As a native English speaker, I prefer to read books in English… but I live in France, so the Apple Books app only ever offers me books in French. I can't find any way of changing this! How can I get it to give or sell me books in English?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 12.2
Apple's store systems are country-based. Plus, books are a very quirky market. Major titles will be available everywhere, but for anything else, it is very difficult to cross borders.
There is an easy solution. All you need is a credit card (and possibly home address/phone number) from the US (or UK, Canadian, other English country). Create a new Apple ID using that credit card and a new e-mail address. Then you can use that Apple ID to get books for that country. But remember, it's still country based, not language-based. Don't expect to read any Canadian authors anywhere but in Canada.
It has been a few years since I had multi-country Apple IDs. It can be done. But it may complicate your life somewhat. If you just restrict it to Apple Books, then it shouldn't cause too much grief.
Another option is also to get ePub books elsewhere and open them in Apple Books.
Apple's store systems are country-based. Plus, books are a very quirky market. Major titles will be available everywhere, but for anything else, it is very difficult to cross borders.
There is an easy solution. All you need is a credit card (and possibly home address/phone number) from the US (or UK, Canadian, other English country). Create a new Apple ID using that credit card and a new e-mail address. Then you can use that Apple ID to get books for that country. But remember, it's still country based, not language-based. Don't expect to read any Canadian authors anywhere but in Canada.
It has been a few years since I had multi-country Apple IDs. It can be done. But it may complicate your life somewhat. If you just restrict it to Apple Books, then it shouldn't cause too much grief.
Another option is also to get ePub books elsewhere and open them in Apple Books.
Search for books by English title and you should see what’s available. It’s the publisher who decides whether to offer English language books in the French apple store (or vice versa).
you can suggest they alter this by using their feedback channel
Thank you, Rudegar!
It's as I feared… I've already run across this problem in many different forms, especially with films and other videos.
I do not know how to explain to Apple that not everyone living in a given country speaks only the official languages of that country… as a freelance teacher of English, I'd love to get my students reading in English, and as an Apple user (and teacher) for 26 years, I'd like to get them to use the Apple Books application. And of course, I would like to read tons of material in English for myself!
Thanks once again…
Thanks, Tom!
I'll try that when I think of a specific book I want… it's just that every time I open the Books app, I get offered tons of latest best-sellers and new genre releases… all in French! I don't mind reading in French, in fact I do a lot of that every day, but for basic relaxation, I like to read in English…
Nice to hear from you again!
Archie
don't think you can read more
how do I select the language of the books? - Apple Community
Thanks for the suggestion, Rudegar… in fact, I've already done this, but of course Apple never replies to such messages unless they need specific details only the reporting user can provide.
Read books in a language other than that of my geographical location?
