The Book Depository is an online retailer that actually feels like it has a personality. That's probably because it has. Whereas most other sites are pretty much all automated, The Book Depository has a dedicated editor who adds mountains of extra content to the site - blog, interviews, reviews and features.
The man in question, Mark Thwaite, is from a very well respected blogging background - www.readysteadybook.com - and what we love about his approach is that the books he champions aren't necessarily those most recently published, or the ones with the biggest marketing spend behind them, but are instead books that have truly captured his imagination. It's the equivalent of a bookseller giving you his passion speech in a shop. And it works.
Newly relaunched, The Book Depository is smarter and sleeker than before but has lost none of its character. Prices do seem to have sneaked up though - and not all the punters are happy about it, as you can see in the comments. Still, it remains cheaper than Amazon, and Amazon is cheaper than a hell of a lot of other places, so things could be worse in our opinion.
Finally it makes us pretty chuffed to see that the screenshot illustrating the new look site in the 'news' section just happens to show a Canongate book being bought - recently reissued Welsh Classic One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard. And, remember, the site refuses to bow to marketing spend - this is rock solid genuine. Happy days...
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