Books & Beyond Online Bookstore Review

screen captured & edited by me

Books & Beyond Online Bookstore

Books & Beyond - Toko Buku Online Termurah, Buku Import, Buku Lokal, Mainan, Alat Kantor

A few weeks ago on the last week of December 2014 I found out that I was one of the winners of the Holly Jolly Christmas Giveaway held by Kak Stefanie @ Bookie-Looker and the prize that I got was a Books & Beyond e-voucher for Rp 100,000 so I was really excited because I have never bought anything from Books & Beyond, this was my first time so I decided to make a review about my experience in buying a book from this website:) Here it goes!

*this review contain a lot of images, so please be patient when it loads:)

Firstly, a little funny story. When Kak Stefanie ordered the e-voucher from Books & Beyond and had it sent to me. I had a little technical problem because she received confirmation from Books & Beyond's customer care that it was already sent to my email on December 31, 2014 but at that time I hadn't received yet and up until January 7, 2014 I still haven't received it. During that couple of days Kak Stefanie and I corresponded through Twitter on solving this problem (kayak detektif aja XD) and finally I asked through kak Stefanie to ask Books & Beyond to re-send the e-voucher and VOILA! it arrived in my email on January 8, 2014 and both of us were relieved!!

Okay let's move on to the actual review. When I first opened the website, we are faced with the combination of black & white, which is a good look for the website because it doesn't use eye catching colors that make your eyes hurt. Books & Beyond doesn't just sell books. Other than books it also sells toys & games, electronics & computers, musics & movies, and bags. Also Books & Beyond doesn't just sell imported books it also sells local books. The loading time of this website is fast, which is a good thing for me since I can browse the website as long as I want and not have to wait a long time for the page to load.

fiction section of Books & Beyond

Thoughts about the website:
So after looking at the homepage I immediately went to the books section (the imported books one) and immediately chose fiction. Other than fiction there are many other categories in the imported books section such as Asian, Children, Illustrated, Non-fiction, Religion, and Textbook. But of course I'm looking for a fiction book because it's my favorite genre. There are roughly 54 pages in the fiction section and I checked them all before deciding on what book to buy.

After scrolling through the fiction section and checking all the books. I was really intrigued on how cheap the prices are especially for classic books and it almost made me want to buy those classic books since I don't own many classic books. But then I reeled myself in and didn't, After checking the fiction section I checked the Special Prices section, which is basically a bargain section and the choices there were very limited for fiction books especially young adult books but I must say that they have an abundant choice of non-fiction books in that section so I also didn't buy anything from the Special Price section.

I then came back to the fiction section and had to choose between Burn for Burn by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian and Night Film by Marisha Pessl. I also wanted a non-fiction book, Yes Please by Amy Poehlr because she's hilarious! She's one of my favorite comedians. But then I made my decision and finally chose to buy Night Film by Marisha Pessl.

Night Film by Marisha Pessl [Goodreads]

Thoughts about ordering:

I ordered the book on January 9, 2015. Once I clicked the "Add to Cart" button and then continued on my process of completing the transaction. I only had to pay Rp 32,500 for that book because I had the e-voucher:) actually the shipping costs more than the book itself. The book was Rp 12,500 and the shipping was Rp 20,000 just one of the disadvantage when your hometown is a small town lol.

I also completed the payment by bank transfer from my mother's bank account (since I have like zero balance in my ATM muahaha) on the same day and after minutes of transferring the money I immediately received a confirmation of the transfer from Books & Beyond it was super fast, I liked it! But since it said that I should confirm my transfer so I confirmed it anyway just in case through an email like what Books & Beyond suggested.

the instruction given by Books & Beyond

Thoughts about the package:

The book package arrived this afternoon on January 14, 2015 and I must say it didn't took a long time at all. It arrived at exactly three days after it was shipped, which was January 12, 2015. So I was glad that it didn't took a long time for me to wait for the book to arrive.

As you can see the packaging is quite simple. It was using only brown wrapping paper to cover the book but when you open the package and look on the inside the book was covered in bubble wrap to keep from being damaged during shipping process maybe if the brown wrapping paper was damaged the book wouldn't be damaged also.

And here is the book!! AHHH it is so big and so beautiful!! It arrived in perfect condition:) I am so excited to read this soon because the blurb on the front cover said that this book is in the same league as Gone Girl and I LOVE Gone Girl both the book and the movie. So, hopefully I'll be able to read it soon.

Thoughts about the overall experience:

I definitely would want to buy books again from Books & Beyond because it always has a discount on all of its books and I like discounts (who doesn't?) also this store has a free shipping for book transaction above Rp 100,000 in Jakarta area and I might do that someday so I don't have to pay for shipping since some other stores give free shipping for higher amount of transaction.

But I think that Books & Beyond should add more young adult fiction novels in its Special Price section. I guarantee that if it does that people will come crawling and buy a lot of books from that section (at least I will HEHE).

Hopefully y'all enjoy this review of Books & Beyond Online Bookstore and feel free to comment down below because any comment is appreciated here:)

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