Woah, that shipping is insane. The book looks awesome, but shipping to the US is much less than shipping to the UK, from what I've gathered from Van's book anyway. At least that's how it's been explained and some googling seems to verify subsidizing of some sort for inbound shipping to the states. Still, if it's packaged good enough to arrive completely undamaged, that in itself is worth it.
So is it that much better than others you've seen? It does look like a very unique layout and composition, in a good way!