do these books in translation numbers take into account disposable reading?

As much as i get my jollies on slagging America this week, there might be something a little off about these numbers used for this article:

In Germany 13% of books are translations. In France it's 27%, in Spain 28%, in Turkey 40% and in Slovenia 70%, but in Britain and America the best estimates suggest that the fraction of books on the shelves which started off in another language is somewhere around two per cent.

Books on the shelves? I haven't been to any of those countries, aside from Britain and America, so i don't know what books are on their shelves. In America, though, the sheer amount of pulp on the shelves is overwhelming. Think of the serial romance and western novels, the ones that are rotated off the shelves every few months. Do Slovenia and Turkey have the sheer numbers of pulp novels begging for space on their shelves? Are books more expensive to produce in those countries, meaning the publishers chose to produce more enduring works.... more literature.. because they will have greater staying power in the market, as opposed to something quickly read and disposed. How many of these countries are as set up for disposable reading as the U.S.?

The U.S. is remarkably insular, incurious about the rest of the world. It pisses me off to see how little books in translation are on the shelves. However, i'd like to see raw numbers, not percentages. 2% might be accurate, bt there might actual be a greater number of titles in translation in the U.S. that what that 2% makes it seem.

It's a little odd to think about this, as most of what i read these days are works in translation