where do i usually buy book(s)?

howdy! everyone, what's good? HAHA

i do hope y'all doing well no matter how hard life beats you down, or at least, will be.

on this occasion, i'd like to share my experience regarding buying books online, especially international books. 

well, as we're all still clueless about when the pandemic will come to an end, and everybody's told to stay home, perhaps some of you are currently looking for a new hobby to spend time, and maybeeeeee reading is one of those options, or you're actually a bookworm. if that so, then this post belongs to you guys.

the question is, where we can buy books, especially international books, written in English and most importantly AFFORDABLE?

k, as I've been living in the countryside which is far away, a local bookstore usually doesn't have the books that I want, even the famous one, such as Gramedia. Yep, it may have it, but the translated version. So, the only option is to buy online. So after experiencing where to buy books, i'll share it with you so please take note. aight, lessgoooooooooooooooooo!!

• bookdepository

i found out about this online bookstore around 1,5 years ago after a friend recommended me. this bookstore has lots of pluses you need to consider. first, it has various types of books, like from educational books, novels, dictionaries, etc. it's really vary. second. it's cheaper compared to others, really, especially when it offers special discount, wooooow, it's so cheap and of course original. i bought my GRE books (superpack) for less than 900k IDR while others sold that for over 1mio IDR. third, it's free delivery worldwide, literally 0 IDR, you just need to pay the books only even when it's shipped from UK. isn't that interestingggg? well, not gonna lie, it takes a while for the shipping. before covid, it took around 1 month, but after covid it took around 2-3 months (shipped from UK to Minahasa, North Sulawesi). Fyi, ordering something from Jakarta usually takes a week, sometimes more than that. So, it's quite understandable since it transits in Singapore first. Ah almost forgotten, when you buy more than one book, your book will be packed differently (i mean, if you buy 2 books, then you'll receive 2 packages), i experienced this on my last purchase. i dunno if it's related to the customs regulation so that we can get free delivery or what, but that's not a big deal. last but not least, the payment is not that complicated even when you buy it from overseas, yeah, it actually requires credit card but if you don't have it, no worries you can just use your Jenius card and it's all done. 

• periplus

before i discovered bookdepository, i usually bought international books at periplus, offline at the airport (CGK, Jakarta,) or online. yet, since now we barely travel and go to the airport, i think the online one will be more chosen. k, compared to gramedia the local bookstore, periplus is generally more expensive, but if you need international books, periplus usually does have it even though it's not as many as bookdepository has. well, sometimes, it also offers discounts as well, especially when you're already registered as a member. everytime you buy books at periplus, you'll get point(s) and you can redeem it as a discount for the next purchase, and it's quite advantageous. you can use periplus app (download it on play store) or else, you can just use your browser hehe, whatever you want. ah, for the delivery, as far as i remember, it doesn't offer free delivery you need to pay for the shipping fee according to your place hehe. and for purchasing, it uses a common method, which is a bank transfer (if im not mistaken, sorry my last purchase was back in 2019). last but not least, i bought Mark Manson's books there fyi.

• shopee lifepatternkorea

for those who love all about Korea, and are currently learning Korean, yo i just found a treasure at shopee hahahaha. this store deserves a chef kiss, bruh. they sell various books from essay, grammar, and other types of books written in korean. fyi, even if you're using shopee Indonesia, the books will be shipped from South Korea directly, and of course, it's original, i've proven it. And you know what, the shipping fee is affordable too, i dunno if it depends on the time you buy it, but i bought my books and it only cost 10k IDR for the shipping fee. Lol, it's even cheaper than the ojol fee from my home-office i swear. When I ordered something online through shopee and sent it here in Minahasa, at least it'll cost 48k IDR shipped from Jakarta (usually 88k IDR, then got a discount for shipping 40k), but last time i bought book from Korea it only cost 10k isn't that crazyyyyyy? guess what, the packaging is also dope, it's really neat and safe, your books will be wrapped by bubble wrap so it won't be damaged along the way. i truly recommend this store cuz it has so many discounts and promos so it won't be that pricey, also we're already familiar with the payment method so you won't be confused when purchasing. 

so that's that guys, i hope it helps hehe, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me through the comment section below or just text me. 

thanks for reading and c u on another post

bye, xx

ps. i aint sponsored/endorsed by any parties, that's pure based on my experiences, but i welcome them if there's any haha