euskalkultura.eus

Donostia-San Sebastian. Gurebook.com is an initiative which involved different Basque publishers. So far, Alberdania, Elkar, Erein, Arrain, Pamiela, Sua, Txertoa and Ttartalo  publishers have been the ones that have joined this initiative created by technology companies  Libenet and  Plazagunea, and this collaboration has emerged in a catalog of 166 e-books which are distributed throughtheir website.

On this page you can find the latest books published in the Basque country, mostly novels. The books available are  %60 in euskera and %40 in spanish. Ixiar Uria, Responsible for Gurebook.com website notes that through this initiative, the Basque literary production can be found in one place, without having to go looking in general electronic-book stores. "Comfort is the biggest advantage. It is very easy to use and allows each reader to adapt the book to your liking (font size, light,...). On the other hand, many devices offer the feel of a real book... You can turn the page with your finger .... and of course the number of books that can be stored is very large. When you go on vacation, you save much space. "

The electronic book prices are stipulated by publishers themselves, but in general, are cheaper than paper books. The page was presented in early December at the Fair of Books and Records of Durango, and since then, the best-sellers are: 'Agur eta beste arkeologia batzuk Darwin' by Jon Alonso, 'Airezko Emakumeak' by Felipe Juaristi and 'Eskarmentuaren Paperak 'by Anjel Lertxundi.

"From day one there has been a big movement. The initiative has had a major impact in the media and users and customers have been growing. From day one we have received many e-mails with questions, ideas, criticisms and suggestions" admits Ixiar Uria. 

Ixiar Uria thinks that this initiative is very useful for all teh members of the diaspora, because it offers the chance to buy the latest books directly.  "Before this project, I was in the U.S. in a Basque friend's house. He told me that he used to buy Basque music and literature and thought that this was a brilliant idea!- says Ixiar Uria.