if you want! — get busy by perusing the five books of the month. Typically, the books span a variety of genres, ranging from historical and contemporary fiction to books of short stories. That means there are plenty of options, regardless of your preference. Your best bet for a great deal? Signing up for a year at a time, which shakes out to about $9 per month! (Anyone who has purchased a brand-new hardcover book in the last year hopefully doesn't need me to explain how much of a steal that price is.)
And FYI: one credit equals one book, so once you select your book of choice, you can either call it quits or add another book to your shipment from dozens of choices beyond the five monthly selections. And here's where it gets interesting: for additional books, you can either use another credit or opt to pay $9.99 per title.
Oh, and if you're not loving the choices for a particular month or have a pretty hefty stack to get through, simply skip that month and save your credits for the future. Easy peasy, right? Now all you need is a fuzzy blanket, a candle, and maybe a little rainy weather to get into full-on reading mode.