Croatian free ebook project grows to over 3 million users

(Photo: Maarten van den Heuvel)

ZAGREB, Jan 20 (Hina) – The project Free Electronic Book (BEK) had more than three million users by the end of 2019, the Society for Promoting New Media Literature, the coordinator of the project, launched 18 years ago, reported last Monday.

“Thirty percent more users read 16% more e-books and downloaded 2% more e-books in 2019, and the number of newly-published titles rose by 23 to 242, just as the number of new users grew by 583,000 to more than three million,” the Society reports.

As many as 52 titles had more than one thousand readers last year. There are now more than a hundred selected works of contemporary Croatian poetry available. On average, the project had more than 150,000 users per year and each title had more than 7,500 readers.

“Slobostina Barbie” most-read fiction book in 2019

The most read fiction book in 2019 was “Slobostina Barbie” by Masa Kolanovic (6,164 readers), followed by the novel “Ljubav je sve” by Kresimir Pintaric (4,822) and the memoir “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau (4,002).

The most read poetry books were “Tri jeseni” (Three autumns) by Anna Akhmatova (4,224 readers), “Tour de force” by Kresimir Pintaric (2,047) and “Gledaj me u oci” by Mario Brkljacic (1,580).

The most read nonfiction titles were “Cetvrti svjetski rat / Drugaciji svijet je moguc!” by Drazen Simlesa (7,980), “Mediji, propaganda i sistem” (Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda) by Noam Chomsky (7,617) and “Zapisi iz trece kulture” by Darko Polsek (7,068).