This page is intended to be a brief guide to obtaining aviation books from Internet bookshops. These days, both new and second-hand books can be purchased through reliable on-line bookshops in many countries of the world.
Ordering over the Internet is easy and safe. The best of these sites provide a massive range of books – including those hard-to-get titles – plus discount prices, secure ordering by credit card, e-mail confirmation of your order and e-mail notification of goods dispatch. Delivery can be within 3 working days for non-international orders, although a variety of delivery options are available.
If you have any comments on using on-line bookstores, any good or bad experiences, or stores that you’d like to see listed, please let me know.
For convenience, the bookshops have been grouped by country. US and UK sites generally only stock English language titles, so if you’re looking for a title in another language, try one for the relevant country, as listed below:
- Non-Specific
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Singapore
- Spain
- Sweden
- UK
- USA
- Other Countries
Non-Specific
Bokus
Chain of on-line bookshops for Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark in the local language. Fast search facilty.
AddALL
Search engine to find used and out-of-print books.
Abe Books
The world’s largest online marketplace for used, rare, and out-of-print books. Abebooks connects those who buy books with those who sell them, providing abundant selection at affordable prices.
AntiQbook
Database to search 400 independent booksellers around the world.
Book Baron.com
Huge US-based on-line secondhand bookshop.
Used Book Central
On-line search for secondhand books.
Australia
None known.
Brazil
BookTrade
Calls itself ‘The Brazilian Internet Bookstore’, but newly established and hardly anything in the stocklist at the moment. Provides the usual on-line bookstore features such as a search facility and secure ordering.
BookMart
On-line bookstore with 100,000 titles in stock. Very few aviation titles. Search facility, secure ordering.
BookNet
On-line bookstore with some aviation titles. Search facility and on-line ordering.
Ex Libris
On-line bookstore selling books and CDs. Very few aviation titles.
Canada
Advanced Book Exchange
Claims to be the world’s largest source of out of print books and periodicals – 13 million titles listed. Good search engine. Search results give you detailed information on the item being offered for sale, with a link to the actual bookseller. Lots of aviation titles available. Obviously, the database consists of mostly US and Canadian publications.
Chapters – Canada’s Bestselling Books
Canada’s leading bookseller, with 2+ million titles, including those hard to find Canadian titles. ‘Amazon’ style on-line bookshop for Canada. Sells books, music, Videos, DVDs, software etc. Advanced search facility.
Spitfire Emporium
Aviation books, videos and aviation art for sale. Includes a good selection of Canadian aviation specific titles.
Stillman Books
Vancouver, British Columbia based bookseller. Includes a good range of aviation and military titles. Online catalogues available.
Denmark
Bogreolen.com
On-line bookstore.
Bookshop.dk
On-line bookstore for English language books only.
The Google Bookstore
Danish outlet for the UK’s The Internet Bookshop.
Skrold
Danish secondhand bookstore. Flyvning in the transport category yields several aviation books.
Finland
Aviation Shop
Is only specialized aviation shop in Finland.
France
BOL, La Librairie sur Internet
Another ‘Amazon’ style on-line bookstore, but this time no English text option, (although you can order French books from the UK version of BOL). Discount prices on all stock. The search engine doesn’t give as many aviation titles as ‘Alapage’ does, for the same keywords.
L’Ex-Libris
French used books. Aviation used books.
Librairie Alapage bookstore
An ‘Amazon’ style on-line store for books, periodicals and music CD’s. Nearly 600,000 items in stock. English text options for the navigation menus. Flexible search engine. Price discounts on all stock.
Germany
Amazon De
The German branch of the giant US bookseller Amazon. Originally created by the take-over of a local German on-line bookseller. Sells US and German titles. Flexible search facility.
BOL Deutschland
Same facilities as the other BOL sites. Flexible search facility, discount prices.
Bookexpress
On-line store for 1 million books, CD-ROMs and videos. Flexible search facility, on-line ordering.
Elementbuch.de
Includes on-line aviation bookshop for German titles.
Italy
Internet Bookshop Italy
The Italian version of the UK’s The Internet Bookshop. Fast search engine. On-line ordering with useful currency conversion of prices.
Bancarella Aeronautica
Italian bookshop for pilots and aviation enthusiasts.
Netherlands
BOL Netherlands
Same facilities as the other BOL sites. Flexible search facility, discount prices.
Flash Aviation
Aviation supplies shop – books, models, maps, flight simulations etc. English and Dutch text. Includes second hand items. Stock is listed from the ‘articles’ button, but only the titles and prices are shown – no further details are given.
Luchtvaart Hobby Shop
Describes itself as ‘Europe’s Aviation Megastore’. Supplies books, videos, models, flight sims etc. English text option available.
www.boeken.nl
Dutch text only website. Stocks include 2.6 million Dutch, French and English books with discount prices. Fast search facility.
