Nokia's ebook initiative for Windows Phone, Nokia Reading is apparently rolling out, starting now, in six countries, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and the UK. The aim is to provide ebooks and other literary content in 'your own language' on Lumia smartphones. 'Nokia Reading' will start appearing in the Nokia Collection section of the Windows Phone Marketplace 'over the course of the next few weeks'.

From the launch article:

GLOBAL - Today is the start of the global roll-out of Nokia Reading, an app and service that serves up the written word in your own language on your Lumia smartphone. This new service takes full advantage of the platform’s design to make reading on-the-go both convenient and visually attractive... 

The initial version of the service focuses on making it easy for you to find, buy and – most importantly – read a book in your own language. Nokia Reading boasts a wide range of local titles, as well as a large collection of English titles popular across the world, such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; One Day; and The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes, with more being added all the time.

There are also thousands of international classics available for free. To make it easy to choose what to read, books are organised into lists such as Top eBooks and New Releases and categorized into genres. If you already know what you want, full predictive search makes it easy to find what you want by title or author.

While eBooks are becoming a common sight in countries like the US and the UK, they are still in their infancy – or basically unavailable – in many parts of the world. And this is where the strength of Nokia Reading lies: in local language e-reading content.

Of note is that Windows Phone's font technologies and the resizability of the type in Nokia Reading mean that the experience can be suited to all different eyesight levels. There’s also the handy night mode, too, which means you won’t be blinded by a bright white screen in the middle of the night. This mode turns the white pages black and the black words white. Plus using a black background is also kinder to your battery if you have one of Nokia's AMOLED-screened phones (e.g. Lumia 800/900).

Further additions to Nokia Reading are already in the pipeline, and will appear as free updates through Marketplace. These include:

• provision for audio books
• News Stream, offering a virtual news magazine, 'making subscribing to and enjoying local and international RSS feeds simpler and more beautiful than ever before'
• more ways to personalise and customise the reading experience

We will take a more detailed look at Nokia Reading once it is available for download in the Marketplace.