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Safari (safaribooksonline.com) offers a good option for reading widely at relatively low cost. They have all the O'Reilly books, many Addison-Wesley and Microsoft Press books, and recently added some Apress titles. Alas, Safari has almost nothing on Lisp. You can download Practical Common Lisp and On Lisp elsewhere, courtesy of their authors.

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See if your local library has a subscription to Safari Books Online.

For example, Boston Public Library's hidden gem is that anyone in Massachusetts can sign up for an E-Card for free. From there, you can use their electronic resources, which includes a huge number of databases, as well as Safari Online Computer & Business Books. It's brilliant.

Though admittedly it's a pain in the ass to read on the computer.

Hmm. That's a neat idea. Although I have an American Library in my city. It has a one or two unique titles but I couldn't find anything for LISP and neither for Python or Ruby. It did have Code Complete.

Try asking one of the workers there for a specific book. I was at my local library today (in Chicago, IL, US) looking for a specific book on design patterns. They didn't have it but were able to order it for me. I should be able to pick it up in a week or so. After I finish with it it'll be available at the library to any future person that wants to read it.

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