However, Mark, I am in Canada, and I ordered the book on the 9th, paid for expedited international shipping (6-8 days), and received in 4 business days. I also ordered The World Without Usa few days previously and received it in 8 days.
My problem was that amazon offered 6-8 days shipping for an in stock item and then said that it would ship in two weeks and take a further two weeks to arrive. All of their information was incorrect.
I do take your point about international availability of items ... however, as a former retail store owner, who was partly driven out of business by internet competition, I heartily support the notion that everything on the planet should not be available to anyone with a computer and a credit card at retail cost price. This for two reasons - it is unhealthy for any local economy when all the retail money is sent elsewhere, especially to another country altogether, and the notion of selling goods for less than it costs any bricks and mortar store is not viable in the long term. (unless you wish to reduce all local retail to large corps like Walmars)
That being said, I chose to purchase the book online because it was not apparently published in Canada, according to amazon.ca. My local Chapters store offered to order the book for me for 4$ more than the list price.
This thread has now strayed entirely from anything photographic and I will let it sink into oblivion at this point. Thanks for all the replies.
Tam, who is really katemann