I think Amazon is great, especially when I can't get most of technical books over here in Malaysia. Shipping charges are reasonable for the distance it had to cover, although it typically takes a month to arrive here. And books & periodicals does not suffer from import tax over here. The extra cost mentioned are mostly due to shipping+handling+tax and not Amazon. If you can get the books in your local bookstore, it does'nt make sense to order on-line, and incur the extra cost. Just my 2 cents, Peter ======================================================