Managing iPad books

HowardBrazee · 10-15-2010, 12:00 PM

I have several e-book apps on my new iPad. I also downloaded most of these on my Mac, along with Calibre. I only played a bit with Calibre, and haven't seen how to load converted books in the appropriate e-reader.

Apparently all but Kindle will read .epub books.

I don't know which readers or formats have advantages over others, other than I would need a significant advantage to select a proprietary format (which stores should I avoid?).

It's a pain to have to remember which reader has which book. What do you recommend for me to do to manage my books?

HarryT · 10-15-2010, 12:29 PM

Amazon has, pretty much beyond question, the best bookstore around. Might be as well to stick with them for buying books.

HowardBrazee · 10-15-2010, 12:40 PM

Kindle makes things automatic. But I do download free classics from other sources, which I want as well. And isn't the Amazon format proprietary?

Leep · 10-15-2010, 12:51 PM

Quote:

I only played a bit with Calibre, and haven't seen how to load converted books in the appropriate e-reader.

The best thing is to use Calibre as a repository for all your ebooks. That is one of it's strengths. You will probably need to use ibooks on your iPad. You can get ebooks from Calibre into your iPad via iTunes. Use the Calibre share/connect menu.

cheers

Rob_E · 10-15-2010, 01:32 PM

I don't like having all of my books spread out into different apps, either. Basically I have been trying to settle on the best, non-DRM, epub reader and put all my non-DRM books into that. Then, when buying ebooks, I first try to find a non-DRM source, which can be difficult, and, failing that, I buy from Amazon because they have the biggest selection and they seem to have software to support just about any platform. Also, if you really want to, and you don't mind stepping into a legal grey area, you can convert your Kindle books into a DRM-free epub. I figure if I go with any other vendor, they will not have the selection that Amazon has, and, as a result, some titles are going to end up being Amazon titles anyway, giving at least two DRM formats to deal with. Whereas if I with Amazon, I may get away with not having to deal with anyone else's DRM, and might be able to avoid adding yet another ebook app.

Even if you can free all of your books from DRM, though, I still find that different formats work best in different applications. I know that many ebook readers have pdf support, but on iOS devices, I haven't seen any pdf support that works better than GoodReader. As a result, my ebooks are spread out over three iOS apps: Kindle, Stanza (which could switch to iBooks, but right now I'm sticking with Stanza), and GoodReader.

I use Calibre to manage my epub and pdf books, and I let my Kindle books just live on Amazon's server and on the individual devices that have Kindle aps. I could, and perhaps should, download the actual files via the desktop app, so that I have backups, but I haven't done that yet.

So Calibre organizes the actual files, and does format conversions when necessary, and Stanza and GoodReader receives those files on the iPad. I usually use Calibre's server capabilities to get books into Stanza, and I usually just add files manually to GoodReader via iTunes. It's not elegant, and it does leave your books in separate piles based on format.

To keep track of all of my books? I use Librarything.com. When I add a book, print or electronic or audio (oh, yeah, audio books are managed solely by iTunes, but also accessible via the Audible app on the iPad if that's where I purchased them from), I add it to the appropriate collection based on general format (print, electronic, audio), and then I add tags to pin down a more specific format or proprietary DRM (epub, kindle, audible, pdf). That way, if I want to find a book and don't remember the source, Librarything will tell me where it's hiding. I haven't tried using Calibre to organize books by source/format, preferring to use it just for non-DRM books, but it's possible you could use Calibre the way I use Librarything if Calibre has any kind of support for collections, lists, or tags. But I do not know if Calibre is capable of feeding your files into different apps based on content.

It's not a nice, clean, solution, but it's been working for me so far. I am curious to see how others are dealing with this issue, too.

toomanybooks · 10-15-2010, 02:31 PM

I also use Stanza and Goodreader to read all my ebooks on the Ipad. I would add that you can use Dropbox to move files to Goodreader without using Itunes. Between Calibre, Dropbox, Stanza and Goodreader I never have to hook my Ipad up to the computer to load books.

HarryT · 10-15-2010, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HowardBrazee

Kindle makes things automatic. But I do download free classics from other sources, which I want as well. And isn't the Amazon format proprietary?

It's Mobipocket. Yes, it's propretary, but supported on a wide range of devices. Propietary is not (in this case) synonymous with "not well supported".

holterzoff · 10-15-2010, 03:40 PM

Hi, ibooks as PDF reader is simple but fast. So I only use iBooks mainly for epubs but also for some scanned PDFs. With calibre as host application a very simple and fast setup.
Regards
P.s. : another advantage of iBooks is the usability on both of my devices and always in sync.

