If English is not your primary language

[SeaBookGuy]

I would like to hear why there seem to be so few modern e-books available, as opposed to English - recent, non-public domain ones?

I understand that many folks, who would have e-readers, usually read English well, but what about books in your own languages that haven't been translated, or lose something, or it's just less work not to read in English?

Thanks!

[Poppaea]

I am not sure I do understand your question. Do you think we don't get books in our languages?

I am to lazy to count but will provide a couple of links for German ebook shops.

libreka with and without DRM

libri with DRM and having a big Mobi section also

ciando with DRM

beam without DRM

[Poppaea]

In France there is fnac

[SeaBookGuy]

Thank you -- I had not thought there was very much in the way of new ebooks. Then again, German seems to offer a lot more audiobooks than other non-English languages, too.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

Thank you -- I had not thought there was very much in the way of new ebooks. Then again, German seems to offer a lot more audiobooks than other non-English languages, too.

This I don't know. I do not listen to audiobooks.

The amount of translated books depends on your countrys culture. The Scandinavians do not get the pictures translated and do speak very good English by this, we, the Italians, the Spanish and the French get everything translated, thus the rate of people with a decent command of the English language is very low.

[EowynCarter]

In france, numilog and ePagine.

For germany, there is txtr too.

[Jovvi]

Well in Sweden the ebook market is now slowly beginning to pick up. We have one company Elib, that is in charge of distributing practically all ebooks, both for sale and also those you can borrow at the library. The major publishers i Sweden have now made the decided to publish all the major new titles as ebooks, the backlist will hopefully follow.

Then again, as have been stated here many scandinavians read english without much problems, however most still prefer reading in our own language. I don´t but then I read mostly english books even before my ebookreading days.

I year ago I was hard pressed to find any swedish ebook I wanted to read, a problem for me when trying to advocate ereading to friends and people at work (I´m a librarian), now however several of the swedish bestsellers ar available as ebooks, even att the library.

Clara

[Sweetpea]

A lot of new books are now available in Dutch, it's only the back-catalog that is severely lacking...

[Belfaborac]

The availability of e-books here in Norway is abysmal, seeing as the publishers have just begun offering such. Personally I couldn't care less, as I never read books in Norwegian anyway. In fact, having been born an Anglophile, I'm not entirely sure if English isn't in fact my first language....

[TheSFReader]

On my blog I gave my answer to that question for France. But I think we are improving a bit.
An additional point not explicited in the post is that now, "old school" publishers try and "control" the rise of ebooks.

[DDHarriman]

Hello

In Portugal the eBook marked is almost inexistent and the few modern examples of modern literature that one can buy in eBook format are in the boundary of useless compared the pBook offerings.

Reason: stupid, mostly useless publishers who continuously see eBooks not as a opportunity but as a danger to their crystallized everyday selling existence.

[kacir]

There are thousands of e-books available in my first and second language. Perhaps a hundred of those are available as a legal purchase and couple of hundred are available legally, as a scan (and quality OCR) of books with expired copyright.

The rest ... I shall not discuss on this forum ;-)

EDIT:
Disclaimer: I read vast majority of books in English. This is why I started with e-books many, many years ago.

[SeaBookGuy]

Thanks, folks!

I guess including a Portuguese dictionary wouldn't be a great resource as there aren't that many ebooks available, although I'd like to have one for e-newspapers!

I wonder whether in France e-reading is looked down on as "American"?

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

In France there is fnac

Darty just started carrying e-readers (an interesting selection, even!) and they offer e-books online, too. Haven't bought anything yet from them, but their prices on new books may be a little better than fnac.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

... I wonder whether in France e-reading is looked down on as "American"?

Not so far as I am aware. I frequently use my reader when I'm out and about, often in cafés, restaurants and airport, without drawing so much as a curious glance. People here use a wide variety of different electronic gadgets, including smart-phones, tablets, netbooks, laptops, etc - much like elsewhere - so a black and white e-ink reader is not exactly a crowd puller!

Addendum
The Feb/Mar issue of Linux Pratique Essential contains reviews of both the Pocketbook 360° and Sony PRS-650. In the latter, it says the reader is recognised by GNU/Linux, as a hard disk, and the Library software supplied is not supported (however, this application is reserved for the American market). Whereas, I thought it could be used in the EU.