AwesomeBooks.com | My experience ordering for 3+ years and big book haul

Several months ago I wrote a blog post declaring I will no longer be posting book hauls on this blog. Today I’m making an exception as I want to share my experience with awesomebooks.com as I haven’t hear many people talk about it. I’ve been buying books there for over 3 years so I have a lot to say.

This post will be structure as follows:

1. About awesomebooks.com
2. My experience with awesomebooks.com
3. Book haul

So, let’s get started.

About AwesomeBooks

The below info is pulled from the About section on https://awesomebooks.com/

AwesomeBooks was born from a love for books: to not see books thrown away when they can still be read and their stories shared.

In 2003 co-founders Mubin and Taskeen found charity shops throwing away books they could not sell. Bin after bin was getting filled with books in perfectly good condition. Books represented empowerment and education, full of wonderful stories fuelling the imagination. Bookworms themselves, the 2 co-founders set about finding a solution.

After trying various ideas, AwesomeBooks started selling books online. This model proved successful, allowing more and more books to be diverted from landfill. Today, we are a global retailer, processing over 250,000 books every day, with nothing going to waste. Books are either re-sold, donated via our literacy programs or pulped and turned into something new.

On top of that, they donate a book for every book they sell!

My experience with awesomebooks.com

Few online bookstores deliver to Macedonia at a reasonable rate. Amazon’s shipping sometimes equals the price of the book and I’ve found that BookDepository’s prices have been consistently going up. Therefore, I’ve found awesomebooks.com to be a great alternative.

A few months ago they revamped the website and it’s now much easier to browse even from a mobile, the old one lacked such optimization.The only glitch I could spot is with the wishlist area seeing as books that I’d deleted from there months ago suddenly reappeared but it’s not such a big deal. It’s also a tad annoying how it redirects to page 1 after you delete a book on any other page but that seems to be the case on most websites.

AwesomeBooks.com not only ships to my country but the rate is acceptable and starts at £2.99 (I’ve never paid more than that actually). When I first ordered, I ordered a couple of books with a friend so as to share the shipping cost and check the books out. After receiving said order without any hiccups with the post office and seeing all books came in good condition, I progressively started ordering more and more.

Currently, I place an order almost every month. There was only one complaint so far and their support team quickly resolved it for me and issued a refund. Tracking the order is not something you’ll be able to do though as they use economy shipping options, but I’ve found the estimated delivery date to be correct in 8 out of 10 orders. I receive the package in anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks so far so that’d be something to keep in mind before placing an order.

I now mostly order new books there as well if they have the edition I’m after in stock. I order my used and new books in one go, so I can make the most out of the delivery fee. They tend to arrive on the same day, with the new books packed separately, each in their own little cardboard box. The used books come packed together in one big box and that put in a giant blue British Royal Mail sack.

Video of said bag and the books in my most recent order below:

I cannot describe how happy I am every time I receive one of this bags. My mailman even smiles saying I’ve received mail from the Queen again.

Now, let’s break down the books featured in the video, a mix of used and new books.

Book haul

From left to right:

Row 1 – The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, Confessions by Jaume Cabré (new), Master of Sorrows by Justin Call (new), Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (new)

Row 2 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night by Jen Campbell (new), Desire by Haruki Murakami, Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Row 3 – The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, After the Quake by Haruki Murakami, Frostheart by Jamie Littler, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherine M. Valente

The used books occasionally have yellowed pages, broken spines and smell of cigarette smoke but I’ve learnt not to mind that. Ultimately, is the affordability I care about the most and they certainly deliver there.

Excluding the new books, how much do you think this lot of books cost? Would you believe me if I say EUR30

Do you have any other sites that sell books to recommend? Do you like this type of dedicated post where I talk about the website and the books as opposed to just the books? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy reading!