It turns out the Kindle coming to France rumor was true. Spot on, in fact.

Today Amazon launched the French Kindle Store, complete with a localized version of the Kindle 4 for €99, 35,000 French-language books, hundreds of graphic novels, over 4,000 free classic ebooks, and 825,000 ebooks in English and other languages.

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Good news for ebook readers in the UK, Google announced yesterday that they’ve expanded their ebook store to the United Kingdom, making available several hundred thousand ebooks from major UK publishers like Random House, Hachette, and Penguin, not to mention Google’s two million free public domain ebooks.

Google uses EPUB and PDF for their ebooks, and Adobe DRM, so they are compatible with the vast majority of dedicated ebook readers, including the Sony Readers, Kobo ereaders, Cybook, iRiver Story, and others. Google has apps for the iPad and iPhone, and Android tablets and smartphones too.

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Here’s a list of public libraries that offer library cards to non-residents so that you can barrow library ebooks for a Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, or a multitude of other devices even if your local library doesn’t have ebooks or if it is lacking in selection and availability.

This list comes from the How To Get Free eBooks From Libraries Using Overdrive page. I updated the section about getting library cards for non-residents and added some more libraries to the list and thought it deserved its own post.

Filed under: eBooks, Free eBooks | Tags: library ebooks | 9 Comments »

Amazon and OverDrive have quietly started rolling out Kindle ebook lending from public libraries, albeit in Beta.

Even though there hasn’t been any official announcement yet, some public libraries have already started lending ebooks for the Kindle. The image to the left hails from the Seattle Public Library; several other libraries are starting to list Kindle ebooks as well (not mine, though).

Update: Kindle Library eBooks are now officially available at over 11,000 libraries. Click here for the Kindle library ebook tutorial for complete directions and a video of how library ebooks work.

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According to an article posted by The Register, Sony has scored a major deal to get the entire series of Harry Potter ebooks bundled onto its new upcoming ebook reader.

Not only that but Sony is paying JK Rowling millions for early electronic rights so that they can offer the Harry Potter ebooks exclusively on the Sony Readers, and will be the only way to get Harry Potter ebooks in 2011 (Harry Potter ebooks will be sold from the Pottermore website for all ereaders but not until 2012).

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After selling a gazillion or so iDevices, Apple has suddenly decided that it doesn’t like the fact that people are buying ebooks from Amazon, B&N, Kobo and other competitors from within apps without giving them a 30% cut of the purchase.

So now all the ereading apps in the Apple iTunes store are getting updated to remove links and options for purchasing and browsing for ebooks from within the apps; user now have to use the Safari web browser to go to the ebookstore to make purchases from there.

Filed under: Apple iPad, eBooks | Tags: apps | 8 Comments »

It’s official. Borders bookstores are closing their doors for good. Unable to procure the necessary funds after filing for bankruptcy a few months back, the remaining 399 Borders and Waldenbooks retail stores will all be closed by the end of September, with liquidation expected to start as early as Friday.

If you’ve purchased any ebooks from Borders, there’s no need to worry. Kobo has everything covered. All you need to do is transfer your Borders ebooks to a Kobo account. The process is very easy and takes just a few minutes, and comes with the benefits of Kobo’s ereading apps, which have more features and work better than the Borders apps.

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For anyone who doubted the proliferation of ebooks, Amazon issued a press release yesterday announcing that they now sell 105 Kindle ebooks for every 100 hardcover and paperback books. This took just 3.5 years for Amazon to achieve, even with most publishers fighting the transition to ebooks every step of the way.

What’s more impressive is that those numbers include hardcover and paperback books that aren’t available for Kindle. And free Kindle ebooks aren’t included in the numbers either—considering the large number of free ebooks offered each month, it would probably be 2:1 or more if they were included.

Filed under: Amazon Kindle, eBooks, News | Tags: kindle ebooks | 3 Comments »

Google announced today the addition of some new features to the Google eBooks Web Reader, which works with any modern web browser for reading Google eBooks online.

Users can now double-click a word within the Web Reader to look-up the word in the dictionary, translate it, and run searches within the book, on Google, or on Wikipedia. Additionally, users can double-click and drag to select multiple words to translate or search. There are multiple languages available for translation, from Afrikaans to Yiddish.

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Below are a bunch of coupon codes for three different ebook stores: the Kobo ebook store, eBooks.com, and eHarlequin.

There’s also this code for 10% off at Gelaskins: SPRINGFOR10. Gelaskins sell skins for various devices. The code expires on May 31st.

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