Rodo B.

Best place on the Net to browse for hours about music.

A particularly nice feature is the "influenced / influenced by" and "similar acts" that allows you to, as it were, "ripple outwards" from a single source to discover other artistes in the genre, some of which may be new to you. (It's almost as much fun to disagree whether the acts mentioned really *are* that similar.)

Weak in some areas, coverage-wise - world music, for example, has better sites to explore. But for an all-round music overview with some nifty features, and great "starter portraits" of thousands of bands, it's hard to beat.

Really, really vast selection of books. Some at eye-poppingly low prices.

Now, just be aware that these are, in many cases, ex-library books (not a fact they seek to conceal, it's stated clearly there on the site somewhere.) So be prepared for stickers / stamps / card pockets / chips / dings / dog-ears / minor tears / blemishes / yellowing, etc. but in many cases, the condition of the book inside is perfect. Bear in mind these are priced well below market value, so it's well worth it.

A massive plus is free shipping worldwide - that in itself makes the purchase worthwhile to me. I've often paid more in shipping from Amazon than the price of the book itself!

Two tiny things - no online tracking for shipments, in many cases (though everything I've ordered has arrived promptly, and without problems). Also, clicking on a book often yields a "darn, we just sold that"-type message. Maybe the stock turnover is actually high, so they can't update in real time.

Big plus - your purchases do a bit of good for world literacy!