Rob_E · 10-15-2010, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by holterzoff

Hi, ibooks as PDF reader is simple but fast. So I only use iBooks mainly for epubs but also for some scanned PDFs. With calibre as host application a very simple and fast setup.
Regards
P.s. : another advantage of iBooks is the usability on both of my devices and always in sync.

Between device syncing is the one reason I am tempted by iBooks, but at present I only have one iBooks-capable device, so for me it's only a potential feature.

As for pdf support, I have to disagree. I dropped a pdf book into iBooks and found it slow to render the pages. Not just slow, but it gave no visual cues that it was even working on the pages. I thought I was looking at a blank page (it was a page-by-page scan of a book, so blank pages were not out of the question), but when every page I looked at ended up being blank, I went back to the beginning and saw that it was simply taking it's sweet time to show me what was on the page. Dropped that same book into GoodReader and the pages were not only rendered into readable text more quickly, but a little icon popped up during the process to let me know that the program was still working on completing the page.
This was done with a "pure" scan, which is to say that each page was essentially an image with no text data. I can easily believe that the rendering lag would not be as long or as troublesome with a pdf that contained text information, but I'm already dividing out my books by format, so I'm not going to further divide them out by pdf's with text info and pdf's without text info.

However if the OP does have text-based pdfs and/or the lag does not bother them, keeping epubs and pdfs together in the same application would be preferable. I have it in my head, although I could be remembering wrong, that Stanza also supports pdfs, but I don't know how capable it is. If that's the case, Stanza would continue to be a contender for your all-in-one ebook application.

holterzoff · 10-15-2010, 05:59 PM

Quote:

As for pdf support, I have to disagree. I dropped a pdf book into iBooks and found it slow to render the pages.

I am surprised, have you tested with different PDFs? I have several PDFs on my iPad, all scanned full-page (images), and all are rendered very fast. The biggest file is about 80mb, which is quite large and it takes about a second to render a page. I also have goodreader and experience no difference or only marginal advantages for goodreader. As I said I'm not that much into PDFs, but just for reading iBooks is fine for me. Maybe you give it another shot with a different PDF.

lazyartist · 10-19-2010, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob_E

As for pdf support, I have to disagree. I dropped a pdf book into iBooks and found it slow to render the pages.

I am a 100% certain you have a corrupted, or a bunch of corrupted PDf's. Either that, or you need to update to the latest ibooks.
I have over 1000+ books, stories, letters, etc... all in pdf format in my ibooks, (I love Calibre!) and unless the pdf is bad I have no lagg or problems in displaying them on my ipad.

Actually the only pdf I ever remember having problems with was a 50 meg image pdf about us maps. I converted the pdf to epub, deleted the original pdf, and reconverted it, and had no further problem.

Also on a personal note, I think the PDF format is the worst format to use for reading books. It is an end format originally intended for one page wysiwyg and there are no standards of font size and formatting, from publisher to publisher, and often from book to book from the same publisher. And when ever you try to convert a pdf to a different format, you always get page numbers, headers, and footers appearing in the middle of the page, and often in the middle of a sentence. (Which is why I have everything in pdf format instead of some in epub format since I like having everything all on one list and I hate bad formatting. And with an ipad if you cant read a book in landscape view, you can read it in portrait view).
/end rant against another adobe created product that fails.

murraypaul · 10-19-2010, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazyartist

rant against another adobe created product that fails.

Shrug. It doesn't fail, it just isn't meant for what people are trying to use it for.
PDF is excellent at what it is meant for, exactly reproducing the layout of a printed page. It is crappy at being a generally ebook format for viewing at multiple sizes/layouts.

xristy · 10-19-2010, 05:46 AM

I'm currently using Bluefire Reader for DRM'd PDFs and ePubs in general (DRM'd and not). I'm using iAnnotate which I like rather better than Goodreader these days after the recent spate of improvements - both are really good but the tabbed access to open PDFs has me really favoring iAnnotate these days. I use Kindle for stuff that I can't get otherwise and it is really good as well with the new 2-column option in landscape mode. iBooks Txtr and Stanza have no benefits for me beyond the three apps above.

10-15-2010, 12:00 PM	#1
HowardBrazee Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Lafayette, CO Device: iPad	Managing iPad books I have several e-book apps on my new iPad. I also downloaded most of these on my Mac, along with Calibre. I only played a bit with Calibre, and haven't seen how to load converted books in the appropriate e-reader. Apparently all but Kindle will read .epub books. I don't know which readers or formats have advantages over others, other than I would need a significant advantage to select a proprietary format (which stores should I avoid?). It's a pain to have to remember which reader has which book. What do you recommend for me to do to manage my books?

