[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[Faterson]

JayLaFunk, at first I thought seeing "Pages left in chapter" instead of "Pages left in book" was inconvenient...

... but pretty soon, I got so used, even addicted to the "Pages left in chapter" indication, that I certainly hope this feature will be (optionally) available later in Marvin for iPhone, too.

You know what, JayLaFunk? I've discovered that to see the number of pages remaining in a chapter, rather than in the entire book, actually motivates me more, to get on with the reading.

If you happen to be reading Moby-Dick, and see something like 798 pages left in book, at the bottom of every screen... well, that sounds a bit daunting, doesn't it? If, however, the same book shows you 25 pages left in chapter, or 17 pages left in chapter... well, anyone can master that, right? Just take it "one step at a time", chapter by chapter... and before you know it, you've devoured the entire gargantuan Moby-Dick (instead of the reverse process, as happened to poor Captain Ahab).

[anesthezea]

I use the Page Count plugin in Calibre to collect info on word and page counts. Will this app be able to read that from Calibre automatically like it does other metadata?

I understand why the book list is setup the way it is - lots of useful info like series and tags is visible and you can swipe left to edit things, but I really love a grid view for book covers. Will that be possible in the future?

[JayLaFunk]

@kguil - Thanks, look forward to it being added in the future...

@Faterson - Yes I'm the same, usually do my reading using Marvin at bed time and the option to see how many pages left in the chapter makes me decide whether to carry on , the option to see remaining pages of entire book will be good as well...

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

I use the Page Count plugin in Calibre to collect info on word and page counts. Will this app be able to read that from Calibre automatically like it does other metadata?

Even if it could, I would prefer that it did not. Why? Because Calibre is Calibre, and Marvin is Marvin. Two completely different environments, and two completely different reading/library management devices.

The only objective value, of course, is word count. And you can let Marvin calculate the word count for any book (and display it in Library folders), on the meta-tag editor screen.

The concept of "pages", on electronic devices, is completely elusive, anyway, and does not really make sense. A "page" in Calibre may be, and very likely will be, completely different from a "page" in Marvin. (My main working monitor is a 30-inch Dell, and if I maximize the Calibre window there, my "page" in Calibre will likely contain four times as much text as most other people's "Calibre page".)

In fact, a "page" in Marvin, and another "page" in Marvin, may be completely different, too, for the same book -- depending on what font you prefer to use for reading in Marvin, and what size of that particular font. There are so many variables to this, that the concept of pages as such, does not really make sense for e-books.

That is why I'm actually fine with Marvin only giving us an overall percentage of progress as we're reading through a book. Because that value is objective, unbiased. If you're 50% through a book, then that's where you are -- regardless of your font preference, font size preference, Marvin or Calibre.

Originally Posted by anesthezea

I really love a grid view for book covers. Will that be possible in the future?

Yes, Kris confirmed only very recently in this thread that there will be alternative ways of displaying Library shelves in a future Marvin release.

[kguil]

anesthezea, I've never thought about that. I'll look into it.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Faterson

That is why I'm actually fine with Marvin only giving us an overall percentage of progress as we're reading through a book. Because that value is objective, unbiased. If you're 50% through a book, then that's where you are -- regardless of your font preference, font size preference, Marvin or Calibre.
:

Well, perhaps that's fine for you but not for everybody I prefer a number of pages (or screens or as you like). 50% is OK for knowing where you're but not really good for estimating how much book is left.

[Faterson]

You're correct, Terisa. Naturally, just like JayLaFunk, I'd prefer if both indicators were available: pages left in chapter and pages left in book. And I'd like it to be displayed at the bottom of every Marvin screen, for example like this:

16/142 pages left in chapter/book

OR

16 pages left in chapter (142 in book)

etc. What I mainly wished to communicate to JayLaFunk, was: let's keep the pages left in chapter indicator, by all means, because it's fabulous and motivates our reading considerably! Naturally, each Marvin user might be given the option whether he/she wishes to see pages left in chapter, in book, both, or neither.

