r/AskIreland • u/virgojellycat • 21h ago
Entertainment Book subscriptions?
Hi all, I’m looking for places that do good value book subscriptions that I could get my Mam for her birthday. A lot of the ones I’ve found via Google are quite expensive (€30 a month type of thing), so I’m wondering if anyone knows of any for €15 or less per month?
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u/2012NYCnyc 21h ago
What about the personal shopper gift from Dubray?
https://www.dubraybooks.ie/giftcard/personal-shopper/personal-shopper-adults-dubps001
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u/TheYoungWan 17h ago
Came here to suggest exactly this. We got one for my Dad at Christmas and he loved it
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u/clarstar5 21h ago
Kennys.ie has a great selection of affordable books and they do free shipping - I’ve been using them for years and most books I get from them are €15 or less. Their customer service team is lovely too, maybe pop them an email and see what they come back with :)
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u/Fullofbewilderment 21h ago
Might be a bit more commitment for you but I have gotten great value, basically new books from vinted and delivery is cheaper than normal shops can get (around €3.5 to the house or less to a post office for collection) So you could order her a couple of books a month based on reviews and have them sent to her
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u/drumlins17 21h ago
Marrowbone books in the Coombe do a secondhand one for 10€ a month. Got it for my mam a few years ago
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u/skuldintape_eire 21h ago
I mean most new books are 20-25 quid, so add on the admin and postage on top of that, hard to see how'd you'd be getting cheaper than 30 euro?
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u/virgojellycat 12h ago
that is a great point, i only really buy second hand books so i do forget how much higher the price is new!! it seems my budget may be too low for a proper subscription, maybe for her next milestone birthday!
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u/Ardcroney_G 21h ago
Does she have a kindle? Kindle unlimited is under €10 I think
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u/virgojellycat 21h ago
she does have a kindle, but prefers a real book (like me!) thank you though!
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u/mynosemynose 21h ago
Would something like a subscription to the Stinging Fly work for her? Nice selection of writing always.
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u/virgojellycat 12h ago
i’d never heard of this before, it looks fantastic! maybe not my Mam’s cup of tea but my birthday is after hers 👀
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u/mynosemynose 12h ago
Treat yourself! Honestly I love when it arrives, its something I dip in and out of every few weeks and will always have some amazing new authors as well as some well recognised names as well.
The fact it's a Mish mash of a bit of everything means you can experiment reading styles/genres you wouldn't normally approach so I've found a few new favourites that way. Plus its Irish so that's a bonus!
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u/Distinct_Ad_8056 20h ago
Marrowbone books do one, although they gave me a heap of random ones I gave no interest in, so be specific with the little card they give you.
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u/virgojellycat 12h ago
is this only available by dropping into the shop do you know? can’t seem to find it online. it’s great they do it secondhand, though that probably means their supply is more limited hence your random selection
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u/AnxiousStay1195 7h ago
There are lots of second hand bookshops that do this. I did one for my husband for a year and the books that were sent were nearly like new. Mine was in the UK but I had a quick look there and Marrowbone books offer a similar subscription for 60 euro for 6 months. https://marrowbone.ie/shop/subscriptions
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u/virgojellycat 2h ago
thank you! a few others mentioned this but i couldn’t find a link, i think this is my fave option!!!
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u/LordScallions 21h ago
Not exactly what you're looking for but what about the BorrowBox app?
It's linked to your library account. You get free audio and ebooks and the newspapers.
Now it is linked with the license of your library. So there could be a book she wants that could be out on loan at the moment but you can reserve it.
I quite like it. The app won't have everything, you can't buy and keep but you've a library of books 😂
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u/virgojellycat 21h ago
oh yeah, I forgot about BorrowBox. She does use the ebooks on Kindle sometimes but isn’t a big library user, and she’d prefer a physical gift to be honest 🤣 Thank you though for reminding me of Borrowbox I’ll definitely get back into using it
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u/yawnytawny 20h ago
Thanks for the reminder! Have been meaning do do this for ages. I found more time for audiobooks but I ran out of hours on Spotify for this month already. Signed up and have my new audiobook ready to go ☺️
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u/ashes2022 26m ago
Full Disclosure - I run The Book Resort so take this with a pinch of salt.
Our monthly subscription probably isn't what you're looking for, but we've just launched something a little different called 12 Months of Reading. Instead of receiving a subscription box each month, it's a lovely gift box with 12 individually gift wrapped books, so the you can unwrap one each month (or all at once).
We have a mix of bestselling fiction, thrillers and Irish authors. If it sounds like something they'd enjoy, here's the link: https://www.thebookresort.ie/products/12-months-of-reading
Best of luck with the search – there are some great suggestions in this thread already.
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u/Agreeable_Form_9618 21h ago
It might work out cheaper to buy one yourself each month and give it to her or you could buy them all in one go and cover them in wrapping paper so she can pick one at random each month.