Reading on an iPad - a review

pwalker8 · 08-19-2016, 08:21 AM

This is one of those posts that that doesn't really fit well in a specific forum. Basically, I want to talk about two products, Calibre Companion and Marvin, that combine library management with ebook reading, and what I like and find lacking in both.

The Marvin 3.0 reboot is a very good enhancement of my main ebook reader on the iPad. It's one of those products that is slightly frustrating in that it's extremely good, but is slightly lacking in certain areas that would make it perfect (IMPO).

The primary lack is the support of syncing with Calibre. This is a functionality that use to be there and is promised, but seems to be on a back burner. Perhaps it's not nearly as important to many others who don't read on multiple devices, but being able to keep my two main reading devices in sync with my Calibre instance was such a nice experience. I want it back badly.

A secondary lack is the ability to manually order books in a list. iBooks has that feature and it's very closely matches how I go about keeping track of what I haven't read and what I want to read.

As far as the actual reading experience, it works great for me. It syncs well between devices (a big improvement over Marvin 2.0 in that regard) and it's very easy for me to be reading a book on my iPad pro down stairs in the easy chair, then pick up my iPad mini and either continue reading when I leave the house or go to bed. I also prefer the reading experience to any of the other ebook programs out there. It's kind of hard to explain by it but rather than try to mimic the way a book looks, it makes good use of the iPad.

The other program that I'm playing with is the Caibre companion. I can't really review it since it's in alpha and I'm sure there are a lot of features which will be added to. But you can play with the mature Android version of the program to get a feel for how it works.

The way it works is it sync up with the Calibre, and then when you want to read, it will hand the book to a third party ebook program. So far I like it a lot. The downside to CC is that since it hands off to a third party ebook reader, so you have to remember to mark a book as read.

It will be interesting to see if the authors incorporate some of the standard Apple features or stick with making it a pure port and keep the two versions as close as possible.

As an aside, I do have to wonder sometimes if I'm the only person out there that has a large library and likes to organize my to be read books in manually ordered lists. It's how I organize my to be read list for audiobooks (iTunes playlist and iBook manually sorted categories to be specific). It's odd to me that iBooks is the only program between Kindle, iBooks, Marvin and Calibre that has this feature.

HarryT · 08-19-2016, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

As an aside, I do have to wonder sometimes if I'm the only person out there that has a large library and likes to organize my to be read books in manually ordered lists. It's how I organize my to be read list for audiobooks (iTunes playlist and iBook manually sorted categories to be specific). It's odd to me that iBooks is the only program between Kindle, iBooks, Marvin and Calibre that has this feature.

Personally speaking, my only reason for ordering books is to arrange books correctly within a series, and I do that using a Calibre plugboard.

pwalker8 · 08-19-2016, 10:50 AM

Arranging in series order is part of it and both CC and Marvin handle series well.

I guess the best way to explain what I'm talking about is to go over how I use to do things with physical books. Since I tend to buy books in groups rather than one at a time, I would put all my unread books on one pile, with the books I was most interested in at the top of the pile. If I am in the mood for a particular type of book, I sort through the pile, pulling out all the books that match that criteria. Once I have all those books, I look at them, and maybe leaf through a couple of them and decide which one to read next.

This keeps books from being buried or lost in the stack. It's fairly handy if you have a big to be read stack.

HarryT · 08-19-2016, 11:23 AM

Fair enough - I do understand.

Loosheesh · 08-19-2016, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

As an aside, I do have to wonder sometimes if I'm the only person out there that has a large library and likes to organize my to be read books in manually ordered lists.

I would like manual ordering as well. With Marvin, I use the "date last opened" sort option as a workaround. When I decide on a new pile, I put them in a collection (something like "[month] TBR" or "Currently Reading" etc), and the book I want to read last, I open first, and go on this way till I open last the book I want to read first. It's not ideal and gets frustrating after a while, but what else to do?

pendragginp · 08-19-2016, 07:32 PM

It sounds so complicated, how do you have time to actually read?

pwalker8 · 08-19-2016, 08:46 PM

It's not really all that complex. It comes in handy this time of year when there aren't that many new books that I'm interested in, so I'm going back through my to be read pile to find something. This is also the time of year where I take more chances with new authors. Fortunately in a week or so, I have some pre-orders coming out, about one a week from labor day through the first week of November.

08-19-2016, 08:21 AM	#1
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	Reading on an iPad - a review This is one of those posts that that doesn't really fit well in a specific forum. Basically, I want to talk about two products, Calibre Companion and Marvin, that combine library management with ebook reading, and what I like and find lacking in both. The Marvin 3.0 reboot is a very good enhancement of my main ebook reader on the iPad. It's one of those products that is slightly frustrating in that it's extremely good, but is slightly lacking in certain areas that would make it perfect (IMPO). The primary lack is the support of syncing with Calibre. This is a functionality that use to be there and is promised, but seems to be on a back burner. Perhaps it's not nearly as important to many others who don't read on multiple devices, but being able to keep my two main reading devices in sync with my Calibre instance was such a nice experience. I want it back badly. A secondary lack is the ability to manually order books in a list. iBooks has that feature and it's very closely matches how I go about keeping track of what I haven't read and what I want to read. As far as the actual reading experience, it works great for me. It syncs well between devices (a big improvement over Marvin 2.0 in that regard) and it's very easy for me to be reading a book on my iPad pro down stairs in the easy chair, then pick up my iPad mini and either continue reading when I leave the house or go to bed. I also prefer the reading experience to any of the other ebook programs out there. It's kind of hard to explain by it but rather than try to mimic the way a book looks, it makes good use of the iPad. The other program that I'm playing with is the Caibre companion. I can't really review it since it's in alpha and I'm sure there are a lot of features which will be added to. But you can play with the mature Android version of the program to get a feel for how it works. The way it works is it sync up with the Calibre, and then when you want to read, it will hand the book to a third party ebook program. So far I like it a lot. The downside to CC is that since it hands off to a third party ebook reader, so you have to remember to mark a book as read. It will be interesting to see if the authors incorporate some of the standard Apple features or stick with making it a pure port and keep the two versions as close as possible. As an aside, I do have to wonder sometimes if I'm the only person out there that has a large library and likes to organize my to be read books in manually ordered lists. It's how I organize my to be read list for audiobooks (iTunes playlist and iBook manually sorted categories to be specific). It's odd to me that iBooks is the only program between Kindle, iBooks, Marvin and Calibre that has this feature.

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08-19-2016, 10:50 AM	#3
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	Arranging in series order is part of it and both CC and Marvin handle series well. I guess the best way to explain what I'm talking about is to go over how I use to do things with physical books. Since I tend to buy books in groups rather than one at a time, I would put all my unread books on one pile, with the books I was most interested in at the top of the pile. If I am in the mood for a particular type of book, I sort through the pile, pulling out all the books that match that criteria. Once I have all those books, I look at them, and maybe leaf through a couple of them and decide which one to read next. This keeps books from being buried or lost in the stack. It's fairly handy if you have a big to be read stack.

08-19-2016, 11:23 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Fair enough - I do understand.

08-19-2016, 07:32 PM	#6
pendragginp Guru Posts: 985 Karma: 4567263 Join Date: May 2009 Location: The End Of The Earth Device: Several	It sounds so complicated, how do you have time to actually read?

08-19-2016, 08:46 PM	#7
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	It's not really all that complex. It comes in handy this time of year when there aren't that many new books that I'm interested in, so I'm going back through my to be read pile to find something. This is also the time of year where I take more chances with new authors. Fortunately in a week or so, I have some pre-orders coming out, about one a week from labor day through the first week of November.