Buying books overseas.

Anyone who buys books online knows that Amazon.com is synonymous with the online book store. With an account on Amazon you buy a book in any condition on any Amazon mirror site, including Canada and Europe. European sites can be nice to buy from since you can often get a book before it comes out in the US, it's in a different language, or because overseas publishers often use different covers.

The main problem with buying overseas is that shipping can be super expensive. Back in February I bought Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie from Amazon.co.uk for 18 Pounds, about $36 including shipping. That's quite a bit more to pay for even to get the book long before it will be released here. A few weeks later, I decided to try Book Depository because they have FREE shipping everywhere. I bought The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski in hardback and it cost about 12 Pounds which is about 24 dollars. I saved $12 buying from Book Depository and I got the book in five calender days. It always takes at least a full week to get anything from Amazon.co.uk, though the last couple orders from Book Depository have taken two full weeks. The main drawback to Book Depository is that they don't allow preorders; you have to buy the book right when it comes out.