Project Gutenberg on Kindle 1? - Page 2

pshrynk · 03-13-2009, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

I know it's been said before, but always check HERE (mobileread) first, to see if someone has formatted a public domain book. There are more than 5000 books online here. (I forget the latest count)

10,000 total, but that includes all the duplicates for mobi, imp, etc.

Astabeth · 03-13-2009, 10:02 PM

Okay, got it. Check here, kindle freestore, and feedbooks before I go to all the trouble.

I suspect that since some of them are old & fairly obscure books on art & aesthetics, I may have to learn to use the programs.

I can't wait to get back from vacation so I can order my kindle 1 !!!

Thanks for all your help,
Astabeth

jimad · 03-31-2009, 03:18 PM

http://www.freekindlebooks.org has several thousand of the more popular Project Gutenberg texts in MOBI format, and the start to a "mirror" of the Project Gutenberg texts in MOBI format at: http://www.freekindlebooks.org/MobiM...obimirror.html

You can also quickly and easily convert Project Gutenberg texts yourself by getting the EPUB format and running Calibre's "any2mobi" command line tool on the EPUB file.

Any of these approaches is almost certainly going to be a more pleasant experience than trying to read a .txt file on your Kindle!

kevindorsey · 04-01-2009, 01:35 PM

I've been playing around with the format conversions laterly, and after 1 or two those done, you are flying through

jimad · 04-02-2009, 02:10 PM

Try putting the following on your Kindle and see what you think:

http://www.freekindlebooks.org/Magic...icCatalog.mobi

carld · 04-02-2009, 02:28 PM

I just email the Gutenberg text files directly to my Kindle. Once you get past the front matter, the plain text is formatted just fine. The only things really missing are proper titles and authors.

jimad · 04-03-2009, 11:41 AM

But why would you want to email plain text to your Kindle when you can just get the Magic Catalog, click on a book title from your Kindle, and a (more-or-less) properly formatted Kindle-compatible MOBI file automagically shows up via Whispernet on your Kindle, including correct Author and Title information?

carld · 04-04-2009, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimad

But why would you want to email plain text to your Kindle when you can just get the Magic Catalog, click on a book title from your Kindle, and a (more-or-less) properly formatted Kindle-compatible MOBI file automagically shows up via Whispernet on your Kindle, including correct Author and Title information?

The Magic Catalog is a nice effort, though I haven't done more than glance through it yet. I can see that it's not complete, and it not only takes up room on your Kindle, but it has to be indexed before it's searchable.

I normally check for books here at Mobileread or one of the other free sites and then fall back to the Gutenberg texts. The plain text files really do look fine on the Kindle, and I can easily and quickly search through Gutenberg's book catalog for what I'm interested in.

jimad · 04-04-2009, 05:00 PM

Not quite sure what you mean by "it needs to be indexed before its searchable" but I assure you that I search it all the time via the built-in capabilities of my Kindle. The newest version of Magic Catalog should be "complete" excepting the issue of Illustrated vs Non-Illustrated -- which information PG does not appear to make available conveniently. Personally I am quite happy to allow it to take up space on my Kindle if it means I can grab a new book without having to get up off the couch, walking over to my desktop, plugging in the Kindle, opening the right dir, Opening a browser, etc.

carld · 04-04-2009, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimad

Not quite sure what you mean by "it needs to be indexed before its searchable" but I assure you that I search it all the time via the built-in capabilities of my Kindle. The newest version of Magic Catalog should be "complete" excepting the issue of Illustrated vs Non-Illustrated -- which information PG does not appear to make available conveniently.

Meaning that you can't just put the catalog on your Kindle and start searching it. You have to give the Kindle some time to index it before it becomes searchable. I don't know how long that would take on a work that size.

As far as being complete, I'll have to take another look, but the works of Algernon Blackwood (one of my favorites) don't seem to be there as far as I can tell.

