Spanish/English bilingual e-book is available free via Overdrive

I was listening to the Trying to Learn Spanish podcast and in its 11th episode somebody mentioned an interesting e-book (Thirteen Senses by Victor Villaseñor) that has parallel English and Spanish text and allows to quickly switch between them.

I like the idea of bilingual books, so I went hunting for it. The book is available for purchase in a couple of places, but I wanted to see an excerpt first to see the quality and ease of use. So I went searching and found something much better.

The book is available as an eBook via Overdrive programme, that many libraries subscribe to. WorldCat site allows to easily find where the book is available and in which format. I confirmed that my library subscribed to the book, so within 15 minutes I had setup the Mobipocket reader and downloaded the e-book to my computer.

It looks quite good and interesting to read. Jumping between translations is with little hyperlinked arrows, so one cannot see both translation at once but it is survivable.

My spanish is not quite up to to the proper reading level yet, but it is good to know it is there and ready for me when

I am ready. And I have 21 days to dip in and out just to see how far I can get.

What’s is interesting is that I could not find any discussion about this dual format and whether it worked for both learners and - commercially - for the publisher. I think this (or similar) format has a lot of promise, but maybe other people disagree.