7 ms·

There are no words for how much this sucks. If you are outside the US/EU, reasonably priced books in english aren't easy to find. CompSci literature in English?

There are no words for how much this sucks. If you are outside the US/EU, reasonably priced books in english aren't easy to find. CompSci literature in English? Forget it, buddy. Book Depository had decent prices with free international shipping to most of the world. Sure, I have to wait a month and sometimes they have to reship because it got damaged in transport, but if I need a book immediately Library Genesis is right there. Book Depository built out my home library for both fiction and non-fiction, and I will miss it dearly. Salute o7

perch56 4y ago
I'm inside the EU (Ireland) and "reasonably priced books in English aren't easy to find" unless you're buying pre-owned books and in most cases I can't find what I'm looking for specially when it comes to tech books. As an island, we're very much dependent on Amazon.co.uk for books.
- shever73 4y ago
  If you're in Dublin then Chapters has a fantastic, on-going (closing down, perhaps?) sale on fiction. I can't find books cheaper on Amazon than there. For tech books, I get the ISBN from Amazon and then order them from Books Upstairs. It is more expensive, but not excessively so.
- maleno 4y ago
  They don't have everything when it comes to tech or more niche material, but Kenny's (https://www.kennys.ie/ https://www.kennys.ie/) is very good and offers free (and often fast) shipping.
  - Symbiote 4y ago
    That also looks like a good alternative for the EU and some other countries, with delivery at €1 per book. (Just not the USA, which is €9.50 for some reason.) https://www.kennys.ie/delivery-details https://www.kennys.ie/delivery-details
- whoknowswho 4y ago
  While Book Depository definitely had some of the lowest prices, I wouldn't say we're very much dependent on Amazon - I've found that almost everything I've looked for can be found in a handful of bookshops around Ireland (Chapters, Kennys, Charlie Byrnes, Easons, Books Upstairs, Vibes and Scribes) - it's been a good few years since I've had to rely on book depository for a book
- Y_Y 4y ago
  https://www.bigwords.com/ https://www.bigwords.com/ That strange site helped me get tons of books for college.
open-source-ux 4y ago
Book Depository had decent prices with free international shipping to most of the world wordery.com (based in the UK) also gives free worldwide delivery.
- activitypea 4y ago
  Looks neat, but most of the books I have are showing as "currently unavailable" :(
- willnz 4y ago
  Seems reasonably similar range, but pricing is definitely higher than BD.
Veen 4y ago
Probably a bit nitpicky, but there is at least one place outside the US/EU where it is very easy to find books in English.
- bathtub365 4y ago
  I know of at least two off the top of my head: UK and Canada.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Britain, Australia, and India would be my guesses. And Canada if we haven’t annexed it yet.
  - musicale 4y ago
    Poor New Zealand, not even on the map in Risk.
- activitypea 4y ago
  You're right, let me rephrase. > I feel like there are no words for how much this sucks for me personally. It seems to me that if you are in most countries outside the US/EU, potentially excluding strong US/EU-adjacent economies such as Canada, UK, and Switzerland (Switzerland technically not being a part of the European Union), books in english can be hard to find for some people. Book Depository had what I consider to be decent prices with free international shipping to most of the world. Sure, I have to wait around a month and sometimes they have to reship because it got damaged, possibly in transport, but if I would like to have a book at that very moment I can use Library Genesis. Books ordered from Book Depository make up a large part of my personal library, with a few exceptions course.
- climb_stealth 4y ago
  You might be surprised. Good luck finding reasonably priced books in Australia. Book depository has been excellent. I had no idea this was coming. I didn't know they were owned by Amazon. This is terrible and it just goes to show that we can't have nice things. I had been ordering books from there since 2015 :(
user-4-4-2023 4y ago
+100 I'm really pissed off. I live in Europe outside EU and this is the most convenient way to get books in English. Often a translated book does not exist here at all, so Book Depository was a blessing in these situations. Seems like nothing is sacred to the corporate quarterly reports. If a corporation made a little less profit this year compared to the last one (did not have losses!), it apparently justifies shutting down an online book store that ships a ton of titles at reasonable prices with free shipping to 160 countries in the world!
- notyourwork 4y ago
  > I live in Europe outside EU I had to think on this portion of your comment for a moment. It's obvious in hindsight but the first time I've ever heard it phrased in this way.
electroagenda 4y ago
What about abebooks?
- lancesells 4y ago
  Amazon owns it so who knows how much longer that stays around.
  - nottorp 4y ago
    abebooks too? <drops into depression>
    - brutusurp 4y ago
