The ultimate entertainment budget hack: Your local library

Entertainment in 2026 is a bit of a double-edged sword. Excellent films and television shows are widely available in ways that would have sounded like science fiction just 20 years ago—but at a steep price. A single movie ticket costs an average of $16, while the average American household spends over $42 per month on streaming services, which adds up to $504 per year.

And if you’re anything like me, you may not even be getting your money’s worth on those streaming services. Often when I sit down to watch something, I scroll through the options on Netflix, only to go to bed an hour later without having watched anything.

In many cases, that decision paralysis reflects my desire to recreate the feeling of watching something I loved, which is impossible. (What do you mean there’s no show or movie that will give me the same emotions I felt watching Outlander for the first time?)

However, there is an easy and free solution to this entertainment conundrum: your local library.

Your library card will help you access books, ebooks, DVDs, audiobooks, and other media that can help you get your entertainment on for free—and can offer you similar stories to the movies and television shows that have captured your imagination.

If you’re looking to lower your entertainment costs, here are some recommendations for what to pick up at your local library.

If you loved Sinners

With sixteen Oscar nominations–the most in Academy Award history—Ryan Coogler’s Jim Crow-era horror film offers some insightful allegories of racism and cultural appropriation within a tense and emotional vampire flick.

If you’d like more vampire lore or gore with a side of cultural commentary, you might check these out from your library:

• My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due: Originally published in 1997, this is the first book in Due’s African Immortals four-part series. When Jessica, an African-American journalist for the Miami Herald, marries David, her “Mr. Perfect,” she has no idea he is actually a 450-year-old immortal who traded his soul for unending life. Initially, she shrugs off warning signs, such as the fact that he seems strangely youthful and his injuries heal too quickly, but David eventually tells her the truth when his immortal brothers come to retrieve him. When the people around Jessica start dying violently, David plans to make her and their daughter immortal, whether they want it or not.
• Fledgling by Octavia Butler: Butler’s final novel before her death in 2006, Fledgling tells the story of Shori, a girl with amnesia who discovers that she is in fact a 53-year-old genetically modified vampire. Despite her memory loss, she must work to discover who has made her what she is and find a way to save herself and those she cares for.
• Dread Nation by Justina Ireland: Rather than vampires, Ireland’s 2018 YA novel imagines that zombies began walking the battlefields of Gettysburg during the Civil War. Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead rose, and as a Black child, she is required to attend a combat school to learn how to protect the living from the walking dead.
• Get Out, Us, and Nope, directed by Jordan Peele: Ryan Coogler specifically credited Jordan Peele as one of the filmmakers who influenced his work on Sinners. While none of Peele’s three masterpieces specifically deal with vampires or other traditional monsters, each one does look at horror tropes through the lens of race and culture similar to how Coogler does in Sinners.

If you’ve lost count of your Heated Rivalry reheats

The global phenomenon written and directed by Jacob Tierney and based on the bestselling book series by Rachel Reid has made it clear that romance is not dead, although it does involve more ginger ale, loon calls, and concussions than anticipated.

If you haven’t already read the entire Game Changers series (and you may have had trouble getting copies at your local library), Reid has also written two standalone novels, Time to Shine and The Shots You Take. But there is a long and storied history of queer sports romance that you can check out from your local library while waiting for season two of Heated Rivalry and book seven of Game Changers:

• Gravity by Tal Bauer: This friends-to-lovers hockey romance finds self-proclaimed middle-of-the-road player Hunter Lacey starstruck when he meets his hero, 26-year-old Bryce Michel at the All Star Game. But the two men have instant chemistry on and off the ice. If you like your hockey romance to feature plenty of time on the ice, this is the book for you.
• Wake Up, Nat & Darcy by Kate Cochrane: In this second-chance hockey romance, Darcy LaCroix and Natalie Carpenter were once college teammates, friends, and lovers. But that was years ago, before Darcy broke Nat’s heart and they became bitter rivals. After being cut from the U.S. women’s hockey team, Nat takes a guest hosting gig on Wake Up, USA’s winter games coverage–with Darcy as her co-host. The snark and banter between Nat and Darcy is reminiscent of the playful and sometimes biting chirps shared between Shane and Ilya in Heated Rivalry.
• You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian: Set in New York City in 1960, this baseball romance features a grumpy/sunshine pairing between journalist Mark Bailey, who is not a sports reporter, thank you very much, and Eddie O’Leary, the new shortstop who threw a tantrum after getting traded to the New York Robins. Mark and Eddie’s well-founded concerns about being outed in 1960 America reflects Scott Hunter’s fears about what he might lose by being an out hockey player in Heated Rivalry.

If Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is your jam

This prequel series to Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. In addition to reading the source material, you can look for these items at your library when you’re missing the fantasy world of Seven Kingdoms:

• Legend of the Seeker: This 2008 fantasy television series based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth novels ran for two seasons before it was cancelled. Created by Sam Raimi, the show follows Richard Cypher, played by Craig Horner, the long-awaited “Seeker of Truth” who is destined to release the people of his realm from tyranny and destruction. Part of the charm of this series is its earnestness. Like George R.R. Martin, Raimi, Goodkind, and the production team take their storytelling seriously and don’t wink at the audience.
• The Fitz and the Fool series by Robin Hobb: This trilogy follows the retirement of royal bastard and former king’s assassin FitzChivalry Farseer. Fitz lets the world believe he is dead, taking on a new identity as country squire Tom Badgerlock and marrying his childhood sweetheart. But the appearance of menacing, pale-skinned strangers who kidnap his daughter just as his old friend the Fool returns to his life means Fitz may need to dust off his skills as an assassin. If you love seeing a fantasy world through the eyes of someone living an ordinary life, Hobb’s series will delight you.
• A Knight’s Tale directed by Brian Helgeland: Though there’s nothing “fantastic” about this 2001 film starring the late Heath Ledger, its plot follows similar beats to that of Seven Kingdoms. Ledger’s character William is a commoner who dreams of becoming a knight so he can make a difference for those around him. He gathers a found family of charming misfits who help him to succeed despite the odds. There is some extremely anachronistic use of David Bowie music. The film is also quite funny.

Libraries FTW

Feel paralyzed at the idea of finding the next perfect book to read, show to binge, or movie to watch? Head down to your local library and ask for recommendations based on the last entertainment you loved. Your new librarian bestie will be happy to give you some ideas.

What’s even better is that it’s all free. You can ask for suggestions from professional librarians, then borrow books, DVDs, ebooks, audiobooks, CDs, and loads of other types of media without spending a single cent.

It’s more than just a life hack–it’s an entire lifestyle.