Books in English – A Continuation

In May of 2007, I wrote about the Problem with books in English and I updated my thoughts on the topic on Feb 13, 2009 update: books in English. Today I received a comment from Carolina about the possibility of using Kindle, here is what she says, ‘

Ginger --- The Kindle is now available to purchase in lots of places internationally including Brazil. (Import duties apply.) Go to Amazon.com. Search for Kindle. On any Kindle page it will tell you it is available now internationally and gives you a link to search for a country. Pull the dropdown box to Brazil. Click on the link to coverage areas for wireless downloads, and type in a city & country. Looks like Nova Friburgo is within the hi-speed area, certainly Rio is.
Kindle comes with a U.S. electric adaptor, but international ones are available for an extra charge. Kindle isn't lighted like a computer screen, but a light is available to attach to it.
Apparently 350,000 titles. plus newspapers and magazines are now available in English. Not all can be downloaded everywhere due to copyright laws. Some titles cost $0.00 (older books in the public domain ---Jane Austin, Conan-Doyle ---or some by writers I never heard of.) Most others range from about $3.00 to $12.00. New books on best seller lists are less expensive on Kindle than in book form ---no printing costs ---but probably cost more than used paperbacks.
I understand Amazon's goal is to have every title ever published available on Kindle eventually.”

I hope this helps any x-pat who is looking into alternatives - I am personally an enthusiast of laying on the sofa reading, taking a short nap, then reading again. I sit on the veranda, in the piazza (the patio) or in front of the fire. I like the old way of reading and turning pages and don’t know it I can adapt to this new way but THANK you Carolina for the info. Just an FYI – The high speed is available in Nova Friburgo – if this is what Carolina is talking about they sell it with the cell phones, is a little box that cost R$150.00 plus the line charge by minutes of usage…. even at high speed I wonder about the cost of a download of a book. With the cost of the book, the use of the “kindle box” (cost of box/ # of books read) and the cost of the high speed download – I would think that the cost of a book soon gets as high as just buying one – the advantage would end up being the variety of choice in titles and when you want it you can have it.

Additional footnote and comment - by Texas Heather

Photo by Ginger V – my reading (napping/thinking) room.

Update : Books in English

I think I should write an update for my entry The problem of Books in May of 2007. Can you imagine almost 2 years ago?

I still read ferociously but not anything like when I first arrived here and I would hide in the house and read - read- read for weeks at a time.

I still prefer a good book to a movie for entertainment and finding a selection of books here is really a problem. The prices had fallen when the dollar was so low (the only advantage was lower import prices) BUT we're still talking on a conversion to dollars - US$17.00 instead of US$27.00 for a US$7.99 new paperpack. This is not any real improvement. As you can imagine, I buy books in English in Brasil only when desperate.

My sorce for used books dried up about a year ago. http://www.1stchoiceusedbooks.com/index.htm is still in business and I still order books by the boxfull from them, but the US postal service discontinued the 'land' shipment and to send a box 'air' all of a sudden was US$100.00 - so now when I know someone is coming from the states I make an order and ask a friend to put the books in their suitcase. It leaves me owing a favor but HEY what are friends for?

The problem of Books

I am reading a book by John Dunning, Two O'clock Eastern Wartime. I am so into this book that I am having trouble putting it down to do what I need to do. Dunning in one of my favorite authors and I have never seen a book (in English) by this author in Brasil. It is always possible that I haven't been to the right bookstore but just as likely that it isn't to be found here. Books in English are very rare and VERY, very expensive in the bookstores in Brasil. When I moved here one of the first things I had to do was to figure out where to find books to satisfy my reading addiction. I looked for new books, I looked for used books and I asked about libraries. New are expensive and limited, there were some used but the titles were so obscure and the condition of the books so bad that the prices were laughable. Those books appeared to have been in someone's wet attic for years. The pages were crumbly, sometimes stuck together and could not to be opened to be read. I checked used books stores in Ipanema, Copacabana and the Barra. Nothing. Libraries? Pardon me what/where is a Library? Finally in desperation I searched online for a dealer in the states that would ship to Brasil and I found, http://1stchoiceusedbooks.com. They have over 20,000 titles in their warehouse. They will ship to Brasil and the quality of their used books have never disappointed me. The paperback books are priced from 99 cents to $3.00. The only problem is that to afford the shipping costs, you have to request 'land' and it takes 90 to 120 days to get here. But they do get here, and if I order a dozen or so every 90 days, I am always in supply. Want to borrow a book?