Reading In German - Can I simply go to amazon.de to download?

[KenJones]

I have a feeling this might be more complicated than I want it to be.

From time to time I like to read in German to keep myself sharp with language. Mainly modern thrillers and crime.
I can't see language fiction listed on amazon.co.uk

Is it possible to order from amazon.de and add that account to my kindle?
Or is there another way?

Ken

[KingAl]

I'm pretty sure you need to have a credit card with a billing address in Germany to buy from Amazon.de.

[jbcohen]

I know this is off topic but I would recommend: http://de.openoffice.org/ to help keeping up with your German.  This is a full office suite of software that will expect you to communicate in German. Also translate.google.com - this is a web page where if you enter the address of another web page it will translate the entire web page into a foreign language of your choice, of which German is one, and who it to your screen, thus if you want you could go to translate.google.com and translate cnn.com into German so that you can read the news of the day in German if you like.

[Annie]

I know this is off topic but I would recommend: http://de.openoffice.org/ to help keeping up with your German.  This is a full office suite of software that will expect you to communicate in German. Also translate.google.com - this is a web page where if you enter the address of another web page it will translate the entire web page into a foreign language of your choice, of which German is one, and who it to your screen, thus if you want you could go to translate.google.com and translate cnn.com into German so that you can read the news of the day in German if you like.

Only problem with translators is that they're not always correct.

[BTackitt]

ken, when you go to amazon.uk can you do a search for German? on .com I filter out German translations by using -german.

[NanD]

I just tried - go to the Amazon UK site kindlebooks section and enter "German language mysteries" or "German language thrillers" and it will list some books. Doesn't look like a big selection but there are some.

[NanD]

Why don't you try to go to amazon.de and download a free book & see if it works?

[MarkT]

An American credit card works on Amazon.de. I have ordered  (hard copy) materials on Mastercard. Never a kindle book, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as well.
Mark T

[KingAl]

An American credit card works on Amazon.de. I have ordered  (hard copy) materials on Mastercard. Never a kindle book, but I don't see why it wouldn't work as well.
Mark T

Copyright licensing issues are different for ebooks than paper books, so I'm 99% sure that won't work. (For example, Americans can order paper books from Amazon.uk, but not Kindle books.)

[MariaESchneider]

As some others have said, you're probably better off ordering a German book from the US site (I know you can search for Spanish language books on the American site.)   There are copyright restrictions so it's almost impossible to order a Kindle book from a different country.  You can, for strange reasons, order the paper book though. 

[KenJones]

I tried to download a free book from amazon.de. It responded by suggesting I go to my uk account as it couldn't link the book to my kindle account. Of course the book is not listed in the UK.
Having searched the UK site using the terms suggested plus some more I must say It's a pretty small selection.

So I will continue to order print books for now from Amazon.de which I do quite regularly. It's just a shame in this age of European union (Dave Cameron's recent veto excepted. Go Dave!) we can't share our books more easily.

Ken

[eCarl]

Just to add a bit of weight to this complaint - I've got the same problem.

Register your Kindle in the UK and you can only go through the amazon.co.uk website - even for German books.  Yes, there are some german books there.  Some are free.  Why you can't get a german book available on amazon.de in Kindle format to a uk registered Kindle is beyond me.  And yes, I know that there are other sites with free German books for Kindle.

The only way round it is to have a payment address in Germany and re-register your Kindle there - but apparently amazon soon catch on to this.

It's a total mess - a kind of electronic censorship by amazon.  Doubtless there are some subtle legal reasons.  I can get the paper copy delivered from Germany to the UK but there's no way amazon are going to let me get the electronic copy in the UK.  One of the reasons I got the Kindle was to get contemporary German literature in electronic form.  It says it's available on amazon.de.  The problems start when you want to download.

Complain to Amazon and you get a bland response:
Due to local conditions, the availability the of titles on the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store can vary from those available to customers on Amazon.com, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.es.

Still doesn't tell me why I can't download the book from amazon.de

[kindlegrl81]

Project Gutenberg has 818 books in German available for download.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Click "book search" and then at the bottom of the page click "language of books"

[Ann in Arlington]

Just to add a bit of weight to this complaint - I've got the same problem.

Register your Kindle in the UK and you can only go through the amazon.co.uk website - even for German books.  Yes, there are some german books there.  Some are free.  Why you can't get a german book available on amazon.de in Kindle format to a uk registered Kindle is beyond me.  And yes, I know that there are other sites with free German books for Kindle.

The only way round it is to have a payment address in Germany and re-register your Kindle there - but apparently amazon soon catch on to this.

It's a total mess - a kind of electronic censorship by amazon.  Doubtless there are some subtle legal reasons.  I can get the paper copy delivered from Germany to the UK but there's no way amazon are going to let me get the electronic copy in the UK.  One of the reasons I got the Kindle was to get contemporary German literature in electronic form.  It says it's available on amazon.de.  The problems start when you want to download.

Complain to Amazon and you get a bland response:
Due to local conditions, the availability the of titles on the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store can vary from those available to customers on Amazon.com, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.es.

Still doesn't tell me why I can't download the book from amazon.de

You can't download them because, for whatever reason, Amazon can't sell them to you.  Might have to do with who holds the rights for your country.  Might have to do with esoteric import rules.  Who knows.  But, believe me, if Amazon was allowed to take your money and sell you the books, they would.

[StevenBelskie]

The only way round it is to have a payment address in Germany and re-register your Kindle there - but apparently amazon soon catch on to this.

I actually went so far as to try this and I was able to download a German ebook onto my kindle de-register (unregister?) my device and and re-register it with my American address. I then however recieved an email from amazon saying that the ebooks are only for certain location etc. etc. but I can still read the ebook. Not sure what would happen if I tried it again, but at this point I don't wish to risk it.