Buying Russian language books

Open Forum in English
1

Is there a good, cheap, reliable place online for used Russian language books? Preferrably one that will ship to Brazil for a decent price.

I understand that ebooks and and an e-reader (or even audiobooks) would be much easier and more practical, but I’m oldfashioned, and I love hard copy.

I’m googling for the answer to the above question right now, but I’m not sure which retailers are ok to use or not, so I hoped I might find someone here who could offer some first-hand advice.

PS.: whilst searching, I found this, which to my somewhat twisted humour seems quite funny.
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-1110000080683-2

2

Unfortunately i cannot help you find a good source for Russian language books.
However, I can laugh with you at the advertisement at Powell’s.
Thanks for the reference.

3

http://www.ozon.ru/context/div_book/

4

astrosl, thank you for the suggestion. I’ll look into it, although I don’t see used books in there, and I still don’t have confidence enough on my language skills to deal with an online business 100% in Russian.

5

Elric,

ebay in the U.S. used to be a great source for inexpensive, used Russian books, but now it’s not so great, although there are still some good buys there, I’m sure. As w/ the other U.S. merchants I’ll mention, shipping to Brazil must be considered, as you say, but I do not know the rates. From Russia the tariff depends on weight; I would guess you’ll have to spend at least $15 U.S. (but that’s just a guess).

A convenient page to find links to Russian online bookstores is this: http://www.findbook.ru/ . Some of these are used-book sites–for instance Alib.ru and Buklit.ru. The only ones listed on this page that I’ve dealt w/ are ozon.ru, Чакона, Болеро, and setbook.us (not the .ru listed on the page, but a sister site), and all of those for new books, not used. All were quite satisfactory, and I would re-order from any of them.

I don’t see used books in there [on ozon.ru]

go to книги (on the left of the main page) then to букинистика (part way down the page). Or search for an author or title and look for the description “Букинистическое издание” under the titles found. I have never ordered used books from this site (or from any Russian site, as I said) and do not know how the transactions would be handled–whether ozon ships the merchandise or the actual vendor does, etc. If you ever try ordering used books from ozon.ru, please let me know how things go. ozon.ru is dependable, and has a great selection and website (which used to be even better, IMHO). They also pack their merchandise very well, which cannot be said of some Russian merchants. Their prices are a little higher than most online outlets.

Audiobooks, if you’re interested in them, are no longer shipped from Russia to destinations in the Western Hemisphere, as far as I know, although they used to be. I do not know what the reason for this is, but my guess is that as they are on CD they are classed w/ computer programs and thus not to be exported. Whether you can successfully download audiobooks from Russian commercial sites such as ozon.ru I do not know.

New Russian book prices are still significantly cheaper than those of new U.S. publications, generally. You might look around at some of the Russian bookstores online to comparison shop, if you have not already, and find prices w/in the range you’re interested in. Or try these sites in the U.S., which I have ordered from in the past:

http://www.setbook.us (where I usually shop, although they too have stopped offering most audiobooks)
http://www.ruskniga.com/ (quite dependable)
http://www.kniga.com/ (okay)

Also, here are addresses of merchants that I have found but not ordered from yet:

http://www.bukinist.com/

http://www.russkieknigi.com/ (judging from their prices, some of these books may be used)
http://www.priviet.com/ (audiobooks)
http://www.kniga.ru/

Surely there are lots more good booksellers out there; if you find anything worthwhile, please let me know, especially if it offers audiobooks.

I still don’t have confidence enough on my language skills to deal with an online business 100% in Russian.

The first time or two is rather unsettling, but I bet you’ll have no trouble. Browse around those sites. You’ll probably find they are great aids to building your knowledge of Russian, as they’re so interesting to a book lover, and maybe especially to a science fiction fan.

(Brief, as always :))

6

Ernie, thank you very much for the thorough (as usual) reply. I’ll look into all of these, and I’ll make sure to let you know how it goes.

It seems that shipping from Russia is much cheaper than from the US, though.

7

You’re welcome. Best of success.

I’m no expert on mailing internationally, but just now I looked at U.S. international postal charges, which are not cheap, you´re right. I can´t compare US to Brazil and Russia to Brazil, but I compared Russia to US and vice versa. ozon.ru, for instance, would have charged me about the same (850 rubles for Международная Почта авия, $27+) as for U.S. International First Class ($26+) to Russia for a 1000 gram package. But the two may not be equivalent–I don’t know.

8

I think I saw a price list somewhere quoting much lower. I’ll see if I can retrace my steps to see where it was. I usually pay $9 for one book from the US to Brazil. Let’s hope it’s not much more than that from Russia. Shipping from the UK used to be a lot cheaper than from the US, so I chose to order mostly from there, but prices have gone up a lot recently.

9

elric, When I used to order from Russia, I would pay $10-$15 in shipping for several books, and the cost looks to have gone higher. Surface mail is an option from ozon , but that takes a couple of months. ozon was where I ordered most books; astrosl is right to recommend them, IMHO

A fairly easy way to compare prices including shipping and handling, if you know what you want, is to go through the ordering process at the sites you’re considering ordering from, up to the point where postage is calculated, so that you can see the total cost. Then cancel out of the order you don’t want to make. For used books, however, that probably is not feasible, nor would it be a comfortable thing to approach that close to a purchase in a language you’re not quite confident in yet, I bet. But you probably already know that.

Good luck!

10

I guess I’ll just place an order with ozon for half a dozen books to keep me busy for a long while. That should help me save on shipping, and since you guys have had good experiences with their service, I believe I’m safe.

11

Sounds good. There is an upper limit on package weight.

12

How about buying books from Russia. Not shop but seller. I can sell you some books in good condition and send them by mail. Of course, without prepaid.

13

Elric : Free books
http://lib.ru/

14

Здравствуйте! Я из России. Имею обширную библиотеку. Могу их предложить. Только расходы по доставке берите на себя