If you consult some of the earlier pages of this mega-thread, you'll see the reason pages left in book is not available, is not because Kris doesn't realize we want it (I myself requested it early on), but more because of a "dirty trick" on Apple's part. They make this functionality available for iBooks, but for competing e-readers such as Marvin, I understand some rather artificial technical restrictions are imposed by Apple, that make the implementation of the pages left in book feature very difficult for Kris and other "alternative" developers.

[kguil]

Please note that that was speculation on my part. The problem is related to rendering the book in the background to get a page count.

[Terisa de morgan]

Faterson, I totally agree with pages left in chapter, that's the main reason I use kepub in my Kobo. Kguil, I guess the count must be time consuming (I see the time it takes in calibre).

[Terisa de morgan]

Btw, Faterson, I like a lot the options you give (I have them at my Sony 350 with PRS )

[anesthezea]

Originally Posted by kguil

anesthezea, I've never thought about that. I'll look into it.

Thank you! I ask because I do love that the word count feature is available in Marvin, but it's rather time consuming to select each book one at a time to calculate word count. I'm not so much interested in page count as I understand that can change depending on a number of factors, but knowing the word count for my books helps me decide what to read next on those days I know I'm not in the mood for a very long and involved read.

Thank you so much for this app! I have only had my iPad Mini for a few days and it has made reading on this device so much better!

[Meemo]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Well, perhaps that's fine for you but not for everybody I prefer a number of pages (or screens or as you like). 50% is OK for knowing where you're but not really good for estimating how much book is left.

??? 50% tells you exactly how much is left. You're halfway through the book. I much prefer the percentage for exactly that reason. If I've got page numbers, then I'm doing the math in my head...page 100 of 300, okay, 1/3 through. Give me percentages every time. Let me read instead of doing math! I missed pages when I first started eReading on my first Kindle in 2008, but now I'm all about the percentage.

But I do love the page count for the chapters - it's lovely to have page count for chapters (for bedtime reading) and percentage for the book.

[Faterson]

Terisa is right, though, Meemo.

If you're 50% through Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, and if you're 50% through Melville's Moby-Dick, that's very different, despite both dealing with the sea. The former is a very short novel, and the latter a gigantic tome.

So, it's an entirely different feeling to be 50% through a short book, and 50% through a very long one.

I always read 7 books simultaneously in a 3-day rotation. What I do to track their length, is let Marvin calculate the word count, and then I enter that word count into my Google/Readdle Calendar, next to the 7 titles of the books I'm reading, and the percentage of the book where I currently am.

That's a rather awkward, long-winded way of tracking your reading progress -- therefore I agree with Terisa it would be useful if Marvin let us display both pages left in chapter, and pages left in book, if the reader wishes to have those data displayed.

[Terisa de morgan]

Yes, @Meemo. The problem is what @Faterson says: 50% of what? Do I count the time I've been reading and I suppose there's the same time left? I have to do the maths anyway

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Do I count the time I've been reading and I suppose there's the same time left?

That never works -- or only for superficial readers. As an example, here's my reading speed for one of the 7 books I'm currently reading, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer (I've been unimpressed so far):

• 1.25 / 2%
• 0.5 / 4%
• 0.5 / 6%
• 1 / 3%
• 0.5 / 6%
• 0.75 / 7%
• 0.5 / 4%
• 0.5 / 10%

Each line represents another day of reading that book. The percentage shows my reading speed, in percentages per hour. (This particular book is 107,000 words long, which might be around 330 pages on paper.) The earliest data is at the bottom.

As can be seen, my reading speed for this book varies wildly, between 10% per hour and 2% per hour. Whenever I slow down in a book, it's typically a sign that the book is getting better -- that I annotate it more while reading it, or think about it more as I'm reading it. And how could you know in advance how good or bad the rest of the book you're reading, is going to be? You can never know that in advance. Therefore, predicting your reading speed on the basis of your reading speed so far, is always extremely unreliable, and can always only be an extremely crude guesstimate. Unless you're a superficial reader -- which, of course, is exactly what our schools and universities typically teach young people to be.