FREE/BARGAIN — Non-Fiction

[GtrsRGr8]

The Leuwen University Press, in the Netherlands, is offering a big bunch of non-fiction ebooks for free.

All of the ebooks are published in Dutch; however, the great majority of those are translated also into English.

Books published by university presses tend to be very technical and/or, and not surprisingly, academic. These books from Leuven University Press are much more readable for the average person, than the usual fare from university presses.

The URL that I give below returns 148 ebooks. That URL shows the ebooks that are in English. Some of the ebooks there, however, are not in English--I am assuming that those are ebooks for which no English edition is available. If all of the ebooks have Dutch titles (and you want ebooks in English), make sure that "English," and not "Nederlands," is selected at the extreme top righthand corner of the webpage.

It seems to me that mentioning that an ebook is an "open access" title is a kiss of death to some folks. However, I'll take my chances and remark that all of these ebooks are published under the open access model.

https://lup.be/collections/ro_free_ebooks.

[bartveld]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

The Leuwen University Press, in the Netherlands, is offering a big bunch of non-fiction ebooks for free.

Just to make sure no one is offended: Leuven is in Belgium.
Thanks for your hard work, GtrsRGr8!

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by bartveld

Just to make sure no one is offended: Leuven is in Belgium.
Thanks for your hard work, GtrsRGr8!

I don't want to offend anyone, either. Thank you, very much, for the correction!

My faux pas was an assumption, based upon the fact that the books were available in English and/or Dutch, and that the language of the non-English books just "looked Dutch." My knowledge of the Lowlands (I think that they are called) is weak, but somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember, now, that one of the languages widely spoken in Belgium is, indeed, Dutch (Flemish).

Curious, I did a quick check on the Internet, and found that German, French, Luxembourgish, and other languages are also spoken in Belgium; Dutch, German, and French are official languages. And, my error, indeed, could have been offensive to someone--according to one (seemingly reliable) website that I checked, Belgians can be offended if someone speaks to them in one of the languages other than their own.

Does anyone know where else that Dutch (Flemish) might be an official language, or at least widely spoken? Knowing the answer might help me or someone else keep from making the same mistake in a post.

I've learned a lot from being on MobileRead, and not all of them have to do with ebooks.

BTW--I forgot to mention something in my initial post. People can find Open Access ebooks in subjects, that they're interested in, by using search engines dedicated to Open Access books. Oapen is the best known, if not the best, such search engine. So why post a relatively very, very small collection of Open Access ebooks, as I did in my initial post (and occasionally do in other instances, too)? Two reasons: 1) I am not sure that foreign (to the U.S.) books are searched using search engines that are available to us, and 2) some people like to just browse collections--yours truly being one of them.

[bartveld]

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

Does anyone know where else that Dutch (Flemish) might be an official language, or at least widely spoken? Knowing the answer might help me or someone else keep from making the same mistake in a post.

Actually, Dutch is the official language of Surinam (being a former colony of the Netherlands). I was rather surprised by that; usually former colonies can't wait to shed the language of their colonizers (Indonesia being a case in point). For the rest there is Afrikaans, which still is spoken by some South-Africans, but I don't think it's in any way an official language. Afrikaans is rather far removed from Dutch or Flemish. I think most people from Holland or Belgium wouldn't be able to understand it easily.
For the rest, the Dutch and Flemish can understand each other very well, although there may be differences in words. While the Dutch tend to simply adopt English words for new-fangled things, the Flemish get more creative and sometimes make beautiful and funny translations.

[alee]

Originally Posted by bartveld

Actually, Dutch is the official language of Surinam (being a former colony of the Netherlands). I was rather surprised by that; usually former colonies can't wait to shed the language of their colonizers (Indonesia being a case in point). For the rest there is Afrikaans, which still is spoken by some South-Africans, but I don't think it's in any way an official language. Afrikaans is rather far removed from Dutch or Flemish. I think most people from Holland or Belgium wouldn't be able to understand it easily.
For the rest, the Dutch and Flemish can understand each other very well, although there may be differences in words. While the Dutch tend to simply adopt English words for new-fangled things, the Flemish get more creative and sometimes make beautiful and funny translations.

According to Wikipedia, Afrikaans is one of 11(!) official languages in South Africa. I think that in a lot of former colonies, the colonial power's language ends up being more widely spoken than any one of the often many native languages, so it often ends up as the official language, or at least an official language. That seems to be the case in many former British and French colonies.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bartveld

Actually, Dutch is the official language of Surinam (being a former colony of the Netherlands). I was rather surprised by that; usually former colonies can't wait to shed the language of their colonizers (Indonesia being a case in point).

I can't off-hand think of any former British colonies which don't still speak English!

[bartveld]

Originally Posted by alee

According to Wikipedia, Afrikaans is one of 11(!) official languages in South Africa. I think that in a lot of former colonies, the colonial power's language ends up being more widely spoken than any one of the often many native languages, so it often ends up as the official language, or at least an official language. That seems to be the case in many former British and French colonies.

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can't off-hand think of any former British colonies which don't still speak English!