      It's really bad. We probably want to not have monopolies like Amazon moving forward. So much so that we could probably pass laws to prevent it. Just in case we forget.
      - nottorp 4y ago
        Pretty sure the US has laws about it. But their interpretation has changed since the famous AT&T breakup.
        LeonB 4y ago
        It’s a complex area - any time I read into the history of “antitrust” etc in the US I get lost in a quagmire of details. Overall the US seems to be incredibly open to monopsonies, monopolies, and oligopolies, and very hostile to any restraint on such things. Though, the merest hint of success from a non-US entity seems to invoke bipartisan terror and pleadings for sanctions and new regulations. Funny that.
- adolph 4y ago
  An “extraordinary and unprecedented” global protest from antiquarian booksellers has forced the Amazon-owned secondhand marketplace AbeBooks to backtrack on its decision to pull out of several countries. AbeBooks had told bookshops in countries including Hungary, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Russia that it would no longer support them from 30 November, citing migration to a new payment service provider as the reason for the withdrawal. The move prompted almost 600 booksellers in 27 countries to pull more than 3.5m titles from Abebooks’ site, putting them on “vacation” as they cited the motto of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, “Amor librorum nos unit” (love of books unites us). https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/08/amazon-abebooks-backs-down-after-booksellers-stage-global-protest https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/08/amazon-abebook...
rvba 4y ago
In Poland there is a whole ecosystem of resellers who sell various books on Allegro (which is basically polish equivalent of Ebay + Amazon). I am not sure exactly how do they get the book info, but it is quite clear that they get the inventory off Amazon, who ships the books to the resellers first, who repack them and send them to direct customers. Of course you can ask, "why not buy at Amazon (or Ebay) directly"? Well, for many years Amazon was simply not available in Poland, it also required a full credit card (not only a debit card), while Allegro allows many more payment systems. I tried buying some really obscure books on Amazon - and the interface is pure garbage. When I looked for random items, those often looked like cheap knock-offs? Generally once per year I try to look at various "best books of 2022" lists [did hacker news have one?] and then try to get the obscure books. Often it feels easier (but not cheaper) to get them through those third party sellers than search on Amazon that offers 10 options of used books, semi-used books, PDFs - I genuinely dont know how to exclude the things that I dont want. This reminds me how EBAY tried to enter the Polish market and their launch was so damn bad and the website so damn poor, that after 2 years they licked their wounds and simply exited the market. I wish more people know Allegro, which has its own share of problems, but is so much better (I think most problems came when venture capital came, bought it and now tries to squeeze money out of it). In Poland you buy something on Allegro and usually in 1-2 days you get it to a parcel locker machine. Which is like a machine that stores the packages for you in a safe way. I never understood why those dont exist in USA. As I understand the delivery drivers throw the packages on your garden, where they can be stolen, damaged by rain or so on. I think Germany also has parcel lockers + the concept was introduced to UK due to all the Polish diaspora ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcel_locker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcel_locker ), but when it comes to number of machines per capita Poland probably wins.
- screature2 4y ago
  Thank you for sharing a glimpse of the ecosystem in Poland! By the way, Parcel lockers do exist in the US (at least for Amazon package deliveries) https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GXCWH4CXLKJD8Z52 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=.... The US also has Post Office (PO) boxes that you can rent for a nominal fee a month (these are basically lockers for all types of mail including parcels).
TylerE 4y ago
Sucks for some of us in the US too. Many of the niche military history books I buy come from BD. PS: Print tech books are dead in the US anyway. They're out of date before they're ever edited, never mind hitting paper.
netcyrax 4y ago
I located in the EU, but from a small country, and still Book Depository was the only way to get English books at a reasonable price.
barbariangrunge 4y ago
It's not so bad. I used to order from book depository in an attempt to use an amazon competitor. Then I found out amazon owns it. Closing it down makes it more obvious to everybody that there is none, not in a really serious way, for online books outside the USA
memsom 4y ago
Book Depository is still the best way to get reasonably priced books not in English too. I have managed to get a number of books in Swedish that were stupid money from other vendors or would not ship outside of Sweden (Adlibris, I am looking at you!)

