Zagreb’s Cafe Velvet Becomes First in World to Offer Free Reading Zone

Velvet Cafe in Zagreb (photo credit: Carsten Lindstedt)

From today guests at Velvet Café in the Croatian capital Zagreb can read books from all around the world without restrictions or interruptions…

Velvet, which is located on the trendy Dezmanova Street in Zagreb, has become the first Free Reading Zone (FREZ) cafe in Croatia and the world on Thursday. Patrons to the cafe can now log into a Virtual Library and access more than 100,000 books in a number of languages, including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and Croatian.

All types of books, from novels, to cookbooks, to travel, sport, poetry and entertainment books are available in the library. Staff at the cafe provide an Access Code which is used to log in. All guests need to do is install the reading app via any iOS and Android smartphone and tablet and get the Access Code from the staff at the cafe.

The technology is powered by ebook service Total Boox, which makes ebooks instantly available, with no limits or interruptions. There have been a number of zones set up around the world but Velvet is reportedly the first cafe in the world to offer the FREZ.

Velvet Cafe in Zagreb

What is FREZ?

The Free Reading Zones project was established in America and converts a variety of public and private spaces such as parks, hospitals, trains, buses, airports or schools into a zone where unlimited reading for free is made possible. The zone offers users completely free access to books from around the world. Authors are paid for each reading which is sponsored.