Managing and reading on the iPad

[pwalker8]

Now that the Kindles app for the iPad/iPhone has added collections, all three ebook reading apps that I use, iBook, Kindle and Marvin, have the ability to manage the library better.

For me, Marvin still has the most flexibility, it supports collections, series and works with Calibre. The down side is I don't seem to be able to manually order books and the UI isn't quite as slick as the other two. Sync works in some areas, not in others.

iBooks allows collections, categories and manual ordering. It also syncs between iBooks on the Mac and iBooks on the iPad. Downside, doesn't support series, doesn't allow editing of categories. Sync seems to have a few bugs (for example, last read doesn't seem to sync). Doesn't allow books to be in multiple collections (big downside for me)

Kindle allows collections, allows books to be in multiple collections. Doesn't support series.

None of the three completely meet my needs, but they are all getting a lot closer. I plan to play with all three over the next couple of weeks and see which one suits me best.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

For me, Marvin still has the most flexibility, it supports collections, series and works with Calibre. The down side is I don't seem to be able to manually order books

This is a recorded feature request:

https://github.com/kguil/Marvin-Roadmap/issues/142

so it might appear in Marvin in future.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Sync works in some areas, not in others.

This is definitely on the schedule of Marvin's development:

https://github.com/kguil/Marvin-Roadmap/issues/109

and it's possibly at the top of the priorities list.

Originally Posted by pwalker8

the UI [of Marvin's Library] isn't quite as slick as the other two

I agree that this could be improved. The right-hand panel is a serviceable solution, but it all appears to be "squeezed" into a narrow space there. Someone commented here the other day, that for managing large amounts of books, nothing can beat the dead app, Stanza, even today. I agree.

But, you know, to me the question of managing books, or even of the entire library, is of decidedly secondary importance compared to the reading experience. When it comes to that, it's no contest -- Marvin crushes both iBooks and Kindle and their crude lack of customisation options, poor annotations functionality, etc.

[kguil]

@pwalker8 Sync is Marvin is considerably more difficult since books can come from arbitrary sources and I don't "own" the underlying cloud service to tune it for book syncing. Still this is something I'm putting a lot of work in and expect substantial improvements in the coming months.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by kguil

@pwalker8 Sync is Marvin is considerably more difficult since books can come from arbitrary sources and I don't "own" the underlying cloud service to tune it for book syncing. Still this is something I'm putting a lot of work in and expect substantial improvements in the coming months.

I understand. The syncing of location with in a book works quite well. The ability of manage marvin categories from within Calibre is a bit rough, but I suspect you don't control that either. One suggestion that I would make is to show what categories a book is in from within the meta data screen.

[pwalker8]

I've been playing around with what I consider the three main book reading apps that have library management. To give an idea of my basic criteria, i.e. how I like to do things, let me go through how I generally decide what to read next.

It's based on how I use to do things pre ebooks. With the exception of books that I haven't read yet, I have my library organized in a fairly standard way, by category and by author within the category. The unread books are on their own shelf (well, technically they were in a stack by my easy chair, but that sounds so messy) with the books that I plan to read next on the top. Books in the process of being read are on their own shelf/stack.

When I am ready for a new book, I look at the to be read stack. If I find that I'm not in the mood for any of them, then I go to the library and scan through it for something that fits my mood.

Unfortunately, none of the three products will let me work in that manner. Marvin's big draw back, for me, is that I can't order the to read category manually. iBook's big draw backs are that a book can be in only one category and it doesn't support series. Kindle's big draw backs are it can't be ordered manually and it doesn't support series.

The bottom line is that all three will get the job done. iBooks and Kindle have the advantages of big bucks behind them and the ability to buy a book and have it downloaded over the web automatically. Marvin is more responsive to customer requests and gives at least a degree of integration with calibre. Right now, I suspect that I'm going to be using Marvin more and more since I see the most potential for it working the way I want it to work. It syncs pretty well with Calibre and if it every adds manual ordering and better support of categories in calibre, then I will be a very happy man indeed.

[Faterson]

Indeed, pwalker8, your final paragraph is the true bottom line. Good luck waiting for mega-corporations like Apple or Amazon or Google or Microsoft obliging your feature requests -- you might as well wait for Godot.

It really is ironic and almost perverse: the larger a corporation is, the more money it has and the more support staff it employs, the less likely it us to care about your feature requests, truly giving them consideration.

To mega-corporations like Apple or Amazon, a single customer's wishes are less than an atomic particle of dust. They couldn't care less. Yes, for PR propaganda purposes, they need to pretend as if they cared about each and every one of us. But just try to get something really done, and you will quickly discover the brutal disconnect between words (PR) and reality.

Nothing is more indicative of a software developer's lack of interest in their customers' real needs than that there is not even a "submit feedback / support query" option anywhere in the iBooks app.

[kguil]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I understand. The syncing of location with in a book works quite well. The ability of manage marvin categories from within Calibre is a bit rough, but I suspect you don't control that either. One suggestion that I would make is to show what categories a book is in from within the meta data screen.

I work very closely with GRiker, the developer of the calibre plugin. I suggest you post a feature request on the plugin's thread here on MR or on GitHub (sorry, I'm mobile and don't have the links handy).

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

The ability of manage marvin categories from within Calibre is a bit rough, but I suspect you don't control that either. One suggestion that I would make is to show what categories a book is in from within the meta data screen.

@pwalker8, here is the general link for the Marvin XD plugin, and here is the link for the Marvin XD GitHub site where you can post feature requests for Marvin XD.

You can see what collections a book is in by double-clicking a book's cell in the Collections column in Marvin XD.

G

[pwalker8]

I read the thread in the plugin forum and played a bit with things. Basically, I got everything working by disabling one of my other plugins and getting the Marvin XD plugin. Now, it all works pretty well.