New Zealand
Flight Manuals on CD
Interesting selection of official military and civil aircraft pilot’s manuals available on CD-ROM. Covers a wide range of aircraft types. On-line ordering.
Norway
Automobilia
Hobby bookshop covering cars, airplanes, marine, railways, militaria. English text option. On-line ordering but minimal information on each title.
Bokkilden.no
On-line bookshop with 1.5 million titles in English and Norwegian. Flexible search facility.
Singapore
No info yet.
Spain
Crisol.es
On-line bookstore selling books, videos and CD-ROMs. Some aviation titles.
elBuscon.com
On-line bookstore. Some aviation titles.
L’Aeroteca
On-line aeronautics bookstore. Site still under construction. No on-line search or ordering yet.
Garmar Libreria Internacional
Defence, military and aeronautics bookstore established in 1981. Also sells videos and CD-ROMs on these subjects. Very slow scrolling pages.
LosLibros.com
On-line bookstore with 150,000 Spanish language titles. Search facility and price currency converter.
Casa del Libro
On-line Spanish bookstore, much like the original Amazon.com.
Buscar Libros
Spanish Language Book Search. International search engine for Spanish language books of all types: new, used, rare, antique, specialized, out of print, first edition and text books.
Sweden
Adlibris
On-line bookshop with the usual search facility and on-line ordering. Discount prices. Not as many aviation titles as Internetbokhandeln.
Hobbybokhandeln
Website for military, aviation and nautical bookstore. No on-line ordering. Doesn’t appear to have any search facility.
Internetbokhandeln
Typical on-line bookshop with search facility and secure ordering.
Bokus
Swedish branch of the Bokus chain of bookshops.
Just Us AB
New and secondhand aviation books as well as plastic kits and Swedish DVDs. Stocklists available in PDF format. Founded 1998.
MarGie Bookshop
Swedish hobby bookshop with a good list of Swedish aviation titles.
UK
Aero Book Co.
New and second-hand aviation books. The best and most comprehensive remainder deals on aircraft books in the market.
Airlife Books
Airlife is the largest specialist aviation book publisher in the world and has a vast range of books on all aviation subjects.
Alphabet Street
Consumer orientated on-line store selling books, music, DVDs and games. Flexible search facility. Very slow loading. Not recommmended.
Amazon UK
The UK branch of the American giant on-line bookstore, resulting from the take-over of the UK startup company ‘Bookpages’. The same discounted prices and easy ordering, but much smaller stocklist. Relatively few titles published before 1997 feature in its database, although all recent titles are included, as are many US editions. Claims to stock all UK titles currently in print. Recommended for newly published titles.
Aviation Retail Direct
Aviation books, models, magazines, videos etc. Titles for the spotter and enthusiast.
BOL – Books On-Line
Another Amazon-style newcomer, launched on 3rd March 1999. Claims a global selection of over 4 million titles – including languages other than English. All titles are at discount prices. Flexible search facility.
Bookshelf
New and second-hand aviation books.
BookZone
Consumer orientated bookstore selling books, music, videos and software. Very poor for aviation titles. Not recommended.
Books International
The website is an on-line catalogue of aviation books. Not a general stock listing though because you have to select a broad category and then a sub-category to get a listing of relevant titles. A search facility is provided but you cannot browse the catalogue. Good for publications from Eastern Europe.
Dunholme
Second-hand aviation books.
East Anglia Books
Aviation and military books for the historian, collector and enthusiast. New and second-hand books and ephemera with an emphasis on those related to the history of the USAAF in England. Holds the largest selection of American WW2 unit histories in Europe, plus RAF unit histories, individual aircraft stories, personal stories, airfields, nose art etc. Many unusual and rare items.
Glyn’s Booksearch
Specialist second-hand book finding service. Claims to be quick and modestly priced. Will obtain and dispatch any book worldwide.
Helion & Company
Military, maritime and aviation booksellers, with a very large range of Luftwaffe and German language books. Over 15,000 in-print titles in stock. Free booksearch service for out-of-print titles, including location of rare and foreign language material.
Ian Allan Publishing
Website for the well-known publisher of aviation/military/transport books and magazines. Also includes new product information and special offers.
Midland Counties Publications
A well respected publisher and retailer of aviation, military and transport books. Large stock of international titles. Around 15,000 transport and military books, videos and DVDs are available on the website.
Military Parade Bookshop
Second-hand bookshop entirely devoted to military history – it’s stock is one of the largest in the UK. No on-line search facility. Stock listings are grouped by campaign or subject – not all of these are on-line yet.
Motorbooks
Specialist supplier of aviation, military, naval, motoring and railway books. Over 30,000 books and videos in stock. Search facility. Secure on-line shopping.