Also, I want to be clear, I'm not disparaging the catalog at all. I just don't personally find it compelling enough to use. That opinion is subject to change of course.

jimad · 04-04-2009, 05:24 PM

Algernon Blackwood is in there -- it is fine by me if you have other ways you like to access books! I know that many people access other sites which really don't work for me. Magic Catalog works for me because I like to browse for books, I say oh that looks interesting, I just click through on it, I take a look at it and either like it or toss it. Without having to get up off my bottom. I also tend to Google from my desktop on a lot of technical writings and then by a long and circuitous path convert PDF to MOBI so that I can read technical stuff on Kindle without having to print it all out (which is even more painful!)
But hey, whatever works to get you the books you want to read!

04-04-2009, 05:00 PM	#24
jimad Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 52 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle	Indexed? Not quite sure what you mean by "it needs to be indexed before its searchable" but I assure you that I search it all the time via the built-in capabilities of my Kindle. The newest version of Magic Catalog should be "complete" excepting the issue of Illustrated vs Non-Illustrated -- which information PG does not appear to make available conveniently. Personally I am quite happy to allow it to take up space on my Kindle if it means I can grab a new book without having to get up off the couch, walking over to my desktop, plugging in the Kindle, opening the right dir, Opening a browser, etc. Last edited by jimad; 04-04-2009 at 05:02 PM.

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03-13-2009, 10:02 PM	#17
Astabeth Member who wants a reader Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: North Alabama Device: none	Okay, got it. Check here, kindle freestore, and feedbooks before I go to all the trouble. I suspect that since some of them are old & fairly obscure books on art & aesthetics, I may have to learn to use the programs. I can't wait to get back from vacation so I can order my kindle 1 !!! Thanks for all your help, Astabeth

03-31-2009, 03:18 PM	#18
jimad Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 52 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle	http://www.freekindlebooks.org has several thousand of the more popular Project Gutenberg texts in MOBI format, and the start to a "mirror" of the Project Gutenberg texts in MOBI format at: http://www.freekindlebooks.org/MobiM...obimirror.html You can also quickly and easily convert Project Gutenberg texts yourself by getting the EPUB format and running Calibre's "any2mobi" command line tool on the EPUB file. Any of these approaches is almost certainly going to be a more pleasant experience than trying to read a .txt file on your Kindle!

04-01-2009, 01:35 PM	#19
kevindorsey Evangelist Posts: 488 Karma: 258 Join Date: Mar 2009 Device: kindle	I've been playing around with the format conversions laterly, and after 1 or two those done, you are flying through

04-02-2009, 02:10 PM	#20
jimad Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 52 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle	Try putting the following on your Kindle and see what you think: http://www.freekindlebooks.org/Magic...icCatalog.mobi

04-02-2009, 02:28 PM	#21
carld Wizard Posts: 2,698 Karma: 4748723 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I just email the Gutenberg text files directly to my Kindle. Once you get past the front matter, the plain text is formatted just fine. The only things really missing are proper titles and authors.

04-03-2009, 11:41 AM	#22
jimad Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 52 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle	But why would you want to email plain text to your Kindle when you can just get the Magic Catalog, click on a book title from your Kindle, and a (more-or-less) properly formatted Kindle-compatible MOBI file automagically shows up via Whispernet on your Kindle, including correct Author and Title information?

04-04-2009, 05:24 PM	#26
jimad Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 52 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Kindle	Algernon Blackwood is in there -- it is fine by me if you have other ways you like to access books! I know that many people access other sites which really don't work for me. Magic Catalog works for me because I like to browse for books, I say oh that looks interesting, I just click through on it, I take a look at it and either like it or toss it. Without having to get up off my bottom. I also tend to Google from my desktop on a lot of technical writings and then by a long and circuitous path convert PDF to MOBI so that I can read technical stuff on Kindle without having to print it all out (which is even more painful!) But hey, whatever works to get you the books you want to read!

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