Let's suppose that I would prefer not to buy books from Amazon.com. Does anyone have any other favorite sites for buying tech books? Inexpensive, easy to find books, usable wishlist, and good selection would be nice, of course.
A:
I usually look for the book on http://www.google.com/products and buy it from the cheapest place that looks reputable.
levand
2008-08-27 18:38:43
+1
A:
Barnes and Noble is cool. But I don't remember them offering Canadian service like Amazon is doing.
Pascal Paradis
2008-08-27 18:40:20
+6
A:
I like to turn the idea of buying books on its head and use O'Reilly's Safari Books Online - though I admit that's because my company has a site subscription.
James A. Rosen
2008-08-27 18:57:27
+1 even though your solution doesn't solve "usable wishlist"
JeffH
2009-06-23 20:33:36
If your company doesn't have a subscription, you can join acm.org for about $100 per year and get Safari as a member benefit.
JeffH
2009-06-23 20:37:50
Safari's site is much improved over a year ago, so it's actually generally usable now.
Chris Farmer
2010-02-16 03:54:44
+1
A:
NerdBooks is pretty good and I've found them generally equal or cheaper in price to Amazon.
Scott Gottreu
2008-08-27 18:57:52
A:
I'm a Borders Rewards member and they often send 30% or 40% off coupons. It helps with these expensive books.
Vinnie
2008-08-27 18:59:18
A:
Bookpool.com Been buying from them since 2000. They are generally 1-2% cheaper than Amazon and ship very fast.
Scott
2008-08-27 19:03:03
+1
A:
If you want to avoid shipping costs, I recommend The Book Depository, as they have free shipping worldwide. With the shipping savings I end up spending less than if I ordered the same book from Amazon, and they're also really fast.
Farinha
2008-08-27 19:10:39
+6
A:
I recommend The Pragmatic Programmers books. Not always cheap, but high quality. If you don't want to spend much, you can get PDF versions of their books for about 1/2 the price of a hard copy.
Ryan Doherty
2008-08-27 19:28:31
+1
A:
I'll vote for Half Price Books. The quality of the selection depends upon where you live - but in Seattle, the technical sections are sometimes better than Borders and Barnes.
Frank Krueger
2008-08-27 19:29:57
+3
A:
I use BookPool all the time and they often send updates on sale items via email. Usually you can find an entire publisher offering 50% off or more.
Amazon is great but BookPool is dedicated to technical books.
Rob Bazinet
2008-08-29 03:51:47
A:
Great info here on this thread. Primarily, I'm echoing half.com where I do my Amazon comparisons. Typically though, I like peruse Barnes & Noble in person, make notes of the books I need and then use the online services. But I mention Barnes & Noble because they offer a credit card, which pays back a $25 gift certificate on every $2500 spent; making it the most used card I have(Without the cert, I wouldn't buy at B&N, of course).
Patrick Loz
2008-08-29 07:10:12
A:
In the UK, I use Computer Manuals as an alternative to Amazon. Prices are usually comparable and they often have books in stock that have longer delivery times on Amazon. Free delivery on larger orders (>£25) in the UK. They don't have as many customer comments as Amazon, but those they do are usually relevant and informative.
Simon Forrest
2008-09-06 11:58:44
A:
In the Netherlands:
They both have a large selection of good tech-books.
Huppie
2008-09-06 13:17:35
+1
A:
I've also found the The Pragmatic Programmers http://www.pragprog.com/ a useful resource on certain subjects. I like the concept of the "Friday" PDF series ... subjects you can read on a Friday afternoon while ignoring your other work.
MikeJ
2008-09-06 13:39:24
A:
In India, (specifically in Bombay) Computer Bookshop - One day delivery to my doorstep.
Gishu
2008-09-06 14:24:58
A:
I have bought several used programming books from third-party sellers via Amzon. Most of them are in very good condition, and usually they are a lot cheaper than buying them new directly from Amazon.
So this may be an option. You are not buying from Amazon, but via Amazon (and I guess Amazon takes a share of the price). But this has worked well for me.
Henrik Warne
2008-09-11 13:36:13
A:
When not in a hurry, and the topic affords being an edition behind, I buy books used at BookFinder.com.
(Slightly off topic aside:
When I'll only be reading book once, I use the Library)
Tristan Havelick
2008-11-16 17:54:04
A:
Check out http://www.bookuet.com where you can compare used, new, rental & auction prices for any type of books at multiple online stores.
We also have browser addons available for most of the browsers. Using these addons, you can launch book price comparison from any web site by selecting ISBN, Title or Author Name of the book.
techie4ever
2009-08-31 21:15:14
A:
Stanford Univ. bookstore. Haven't been there in a long time, but wow, lots of juicy deep science and tech books unlike at B&N or Borders. But I don't live within 2000 miles of there, so it's Border's as 2nd choice.
DarenW
2010-02-16 03:36:09
A:
Packt Publishing has a host of tech books. You can visit here: http://packtpub.com/