Patterson Liddle
Second-hand and antiquarian books and ephemera. Includes on-line listing of specialist aviation catalogue. Many unusual and rare items.
Skymaster Aviation Bookshop
Seller of books and videos at discounted prices. Each catalogue is one long webpage, so it takes a while to load. More details on any item can be obtained by clicking on the title. There is no on-line search, but they will answer queries.
Soldridge Books
Rare and second-hand aviation books.
The Aviation Bookshop
As it’s name suggests, The Aviation Bookshop deals with only one subject. Based in London, the store has been supplying new and secondhand books to enthusiasts and professionals worldwide for nearly 50 years. Personal visitors will come away with a vivid impression of the shop stacked floor to ceiling with aviation books and magazines. The website gives details of the latest releases and will shortly feature a full catalogue search facility.
The Internet Bookshop
Claims to be Europe’s largest on-line bookstore, with over 1.4 million UK & US titles. Discount prices and flexible search engine. Also features e-mail notification of new titles that may be of interest.
Waterstones
The respected high street bookstore. Over 1.2 million titles in stock. Flexible search facility.
W. H. Smith
Website for the well-known high-street newsagent and bookstore. Also sells magazines, music, games etc. Moderately discounted prices on all items. Very fast loading site with good search facility.
USA
Aeroplane Books
Specialist aviation bookshop with over 9,000 new and out of print book titles available. The out of print titles make up some 65% of the stock.
AllDirect.com
On-line consumer orientated store with 500,000 book and music titles at discount prices. Includes some US aviation titles.
Amazon
Launched in July 1995, Amazon.com now claims to be the Earth’s biggest on-line bookstore, with 4.7 million items in stock. Offers ‘Delivers’, an e-mail subscription service for notifying readers about new releases and other items of interest. Features discount prices on all titles, and a fast flexible search engine. It does include many British titles, but only those from the major UK publishers.
Amazon Espanol
Spanish language front-end for Amazon.com website.
Armybook.com
“At Armybook.com you’ll find a rich choice of books/magazines and many new scale models. Now we can
offer you an ample quantity of military, motor-car and other literature of popular interest. All our goods are at very competitive prices.”
Association of American University Presses
This site combines the catalogs of university presses throughout the United States, which often publish books on American aviation topics – especially regional and unit histories.
Aviation Heritage
Offers aviation books, scale drawings and CD-roms for aviation researchers and modellers. Good reference information, but confined almost entirely to US subjects.
Barnes and Noble
Website for the well-known US high-street bookstore. Also sells magazines, music, software and bargain books. Discount prices on a huge stock of items. Includes search facility and many out-of-print titles.
Bibliofind
Now owned by Amazon.com. Constantly updated database of nearly 9 million used and rare books and periodicals. Fast search engine. Lots of aviation titles.
Books.com
On-line bookstore. Discount prices. Very good search facility. Will locate out of print titles for you.
Book Search
Not an on-line store but a rare and out-of-print book finding service. Fill in the book details in the on-line form and they’ll e-mail you when it’s been found.
Borders.com
On-line bookstore with 10 million books, CDs and videos available at discount prices. Flexible search facility.
Byrd Aviation Books
Very useful aviation bookshop which specialises in pioneer & WWI aviation books. They also have a large stock of back
issues of US & UK aviation magazines which can be viewed on the website.
Jets Press
Jets Press publishes aviation books written by fighter aircraft mechanics the people and hardware surrounding fighter aircraft.
Linden Hill Imports
Importer of Russian/CIS aviation books, kits and accessories. Website features products for sale, model photos & articles.
Powell’s Books
Claims to be the largest new & used bookstore in the world. On-line bookstore with the usual search and ordering facilites.
Speciality Press
Online bookstore from the publisher of aviation enthusiast titles.
Your Books.com
On-line database for trading new & used books. Search for a title, or enter details of the book you are offering and your e-mail address.
Edward R Hamilton
Bargain books list.
Other Countries
Avia Books
Online shopfront for Russian aviation researcher and writer. Several books on (very) early aviation in Sweden and aviation in Russia.
Media Books
Portuguese on-line bookstore. Very few aviation titles. Search facility.
Espanol.com
On-line bookstore selling Spanish language books and music. Located in South America. Search facility, and secure on-line ordering.
Interlibros.com.mx
On-line bookstore located in Mexico. Search facility. Only a few aviation titles.
Lalibreria.com
Claims to be the biggest on-line bookstore in Latin America. Fast page loading. Search facility. Very good for aviation titles.
Los Bestsellers.com
On-line bookstore for Spanish language titles. Located in South America. Fast search engine. Some aviation titles.
i prefer it Aeroflight » Aviation Book Sellers now im your rss reader
I tried to access Aero Book Co (mentioned above) and was told the domain has expired.