10-15-2010, 03:40 PM	#8
holterzoff Connoisseur Posts: 67 Karma: 3052 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: cologne Device: kindle3w, Ipad, iphone4	Hi, ibooks as PDF reader is simple but fast. So I only use iBooks mainly for epubs but also for some scanned PDFs. With calibre as host application a very simple and fast setup. Regards P.s. : another advantage of iBooks is the usability on both of my devices and always in sync. Last edited by holterzoff; 10-15-2010 at 03:45 PM.

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10-15-2010, 12:29 PM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Amazon has, pretty much beyond question, the best bookstore around. Might be as well to stick with them for buying books.

10-15-2010, 12:40 PM	#3
HowardBrazee Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Lafayette, CO Device: iPad	Kindle makes things automatic. But I do download free classics from other sources, which I want as well. And isn't the Amazon format proprietary?

10-15-2010, 01:32 PM	#5
Rob_E Connoisseur Posts: 73 Karma: 154004 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: iPod Touch/iPad	I don't like having all of my books spread out into different apps, either. Basically I have been trying to settle on the best, non-DRM, epub reader and put all my non-DRM books into that. Then, when buying ebooks, I first try to find a non-DRM source, which can be difficult, and, failing that, I buy from Amazon because they have the biggest selection and they seem to have software to support just about any platform. Also, if you really want to, and you don't mind stepping into a legal grey area, you can convert your Kindle books into a DRM-free epub. I figure if I go with any other vendor, they will not have the selection that Amazon has, and, as a result, some titles are going to end up being Amazon titles anyway, giving at least two DRM formats to deal with. Whereas if I with Amazon, I may get away with not having to deal with anyone else's DRM, and might be able to avoid adding yet another ebook app. Even if you can free all of your books from DRM, though, I still find that different formats work best in different applications. I know that many ebook readers have pdf support, but on iOS devices, I haven't seen any pdf support that works better than GoodReader. As a result, my ebooks are spread out over three iOS apps: Kindle, Stanza (which could switch to iBooks, but right now I'm sticking with Stanza), and GoodReader. I use Calibre to manage my epub and pdf books, and I let my Kindle books just live on Amazon's server and on the individual devices that have Kindle aps. I could, and perhaps should, download the actual files via the desktop app, so that I have backups, but I haven't done that yet. So Calibre organizes the actual files, and does format conversions when necessary, and Stanza and GoodReader receives those files on the iPad. I usually use Calibre's server capabilities to get books into Stanza, and I usually just add files manually to GoodReader via iTunes. It's not elegant, and it does leave your books in separate piles based on format. To keep track of all of my books? I use Librarything.com. When I add a book, print or electronic or audio (oh, yeah, audio books are managed solely by iTunes, but also accessible via the Audible app on the iPad if that's where I purchased them from), I add it to the appropriate collection based on general format (print, electronic, audio), and then I add tags to pin down a more specific format or proprietary DRM (epub, kindle, audible, pdf). That way, if I want to find a book and don't remember the source, Librarything will tell me where it's hiding. I haven't tried using Calibre to organize books by source/format, preferring to use it just for non-DRM books, but it's possible you could use Calibre the way I use Librarything if Calibre has any kind of support for collections, lists, or tags. But I do not know if Calibre is capable of feeding your files into different apps based on content. It's not a nice, clean, solution, but it's been working for me so far. I am curious to see how others are dealing with this issue, too.

10-15-2010, 02:31 PM	#6
toomanybooks Addict Posts: 302 Karma: 1039424 Join Date: Apr 2009 Device: Ipad, Ipod Touch, KIndle Fire	I also use Stanza and Goodreader to read all my ebooks on the Ipad. I would add that you can use Dropbox to move files to Goodreader without using Itunes. Between Calibre, Dropbox, Stanza and Goodreader I never have to hook my Ipad up to the computer to load books.

10-19-2010, 05:46 AM	#13
xristy Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 210 Join Date: Sep 2007 Device: iPad	I'm currently using Bluefire Reader for DRM'd PDFs and ePubs in general (DRM'd and not). I'm using iAnnotate which I like rather better than Goodreader these days after the recent spate of improvements - both are really good but the tabbed access to open PDFs has me really favoring iAnnotate these days. I use Kindle for stuff that I can't get otherwise and it is really good as well with the new 2-column option in landscape mode. iBooks Txtr and Stanza have no benefits for me beyond the three apps above.

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