18th Birthday Book Haul + Barnes & Noble/Amazon Delivery Experience

18th Birthday Book Haul + Barnes & Noble/Amazon Delivery Experience

  Congratulation to me!!! Hahahaha! I'm 18 today!!! (Oh my god! I'm so old!) I usually get some presents from my parents every birthday, and this year, I ask for a bunch of books!!! What's better than get a lot of beautiful books on your birthday? But instead of more YA novels, I set my eyes on Barnes & Noble's classic leather bond collections! I always wish to own leather bond books, but in Taiwan we usually have paperback edition, seldom do we have hardcover, let along leather bond. So...I can only hope for it. But now...I found a way to fulfill my leather bond collection dream!!! With Barnes & Noble's international delivery, I can easily get the book I want!

  First, let me tell you what book I pursuit in Barnes & Noble online bookstore! I got The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest, The Invasion of Tearling, and the Film Making Journey of Harry Potter. (Ahhhh!!!! I wish for this book for so long!) And as for leather bond collection, I got The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Wicked & The Son of Witch, The Arabian Night, Jane Austin Seven Novels, The Complete Grimm's Fairy tale, and Le Morte d'Arthur. Some of you may ask: Why do I love leather bond so much? That's because I see them as an art. Just look at the cover! Only the beautiful illustrated cover is worth buying. Because I am facing my extremely horrible collage exam, I haven't have time read them. I'll post a review after I finish it. Although I haven’t read it yet, I’m already feeling exciting for those books!!! But the only problem is that the golden gilded keep failing when I touch the book…so every time I opened the book, my hands became golden.

  Let's talk about Barnes & Noble. I only got three international deliveries: Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Barnes and Nobles has a cheaper delivery price and a faster delivery. Last year, I order two books from Amazon, and I need to pay a price for international delivery, and pay an extra for the other book. I know I need to pay extra price for the delivery, but the price is so high! It’s almost as much as the original price of the delivery. (24+20 dollars) Besides the extremely expensive delivery payment, the shipment is by ocean. So it took about a half year for me to get those books. Let along the delay package! Even worst, I only received one book, as the other one…who know where it was! So not wanted to wait another half year, I canceled the order. Let’s my first horrible experience. The second time, I order a compact mirror also one Amazon. (By the way, it’s Cinderella live-action compact mirror~ it’s sooo beautiful!!! I can spend whole night just admire the gorgeous detail in it.) This time, I use another way to purchase the mirror. I ask an office that major in buy on consumers’ behalf. It was really fast. The only thing I had to do was left an America address for Amazon to send to the office, and filled some information of my order + pay for the office. Although it took a bit longer to finish all the step of the requirement, the delivery was fast. It only took about a month to receive the delivery. But still…expensive price. It was only few dollars cheaper than the original delivery price on Amazon. (In fact, I’m willing to pay the expensive money is because the beautiful mirror…otherwise… I’ll rather just purchase things from Taiwan.) So after those experience, I swear that unless necessary, I’ll buy books from Taiwan’s book store, even the price is higher, but the step is much easier. 

  Until recently, I order books from Barnes & Noble, I must say…it’s almost the best experience I ever had! (“Almost”) Why almost? Here are the advantages of Barnes & Noble: a cheaper delivery price, it only add 5 extra dollars to gain a book, it depends on the weight of your book. A fast delivery: the expected delivery date is about a month, however, I received Harry Potter’s film making journey for about two-three week after the order. However, here comes the “almost” part. I received the other books after a longer time. I received the leather bond collection a week after the expected date, and two weeks later I got the Huntress of Thornbeck Forest. TWO WEEKS! I was going to be crazy for the delate. I spend so many time connected with Barnes & Noble to make sure my books. So…that might be the shortage of the faster delivery, but I got the books at the end…so I decide to give four stars for Barnes & Noble’s international delivery. It’ll be a good way if you want to purchase books oversea.

  Another thing to compare the two bookstores is the helping service. I make a mistake at Amazon’s member ship. And in that matter, I need to pay 999 dollars for the payment! I almost faint when I saw the bill! To change that, I canceled the membership and connect the service. The great thing of Amazon is that it’s 24 hours. I can communicate with them anytime I want. And the service was polite, helpful and fast. I hardly have to wait for the service to chat with me, (Oh! The online chat will be a faster choice.) On the other hand, as I mention above, I connect the service of Barnes & Noble to ask for the delay delivery. The service is also good, but not as well as Amazon’s. The online service only open at certain time, so I have to choose the time wisely. And the service…I didn’t feel respected sometime. The service will answer your question, but at the same time, they connect other things, so it take so long just to wait for the questions and answers, let along the waiting before I connect them. Besides, some of the service just can’t get what I need!!! They kept offering me the help I don’t need. (I almost get mad at the help that time, fortunately, only once.) So I’ll say, even Barnes & Noble has a better delivery, Amazon has a better customers service.

  So, this is my birthday book haul and the information about purchasing books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope my experience will help those who want to buy books over sea. Do you have any other experience or bookstore recommendation? Tell me down below! I’ll love to hear all of your point!

Last but not least…Happy Birthday to me!