Bookly News #1
I went to a couple of local bookshops today and once I again I was shocked by the prices. I love bookshops. I love walking amongst the shelves and bookcases, I love finding something new and I love recognizing books I've read reviews about online.
However, in Denmark books are incredibly expensive. A new hardback they'll happily charge over 300 dkk for (that's nearly $60). The reason is that first off we pay something like 25% of VAT. Second off - there's about 5½ million people in this small country of mine, so obviously the book market is equally small and thusly books become more expensive. Thirdly? They are all evil overlords who's decided to band together and charge overprices.
Still, much as I'd like to support the bookshops (they are a dying trade after all) I won't/can't, when I can buy the same book for sometimes less than half, online - and that's with shipping! Just to add insult to injury, most bookshops in Denmark have an abysmal selection of English books. I prefer reading in English as I don't think the Danish translations truly live up to the English language's complexity and colour (and, untranslated books are a tiny bit cheaper too!).
However I did manage to find one book. It was on sale, and though I'm really not fond of the YA paranormal romances I thought, what the heck? I'm out of books to read.
Evermore by Alyson Noël, is the first book in the Immortals series and seems to have received a fairly good reception in the book blogs I follow.
There were a couple of other books there, but the description on the back of one of them had me in sarcastic giggles. It was something silly about a vampire school, a main character with several boy friends (woe is her) and playing detective to find the murder among her fellow vampyric classmates and teachers.
I was a bit surprised when I found these books on the shelves. I'm a friend of Maggie Stiefvater on Livejournal where I found the community where she and some others post short stories every once in a while. I was captivated by her writing style and have followed her ever since. I knew she'd published a number of books, but I was very surprised to find that she's been translated into Danish!
These are from The Wolves of Mercy Falls series and I'm fairly certain it's books 1 and 2 - Shiver and Linger. (Vildskab means savagery/wildness and Lidenskab means passion in Danish.)
To my great surprise and happiness the mail man had finally been there when I got home and this was in my mail box!
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. I can't wait to get started on it and see for myself what Sookie is up to now. I've mostly only heard good about this latest instalment in the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse series.
I was fairly disappointed by the previous book, Dead in the Family, so am really hoping this one will get the story back on track.
That's it for now, I'd better get reading!
However, in Denmark books are incredibly expensive. A new hardback they'll happily charge over 300 dkk for (that's nearly $60). The reason is that first off we pay something like 25% of VAT. Second off - there's about 5½ million people in this small country of mine, so obviously the book market is equally small and thusly books become more expensive. Thirdly? They are all evil overlords who's decided to band together and charge overprices.
Still, much as I'd like to support the bookshops (they are a dying trade after all) I won't/can't, when I can buy the same book for sometimes less than half, online - and that's with shipping! Just to add insult to injury, most bookshops in Denmark have an abysmal selection of English books. I prefer reading in English as I don't think the Danish translations truly live up to the English language's complexity and colour (and, untranslated books are a tiny bit cheaper too!).
Evermore by Alyson Noël, is the first book in the Immortals series and seems to have received a fairly good reception in the book blogs I follow.
There were a couple of other books there, but the description on the back of one of them had me in sarcastic giggles. It was something silly about a vampire school, a main character with several boy friends (woe is her) and playing detective to find the murder among her fellow vampyric classmates and teachers.
These are from The Wolves of Mercy Falls series and I'm fairly certain it's books 1 and 2 - Shiver and Linger. (Vildskab means savagery/wildness and Lidenskab means passion in Danish.)
To my great surprise and happiness the mail man had finally been there when I got home and this was in my mail box!Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. I can't wait to get started on it and see for myself what Sookie is up to now. I've mostly only heard good about this latest instalment in the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse series.
I was fairly disappointed by the previous book, Dead in the Family, so am really hoping this one will get the story back on track.
That's it for now, I'd better get reading!
Great post. I find it very interesting to hear about books and bookstores in other countries. It is so interesting to me.
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