There is so much i want to read but ,the price of books holds me back, is there an online substitute?
Try Project Guttenberg - downloadable .txt files of stuff that's out of copyright. You can search by author, title, subject matter or genre. The only problem is reading them in the bath or bed. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! There's also pdfs available from places like eDonkey (peer-to-peer file sharing) but most (all?) of those are bootlegged, and the vast majority of the books they have are way way into woowoo territory. Charity shops, especially in university towns are great, publisher's clearance shops (The Works, Publishers' Book Clearance etc), second-hand (but not antique) book shops also are worth looking at.
Try a library. There are a lot of books you can read online, but it takes forever to find them. Try here
If it's a popular book, search for it on eMule. Chances are you can find it in PDF format. Otherwise, I recommend either going to the library or purchasing it used: http://abebooks.com
Thanks guys, so many good ideas, so you are useful after allPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Is it important to you to own the books? If not, there are always libraries... You could also go with a used bookstore.