A coupel of times in the last two years I have advised people to buy their
ornithological books from the NHBS in the UK, as their prices seemed to be
more reasonabel than those charged in Australia even including postage. (And
for non-ornitholigcal books I was recommending some of the US bookstores on
the Net, such as Amazon and Wordsworth).
HOWEVER, now that the exchange rate of the $Aus has slipped against both the
$US and the pound sterling, it seems that this situation has reversed, and
it is cheaper to buy books in the Australia FOR THE MOMENT, as many
bookstores have stock which they bought when the exchnage rate was better.
Example: I was thinkign of buying the Wallacea field-guide; NHBS was selling
it for about 35 pounds, which would translate as over 100 dollars with
postage. Andrew Isles has the book for $65 ($72 with postage).
As the $Aus is very unlikely to recover in the short or medium term against
either currency, and as stocks of books at lower prices will run out here
soon I think that if anyone was thinking of buyign an expensive
ornithological work they had better do it now. (NB I am not receiving a
commission from any Australian bookseller for this posting, worse luck).
Of course if anyone has any better analysis I will defer to them, but this
is what I deduce from browsing the Net, bookshops and the financial pages.
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John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606
'Nature always withdraws her gifts sooner or
later.' Fernand Braudel
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
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