Books.

Note: Please remember to look at Wai Min's post below this!

Update: http://ed-t.blogspot.com/2009/11/books-update.html

Every now and then, a debate over the decline in the popularity of read in Singapore pops up, and some arguments inevitably point out that most books in Singapore, barring local titles, remain prohibitively expensive for the general consumer. I agree. Wholeheartedly! Since I’m supposed to get back to my notes now (for the record, I’m referring to leisure reading material, as opposed to the academic, although they may at times overlap), I’ll cut this short.

The motivation for this post came about from my search for the book “The Audacity to Win” by David Plouffe. Without any discounts, it costs S$54.04 here, which is, pardon my French, bloody expensive.

Hence, I did what any rational modern consumer would do. I searched for alternatives online. Here are the numbers.

Buying from Amazon and shipping direct to my doorstep costs S$35.38.
Buying from The Book Depository and shipping direct to my doorstep costs S$39.25.
Buying from Open Trolley and shipping direct to my doorstep costs S$42.50.

Of the three, Open Trolley delivers within 4 to 7 days because it’s local, while The Book Depository (UK) takes 7-14 days, and Amazon (US) 18-32 days.

However, my sister wanted another 2 books, “Too Big to Fail” by Anthony Ross Sorkin, and “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense” by Larry Mcdonald, and since Borders SG sent me a discount coupon for 30% off 3 full-priced books, I thought we might as well support a traditional brick-and-mortar shop.

But it turns out that Borders doesn’t stock Plouffe’s book (OMGWTFBBQ?), so we got the other 2 for 20% off.

The unavailability is saddening, but the thing that really miffs me is that even with 30% off, the book, if bought locally (from Borders, Kinokuniya or Times), is still more expensive than Amazon Direct at S$37.83. The only perk, if it were available, is the instant gratification in contrast to the waiting time.

But since it’s the exams now, and I probably can only find the time for it after the 25th, I’ll probably go and try out The Book Depository. Amazon Direct (using the cheapest shipping option) takes far too long, and Open Trolley, while local (buy home-grown!), is a tad expensive and comes too soon. Haha.

So here’s the moral of the story: Always compare the online prices of the books you want against its list prices in local shops.

More next time.


PS: I know the GP content package thingy says there are other width points about libraries and ebooks, but I need to go off now! Plus they suck.