Christopher Kyba ๐จ๐ฆ๐ช๐บI was today years old when I realized German and English speakers write the titles of books in the opposite direction on the spine.
Eric LawtonAnd Francophones don't care.
Roy van Grunsven@skyglowberlin that has been annoying me for years. In this case I must say the Germans are wrong. If their books lay flat the spine is upside down.
@royvangrunsven Good point ๐
But maybe Germans just don't lay books flat ๐ค
James Endres Howell@skyglowberlin @royvangrunsven I always thought the "lay flat with the cover facing up" test decided which otherwise arbitrary convention is correct.
Also: my favorite habitat is used bookstores, and my right ear has a strong affinity for my right shoulder. Browsing continental titles confounds my habits and vexes my anatomy
@jameshowell @skyglowberlin It's not a general continental thing. Dutch books are like the English ones, not like the German ones
Estarriol, Terrorist DragonEuropean publishers go that way generally, UK & USA go the other way
@Thebratdragon That doesn't seem to be the case generally, see the reply by @EricLawton above. I also checked the small number of Russian books we have, and they are about half-half.
Weirdly, while the "literature" books we have in German are almost universally the "reverse" direction, we have two German cookbooks and a gardening book that go the "English" way. Might fit with @royvangrunsven's point that when it's laying down the "English" way is right side up. Perhaps that is of more concern with a book that spends more time than usual on its side?
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@PWei888 Yeah, we have some like that in both English and German too.
I'm not sure about the characters on my wife's Chinese books, because I don't know the orientation of the characters.