I hope no Dutch uncle is going to get me in Dutch over all my Dutchisms (or should they be Netherlandisms?) in this article, but how else to convey the news that Amazon has opened a Dutch website, Amazon.nl, offering its wares in the Netherlands? This already includes extensive Kindle ebook offerings in Dutch as well as the localized Kindle client software, and English ebooks, though no products beyond ebooks, at least at this stage.
According to reports in the Netherlands Times, the new Dutch version of the Kindle Store will offer some 20,000 Dutch titles by local authors, as well as the full range of English ebooks available for the Dutch market, some 3 million. Kindles will also be sold locally. This follows reportedly amicable discussion with Dutch publishers and Amazon on cooperation. Dare one say they went Dutch on the Netherlands ebook market? Dutch News certainly didn’t mind saying so, although they also noted reports, contradicted elsewhere, from the Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch Broadcast Foundation) that Dutch publishers had been “dreading” Amazon’s debut in the Netherlands.
And lest anyone think this betrays the remotest hint of prejudice, I just gotta say, with the Urban Dictionary, dude, roll me a dutch, because this shit is dutch.
Go ahead and insult the Dutch with useless word play, but let’s remember that Holland Park and its trashy residents is in E-N-G-L-A-N-D.
@Mike – That reminds me of Michael Caine’s line from one of the Austin Power’s movies (mercifully, the last one):
“There are only two things I can’t stand in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures… and the Dutch.” That line was hilarious, but I think I have a mental block on the rest of the movie.