I like to open a bookstore website on a daily basis. Even though I don't buy anything, it's always fun to scroll over the pages, see if there's any buyable book, while actually many of them are end up in my wish-list tabs in Goodreads. Through the forums in Goodreads, I get many information about where to get imported books as the imported bookstore here is very limited. If you live in Jakarta there are still quite many options to adopt your favorite imported books such as Periplus, Kinokuniya, Books and Beyond, Aksara, etc. But if you live in Surabaya like me, you will not have any other options for physical bookstore besides Periplus and Books and Beyond.

Therefore, the other option is by buying them online. Online shopping is quite happening these days because we don't have to move around to get what we want anymore. Just search it online, pay it through internet banking, and in some days, it'll be delivered to our doorstep.There are some online bookstore recommendations for those who wants to buy imported books online. It's not my recommendations, though, as I haven't tried some of them. I just compiled it by the reviews and recommendations I read in forums. So here they are:

1. Opentrolley

Opentrolley is a local imported online bookstore which sell quite many variations of books. It based on Singapore, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't tried yet because I still able to find the books I want in either Periplus or BnB. Besides, it's a bit more pricey than Periplus or Books and Beyond. What makes them more pricey is maybe because they offer a cheaper shipping fee. The books are all shipped from Jakarta even though their warehouse is in Singapore. So maybe that's why. You might want to take a look at the website here.

2. Bookdepository

There is also Bookdepository.com which I also haven't tried. It located in UK but they offer a free shipping worldwide with no minimum order (yeay!). So even though you only buy one book, it still won't charge you for shipping fee. However, because it's free, it can't provide you a tracking number for your order so you won't know when will your order come. The estimated time shipping to Indonesia is usually 10-20 working days, but after I read some of the reviews from people who use Bookdepository, it actually varies. Sometimes, the books arrived only two or three weeks after the order, however, there's also some case where the books took three months to arrive. The latest update from this bookstore is that now, it provides Indonesian Rupiah in their currency list so we don't have to convert from USD to IDR anymore. they have a wide range collection of books. you can also check their bargain shop to find a good deal on some books. Go check their new look here!

3. Betterworldbooks



This one's is a little bit different from the two previous bookstore I mentioned. Betterworldbooks is selling new and used books, but the used books are mostly in good condition. If you're lucky, you'll find some old publications in a good condition. they also offer free worldwide shipping like Bookdepository, also without a tracking number. I read some reviews and most of them said that the book they buy from Betterworldbooks is always in a good condition. Some even mentioned that even in the website said it's used acceptable, but what they received is actually a like-new books. Check this one out here.

So, those are the three online bookstore you can try to look for imported books you want. Each of them has their own plus minus but they receive quite many positive reviews from their users so you may want to try it yourself, too. Happy book-hunting!