Few books on Kindle store

[PerpetualChange]

I'm so amazed how few Chinese ebooks there are on the Kindle store. What's the best alternative? Just read PDFs? Anyway to get stuff from the amazon.cn kindle store without a chinese credit card?

[Shelley]

Try Project Gutenberg.

 

This is the result of typing chinese into the search bar.

 

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=chinese

 

If you know the title or the author's name you can search for that. You can choose the format to read it in.

 

Only downside (possibly?) is that these are all in the public domain ie. no copyright, so that makes them all rather old but seeing as some books come out of copyright after 50 years this means you could be reading books from the 1970s.

 

This what you get if you choose a book

 

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42290

[mungouk]

Amazon.com (the US site**) has Kindle ebooks in Chinese under the Foreign Languages section, and you can pay in the usual ways.

 

See here for simplified for example; see also the 100 best sellers — #1 is currently 浮生六记 by 沈复 and it's $0.99.

 

** If you're not in the US you may have to use your VPN to pretend you are, since not all books appear to be licensed world-wide.

 

 

[Luxi]

@PerpetualChange remember you can upload your own text/doc/pdf files into the Kindle via email, and get them converted into Kindle format by Amazon (the Amazon site has instructions somewhere, but may not be easy to find, ask here if you can't find them). Pdf format is rather unwieldy in the Kindle, but txt and .doc/.docx files work, all the Kindle utilities (dictionary, word lists etc.) work just as well (or just as bad) as with the native kindle format.

 

If you can read on a tablet, phone, Windows PC or all of the above, there are several very good alternatives to buy Chinese ebooks from other online retailers. Basically, you download the e-tailers' app in your device and pay for the books or subscriptions via you device's store. I buy most of my books via the Apple store and have never had any problems (it's slightly more expensive than buying in China with a Chinese bank account)

 

This thread may give you some ideas.

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/34090-best-source-for-chinese-ebooks/page/7/

I deliberately sent you to the last few pages because the earlier pages in that thread are quite obsolete now. Things have changed a lot. 

 

I use Duokan (many wonderful freebies and the best reader around - way better than the Kindle). 

 

Douban (not a very sophisticated reader, but a good choice of books as well as strictly selected web-published series (lots of freebies too). It's still possible to buy credit for books using PayPal instead of the Apple / Android store.

 

DangDang  is my 3rd option (the app for eBooks has a greenish icon, not to be confused with other DangDang apps). It generally has the best prices, a reasonably good reader, audio books, and a VIP service similar to Kindle unlimited. It's also generous with freebies.

 

There are many more but better don't spread too much, it can be a struggle to remember where did you buy the book (you can only read the ebook in the app where you bought it from! )

 

Google Play Books has also a good selection of Chinese ebooks, it's quite good for Taiwanese publications (including books banned in the mainland) and cheaper than buying from Taiwan sellers. At least some of the books allow converting the font to simplified.

 

[roddy]

I'm in the UK and have no trouble using a UK debit card on Amazon.cn. Not that I get round to reading the stuff I buy. 

[DavyJonesLocker]

9 hours ago, Luxi said:

I use Duokan (many wonderful freebies and the best reader around - way better than the Kindle). 

 

 

In what way, I use kindle mainly because it started using it early on and as you noted above, several readers is not a good idea. I don't have a lot of requirements from a eReader though. For the dictionary element I just use PLECO screen reader now 

[Luxi]

@DavyJonesLocker primarily the dictionary, which also incorporates a translator (at least OK  for those pesky 4-character phrases), and a quick link to 百度百科 (very useful in history books). There's also the ease in accessing the utilities, a good choice of fonts and reading page settings, adding notes and reminders, etc., it all helps to keep reading in focus and make it faster despite using a dictionary. Similar utilities only appeared in the Kindle in the last 2 years, and using them is still clumsy. In texts with too many unknown words, I prefer to use Pleco's clipboard reader but it only works on a page by page basis and slows down the reading too much.

 

One can of course try all these eBook retailers easily by installing their respective app and using the 'preview book' option (also a good test to check if the book is at an accessible level). It's free, doesn't require registration (but recommended if you want to keep your samples) and the samples are very generous, 60 pages, sometimes even more - endless free reading!

 

[PerpetualChange]

20 hours ago, Luxi said:

Google Play Books has also a good selection of Chinese ebooks, it's quite good for Taiwanese publications (including books banned in the mainland) and cheaper than buying from Taiwan sellers. At least some of the books allow converting the font to simplified.

 

Thanks! Traditional is actually preferred, for me. I'll check out Google Play.