perch56 4y ago

I'm inside the EU (Ireland) and "reasonably priced books in English aren't easy to find" unless you're buying pre-owned books and in most cases I can't find what I'm looking for specially when it comes to tech books. As an island, we're very much dependent on Amazon.co.uk for books.

shever73 4y ago
If you're in Dublin then Chapters has a fantastic, on-going (closing down, perhaps?) sale on fiction. I can't find books cheaper on Amazon than there. For tech books, I get the ISBN from Amazon and then order them from Books Upstairs. It is more expensive, but not excessively so.
maleno 4y ago
They don't have everything when it comes to tech or more niche material, but Kenny's (https://www.kennys.ie/ https://www.kennys.ie/) is very good and offers free (and often fast) shipping.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  That also looks like a good alternative for the EU and some other countries, with delivery at €1 per book. (Just not the USA, which is €9.50 for some reason.) https://www.kennys.ie/delivery-details https://www.kennys.ie/delivery-details
whoknowswho 4y ago
While Book Depository definitely had some of the lowest prices, I wouldn't say we're very much dependent on Amazon - I've found that almost everything I've looked for can be found in a handful of bookshops around Ireland (Chapters, Kennys, Charlie Byrnes, Easons, Books Upstairs, Vibes and Scribes) - it's been a good few years since I've had to rely on book depository for a book
Y_Y 4y ago
https://www.bigwords.com/ https://www.bigwords.com/ That strange site helped me get tons of books for college.

open-source-ux 4y ago

Book Depository had decent prices with free international shipping to most of the world wordery.com (based in the UK) also gives free worldwide delivery.

activitypea 4y ago
Looks neat, but most of the books I have are showing as "currently unavailable" :(
willnz 4y ago
Seems reasonably similar range, but pricing is definitely higher than BD.

Veen 4y ago

Probably a bit nitpicky, but there is at least one place outside the US/EU where it is very easy to find books in English.

bathtub365 4y ago
I know of at least two off the top of my head: UK and Canada.
bombcar 4y ago
Britain, Australia, and India would be my guesses. And Canada if we haven’t annexed it yet.
- musicale 4y ago
  Poor New Zealand, not even on the map in Risk.
activitypea 4y ago
You're right, let me rephrase. > I feel like there are no words for how much this sucks for me personally. It seems to me that if you are in most countries outside the US/EU, potentially excluding strong US/EU-adjacent economies such as Canada, UK, and Switzerland (Switzerland technically not being a part of the European Union), books in english can be hard to find for some people. Book Depository had what I consider to be decent prices with free international shipping to most of the world. Sure, I have to wait around a month and sometimes they have to reship because it got damaged, possibly in transport, but if I would like to have a book at that very moment I can use Library Genesis. Books ordered from Book Depository make up a large part of my personal library, with a few exceptions course.
climb_stealth 4y ago
You might be surprised. Good luck finding reasonably priced books in Australia. Book depository has been excellent. I had no idea this was coming. I didn't know they were owned by Amazon. This is terrible and it just goes to show that we can't have nice things. I had been ordering books from there since 2015 :(

user-4-4-2023 4y ago

+100 I'm really pissed off. I live in Europe outside EU and this is the most convenient way to get books in English. Often a translated book does not exist here at all, so Book Depository was a blessing in these situations. Seems like nothing is sacred to the corporate quarterly reports. If a corporation made a little less profit this year compared to the last one (did not have losses!), it apparently justifies shutting down an online book store that ships a ton of titles at reasonable prices with free shipping to 160 countries in the world!

notyourwork 4y ago
> I live in Europe outside EU I had to think on this portion of your comment for a moment. It's obvious in hindsight but the first time I've ever heard it phrased in this way.

electroagenda 4y ago

What about abebooks?