Yeah, but we're talking official language here. But it may very well be that English endured simply because it was already on the way to become the lingua franca of the world. Also, colonies where multiple native languages were spoken may have been better off having one over-arching language to ease internal communication.

And I'd conveniently forgotten about the English defeating the Boers in South Africa so Afrikaans had already become a secondary language by the time independence came.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can't off-hand think of any former British colonies which don't still speak English!

I’ve read that, when the Revolutionary War started, America declared we would switch the language to German. But, apparently it occurred to us rather quickly that you don’t just pass a law and everyone becomes fluent in another tongue.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can't off-hand think of any former British colonies which don't still speak English!

Not long ago, I read that the country with the most English-speaking people is...India. That amused me, because when I speak with Indians who work at call centers, I can't understand them!

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I can't off-hand think of any former British colonies which don't still speak English!

Does Quebec count?

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Not long ago, I read that the country with the most English-speaking people is...India. That amused me, because when I speak with Indians who work at call centers, I can't understand them!

I used to work with a guy from India who had a funny "Indian Call Center" story.

He had to call customer service on something he had purchased and got an Indian guy who called himself "Todd". It was obvious to my friend that "Todd" was Indian and assumed he could talk to the guy in Hindi as this would eliminate any language difficulties between them.

However, "Todd" could only talk to him in English since his "Rules of engagement" with customers from the USA was that they could only speak English with the customer, no exceptions.

[GtrsRGr8]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Does Quebec count?

According to entries in WikiPedia, Quebec's only official language is French. However, the majority of residents are able to speak English.

When I was taking French in high school and college, I was thinking of spending some time in Quebec in order to polish my French speaking skills (by doing the language-immersion thing). For some reason, I didn't care to go to France, and it wasn't just because of the high cost of traveling (and maybe staying) there.

Of course, if this deep Southerner (lower Midwestener in high school) was to go to Quebec, it would definitely be in the summer. The winters, and even falls and springs are just too snowy and cold. Brrrrr.

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I used to work with a guy from India who had a funny "Indian Call Center" story.

He had to call customer service on something he had purchased and got an Indian guy who called himself "Todd". It was obvious to my friend that "Todd" was Indian and assumed he could talk to the guy in Hindi as this would eliminate any language difficulties between them.

However, "Todd" could only talk to him in English since his "Rules of engagement" with customers from the USA was that they could only speak English with the customer, no exceptions.

Many Indians speak English but not Hindi however. The call centre may be avoiding discriminating against South Indians.

[Little.Egret]

Endeavour, Free

Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell by Gordon Bowker

First published in the United Kingdom in 1996 by Sinclair-Stevenson.

There was a dark cruel side to the bubbling Durrell and this brilliantly creative writer's life was indeed labyrinthine.

Born in India, schooled under Mount Everest, where Tibetan lamas trekked to and fro, he lived thereafter in a Tibet of the mind. Expelled from this paradise to school in gloomy England (his ‘Pudding Island’), he fled into exile, spending his most productive years in Greece and around the Mediterranean.

In wartime Egypt he conceived ‘The Alexandria Quartet’, which brought fame with its ‘exploration of modern love’ and experimental form. His great last novel cycle, ‘The Avignon Quintet’, has intrigued readers ever since with its formal complexity and compelling mystery.

Gordon Bowker's works include ‘Pursued by Furies: A Biography of Malcolm Lowry’, as well as biographies of George Orwell and James Joyce.


https://www.amazon.com/Through-Dark-...dp/B07NY3G1YB/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-Dar...dp/B07NY3G1YB/

https://www.amazon.ca/Through-Dark-L...dp/B07NY3G1YB/

[GtrsRGr8]

I got an email message from Duke University, today, reminding me that an ebook sale of theirs ends tomorrow.

Well, it wasn't a reminder to me--I never had heard about it in the first place! I'm sure that I just overlooked a previous email (or two or three ) about it. I first saw an announcement about it just a few minutes ago.

Get this: all of their ebooks are only $4.99 each! Those of you who have ever bought from or even browsed university press catalogs know how very expensive university press titles can be. This is an outstanding sale, not to be missed by anyone who is an academic-type of person.

Since the announced date for the end of the sale is tomorrow, March 20, and Duke University is in the U.S. Eastern time zone, I suspect that the sale will end at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow.

Here is a link to the sale. Look for the blue-and-aqua-green banner ad at the beginning of the second screen down, on that webpage.

Well, excuse me now. I've got to turn on the coffeemaker. With 2,300 ebook titles from Duke University Press in the humanities and social sciences on sale for $4.99, it looks to be a long night of ebook hounding.

ADDENDUM: I am on the mailing list of a relatively few university presses which publish in English. Considering the number of university presses that I know about with sales, there must be scores of them of which of I am not aware. I have a goal to get on the mailing list of every university press publishing in English. That's an enormous amount of publishers. Adding them will have to be a gradual process, of course. if you want to see what I'm talking about, when I speak of there being a huge number of such publishers, check out the Wikipedia article listing university presses.