Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
Here is one magic word: public library. There is plenty to read. For free. Everything else is entitlement.
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A list of the benefits of public libraries in my country:
- no Overdrive/Libby/other-service-like-this integration of absolutely any kind;
- no borrowing of ebooks in general, ebook lending capabilities simply don't
exist in our public library system;
- the only exception is a private, paid ebook lending service that launched only
last year... and which has only local-language literary fiction. No English, no genre fiction for the foreseeable future;
- almost no English-language books available to borrow from libraries even in physical form (English-language genre-fiction, particularly new genre-fiction, is impossible to find). When I requested several titles, I was outright told that the fees charged by Western publishers aren't worth it just for one or two readers.
Incidentally, the "not worth it due to just one or two readers" is why the selection of English-language physical books in our bookshops is also tiny and heavily favoring blockbuster single titles, that will at least give some return on the cost in importing them.
The result is readers like me, who rent (KU, Kobo's service etc) and buy ebooks only from foreign sites (and even then, almost always only on sale), never bother with libraries... and rampant piracy rates in the region (which is just as much a purchasing-power induced issue, as it is one caused by lack of cost-free official availability).