Everybody has different experiences and preferences in this area. My advice is to start with a professional eye exam. They are not expensive. At the end of it, ask the doctor what your options are for the next year. Specifically ask him about reading glasses, the cheapest option, or magnifiers.

You might need more, though, especially if you have astigmatism. Then you have a range of options including bifocals and progressives. I prefer progressives. I liked contact lenses until I got to dry and windy Colorado, where they were painful. Contacts also offer the option of having one eye set up for distance and one for close up. (This works, believe it or not, for most folks.) If you end up with prescription glasses, you can get polarized sunglasses that fit over them. I did that for awhile, then went to a chain that always sells two pairs of glasses for $99 and got one regular pair and one pair of prescription sunglasses.