Germany uses 7% VAT on books and a few other things (taxi rides, food). 19% is the regular VAT tariff. But going out for food and drinks is still reasonably aff

Germany uses 7% VAT on books and a few other things (taxi rides, food). 19% is the regular VAT tariff. But going out for food and drinks is still reasonably affordable here compared to other EU countries (and never mind the UK and US where this is super expensive). I buy a lot of ebooks as well. I'm definitely a bit price sensitive. For me the sweet spot is around 10 euros. Anything above is kind of a big expense and I'll think twice. But a book priced around 7 euros I'll just buy it even if I'm not 100% sure if I'll like it. I might be reading a lot less if those prices were creeping up. So, I can see how this might help more Danes get more into reading. Reading books is something that high school erodes as a pleasurable activity (by making you read the wrong stuff). I got back into reading after high school when I was again able to read what I wanted and when I wanted again but not everybody does that. I was actually reading a lot before going to high school. I expect that the Danish educational system might be hammering the fun out of reading in a similar way. Getting kids to read is easier if you give them the right books. If you've ever seen a small kid completely absorbed in a book you know what I'm talking about. I was like that. Force feeding kids dreary literary works is not necessarily the best way to get people into reading. The main learning that re-enforces in kids is that apparently they don't like reading. It's counter productive. And of course the elephant in the room here is that Denmark is not a big country and that there are probably only so many Danish authors actually worth reading. A good benchmark would be counting the ones that get translated and have an international audience. The same is true in the Netherlands. Only a handful of authors that publishers consider worth translating. And of course the education system puts a lot of emphasis on a handful of native authors that the rest of the world would never have heard about.