At the risk of stating the obvious , one thing I've done the last few years that helps cope with the cost of owning books is become a heavy user of my local library. If you have a decent library accessible, I'd highly recommend it.

This was not only for cost savings. It was also part of a lifestyle shift a few years back, we decided to downsize and simplify. One aspect was simply buying less stuff, not feeling like we need to 'own' everything. We thinned out all our attic and storage, and now every time we buy something new, say a new shirt, I'll donate or get rid of at least one existing item. In the area of book buying, I've cut the amount I spend on books roughly in half over the last several years. But I read as much as ever.

I use an approach where on my want-to-read list, I indicate which books I plan to own. Anything that is not a target for owning, becomes a candidate for borrowing. Really, the majority of stuff I read now fits in this category. All the more so for ephemera like computer books.

For the borrow items on my list, I actively update my list, doing things like placing holds long in advance on popular books, placing holds on *many* books so that I always have a rotating supply of check-outable books at any time. Also leverage interlibrary loan heavily for stuff the library doesn't have. Another thing that has helped is, Amazon lets you permanently save your book annotations in your account even on library books, so I use that heavily.

Anyway, none of this makes the issues around ebook cost go way. But it's one affordable option that lets you deal with it and keep reading.