Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
I know all that, but if reading a book costs you €25, it's a bit of a luxury if you read one or two a week.
|
That's exactly why I started to read in english.
I live in a small country with few reading habits, people prefer to buy magazines than books and since the market is small the book prices are high. I have not read a translated book in 10 years, about the same time I have not read a paper book, I remember that the last paper book I bought cost me 20 €. I read between 2 to 4 books a week so it was too expensive. I was a member of my local library since I started primary school, and every week I went to the library, but there came a time that I had read most of the books that interested me. Lucky for me that’s when ebooks started to appear and the ereaders come along.
With the 20 € that a book costs I can buy at least 4 english ebooks, more if I use coupons or promotions, which I’m always looking for. I have used the subscription services (KU and scribd) and find it is worth it for me.
There is a market for used books here, and I’ve been selling my paper books online, a used paper book sells between 4 to 7 € wich is the same as an original ebook. Last year I sold about 80 € in paper books which I used to pay ebooks.
I think that even if the book translation prices would drop to the same price as the original ones I still would not go back to read them. I found it odd now to read translations and more so because not always the translation is faithful to the original, when you compare the original book with the translation sometimes there are quite a few differences that makes you wonder what else have they changed in the books you’ve read.