If your question does not appear, or if you need more information, please contact us.
It depends on the day and time that you placed your order. Orders placed on a weekday before 12 noon (UK time) will be dispatched on the same day, whereas those placed after noon on a Friday won’t be dispatched until the following Monday.
It also depends on the destination country: UK orders go by letter post, adding a further 1-4 working days depending on whether you opt for First Class. Orders to non-UK countries go by Air Mail, which generally adds 5-18 working days. Overall, most orders arrive within 7-14 days, but please allow 21 days outside UK (10 days within UK) before assuming that something has gone wrong.
If timing is critical, please email and we will always try to solve your problem. Many of our books also have ebook options.
Buying from us direct has the following advantages:
Of course it is up to you where you take your custom. You might also consider supporting your local bookshop. Phone them to ask how long it would take to procure a copy for you. Many receive orders daily from our distributors Booksource and if bookshops aren’t supported, more of them may have to close. Or consider bookshop.org as a convenient way of supporting local bookshops.
If you buy from the obvious online source you may get faster delivery, at the price of supporting a system in which publishers are forced to accept deep discounts (typically 55-60%) because of Amazon’s monopoly position. You are also contributing to the environmental damage caused by hundreds of excess miles per book and their practice of frequently returning books to us, only to reorder the same book days later.
You’ll always be the first to know about discounts, which routes have updates and which titles are forthcoming. We never send out a newsletter unless we have something to say (usually 3 things!) and you can unsubscribe at any time. Expect about 5 or 6 issues a year. Click “View the latest issue” in the blue band at the foot of our Home page for a sample.
Sign up for our newsletter, send us an email or download our leaflet from our Home page. We are always pleased to hear from readers with ideas for future titles, ideally by email.
Simply Add to basket and then checkout online as normal, but enter the friend’s name and address on the Rucksack Readers order form (tick UK box if delivery is to UK). The email address must be your own. After confirming, you will reach a payment screen: enter your own name and billing address for verification there.
If you want a greetings message included, email us before ordering if possible. There is a special category “Christmas delivery/greetings” for emails on our Contact page. (If you ordered before reading this, email or phone right away and if we haven’t posted the goods we will do our best.)
You can pay using cash: we accept euros, US dollars and pounds sterling. Most countries have a signed-for Air Mail service that makes posting cash secure. Alternatively, in most parts of the world you can buy through your local bookshop just by telling them which distributor is active in your part of the world, e.g. Craenen BVBA of Herent for Europe. Check our Links page for distributor details.
Contact us with the requested title, preferably by email, giving your full details and the name of the publication or website in which your review is scheduled or expected to appear. We will send you a book in the expectation that you will respond with a link to the review.
Several of our treks, and all of our Seven Summits series, involve high altitude, so we need to offer the best possible advice on preventing and managing altitude sickness. Xtreme Everest was the first large-scale, systematic study of how healthy people react to altitude gain, and promises to refresh and deepen our understanding of this important topic. Also, we thought it would be fun!