lancesells 4y ago
Amazon owns it so who knows how much longer that stays around.
- nottorp 4y ago
  abebooks too? <drops into depression>
  - brutusurp 4y ago
    It's really bad. We probably want to not have monopolies like Amazon moving forward. So much so that we could probably pass laws to prevent it. Just in case we forget.
    - nottorp 4y ago
      Pretty sure the US has laws about it. But their interpretation has changed since the famous AT&T breakup.
      - LeonB 4y ago
        It’s a complex area - any time I read into the history of “antitrust” etc in the US I get lost in a quagmire of details. Overall the US seems to be incredibly open to monopsonies, monopolies, and oligopolies, and very hostile to any restraint on such things. Though, the merest hint of success from a non-US entity seems to invoke bipartisan terror and pleadings for sanctions and new regulations. Funny that.
adolph 4y ago
An “extraordinary and unprecedented” global protest from antiquarian booksellers has forced the Amazon-owned secondhand marketplace AbeBooks to backtrack on its decision to pull out of several countries. AbeBooks had told bookshops in countries including Hungary, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Russia that it would no longer support them from 30 November, citing migration to a new payment service provider as the reason for the withdrawal. The move prompted almost 600 booksellers in 27 countries to pull more than 3.5m titles from Abebooks’ site, putting them on “vacation” as they cited the motto of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, “Amor librorum nos unit” (love of books unites us). https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/08/amazon-abebooks-backs-down-after-booksellers-stage-global-protest https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/08/amazon-abebook...

rvba 4y ago

In Poland there is a whole ecosystem of resellers who sell various books on Allegro (which is basically polish equivalent of Ebay + Amazon). I am not sure exactly how do they get the book info, but it is quite clear that they get the inventory off Amazon, who ships the books to the resellers first, who repack them and send them to direct customers. Of course you can ask, "why not buy at Amazon (or Ebay) directly"? Well, for many years Amazon was simply not available in Poland, it also required a full credit card (not only a debit card), while Allegro allows many more payment systems. I tried buying some really obscure books on Amazon - and the interface is pure garbage. When I looked for random items, those often looked like cheap knock-offs? Generally once per year I try to look at various "best books of 2022" lists [did hacker news have one?] and then try to get the obscure books. Often it feels easier (but not cheaper) to get them through those third party sellers than search on Amazon that offers 10 options of used books, semi-used books, PDFs - I genuinely dont know how to exclude the things that I dont want. This reminds me how EBAY tried to enter the Polish market and their launch was so damn bad and the website so damn poor, that after 2 years they licked their wounds and simply exited the market. I wish more people know Allegro, which has its own share of problems, but is so much better (I think most problems came when venture capital came, bought it and now tries to squeeze money out of it). In Poland you buy something on Allegro and usually in 1-2 days you get it to a parcel locker machine. Which is like a machine that stores the packages for you in a safe way. I never understood why those dont exist in USA. As I understand the delivery drivers throw the packages on your garden, where they can be stolen, damaged by rain or so on. I think Germany also has parcel lockers + the concept was introduced to UK due to all the Polish diaspora ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcel_locker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcel_locker ), but when it comes to number of machines per capita Poland probably wins.

screature2 4y ago
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of the ecosystem in Poland! By the way, Parcel lockers do exist in the US (at least for Amazon package deliveries) https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GXCWH4CXLKJD8Z52 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=.... The US also has Post Office (PO) boxes that you can rent for a nominal fee a month (these are basically lockers for all types of mail including parcels).

TylerE 4y ago

Sucks for some of us in the US too. Many of the niche military history books I buy come from BD. PS: Print tech books are dead in the US anyway. They're out of date before they're ever edited, never mind hitting paper.

netcyrax 4y ago

I located in the EU, but from a small country, and still Book Depository was the only way to get English books at a reasonable price.

barbariangrunge 4y ago

It's not so bad. I used to order from book depository in an attempt to use an amazon competitor. Then I found out amazon owns it. Closing it down makes it more obvious to everybody that there is none, not in a really serious way, for online books outside the USA

memsom 4y ago

Book Depository is still the best way to get reasonably priced books not in English too. I have managed to get a number of books in Swedish that were stupid money from other vendors or would not ship outside of Sweden (Adlibris, I am looking at you!)