Problems with page breaks/blank pages/line spaces

[Notjohn]

It's not just phones. I was sent a PDF advance copy of a book to be published in June. Usually I can handle this on my 8-inch Fire tablet, but this one is a large-format book, and though I'm fascinated by the subject and indeed maintain a website about it, I finally quit reading. It's just too aggravating. So Yale University Press will go without a review of the fourth volume of a rather ambitious project, three of which I have previously reviewed and recommended. It's not the only flaw in their marketing plan (charging $85 for a hardcover when the previous three volumes were $24 paperbacks) but it's pretty bad. All because they weren't willing to send out the actual book or an ARC or at the very least bound galleys.

And if I had PAID for the book? Back it would go for refund.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

Note that only one of these, the MOBI for MN 1 The Root of All Evil, has the latest css.

I don't see anything in these books that would require anything out of the ordinary.

Just plain, simple HTML+CSS is all that's needed. The simpler and cleaner you do things, it's much less likely to break across devices/formats.

Remember: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!).

Instead of having this:

Spoiler:

<p class="f4">He takes Radiant Beings as Radiant Beings.</p>

<p class="f4">Taking Radiant Beings for Radiant Beings, he conceptualizes Radiant Beings.</p>

<p class="f4">He thinks about Radiant Beings.</p>

<p class="f4">He thinks of Radiant Beings in whatever ways he thinks of Radiant Beings.</p>

<p class="f4">He thinks in terms of "My" with regard to Radiant Beings.</p>

<p class="f4">He takes delight in Radiant Beings.</p>

<p class="f4">How come?</p>

<p class="f4">Because this matter is not fully understood by him,<br/>
so I say.</p>

this is ~ the typical poetry code I use:

<div class="poem">
	<div class="stanza">
		<p class="line">He takes Radiant Beings as Radiant Beings.</p>
		<p class="line">Taking Radiant Beings for Radiant Beings, he conceptualizes Radiant Beings.</p>
		<p class="line">[...]</p>
	</div>
</div>

There are 3 key parts:

• Each poem gets wrapped in a <div class="poem">
• Each stanza gets wrapped in a <div class="stanza">
• Each line gets wrapped in a <p class="line">
  
  • Note: Some people like to use <div> here instead of <p>... since a line of poetry is arguably NOT a paragraph.

Helpful Note: And it's all human-readable names—like "poem" and "stanza"... not "f4" + "ctr c".

* * *

And this is the CSS:

div.poem {
    margin-top: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
    margin-left: 2em;
}

div.stanza {
    margin-top: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
}

p.line {
    text-align: left;
    text-indent: -2em;
    margin-left: 2em;
}

(Optional) You may even want to toss in a "page-break-inside: avoid;" in your stanza.

What this CSS says:

• For each poem:
  
  • Give a little top/bottom margin to separate the poems from each other.
    
  • Also an extra left margin. (In nearly all poetry I do, it's offset like a blockquote.)
• For each stanza:
  
  • Give a little top/bottom margin to separate the stanzas from each other.
    
  • Note: I took a quick look through, and I think there's only 1 poem in there where you have 2 stanzas separated with '§'. The rest all seem standalone.
    
  • (Optional) The page-break code says: "Hey, device! When you're splitting pages, please keep these stanzas in one chunk. Try to shove your page breaks between stanzas and NOT between the lines." Most devices ignore this.
    
• For each line:
  
  • Make left-aligned.
    
    • Nearly all poetry is left-aligned, not justified.
  • IF the line becomes too long to fit within the page, create a "negative indent".
    

* * *

Why is negative indent important?

Compare (Original vs. Adjusted):



1. Something that looks like a single line in print (on a huge 8"x11" page)... can easily become 2+ lines at large font sizes or on a skinny device like a cellphone.

2. A 2-liner in your non-indented version is very hard to tell. Is that one large line that went over? Or is that an actual separate line of poetry?

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

Here is a link to my "What's New?" page where I have announced the availability of several e-books, mostly PDFs but several that also have e-pub; mobi; and azw3 formats. As stated earlier, these are free to download and are in the Public Domain.

Side Note: I love the Public Domain as much as anyone, but sadly, the way copyright is currently set up is "very sticky"—copyright is now assigned automatically, for 100+ years, and doesn't allow you to release things into the public domain at all.

The closest you can get is releasing your works as Creative Commons 0 (CC0) or CC-BY 4.0:

https://creativecommons.org/share-yo...ic-domain/cc0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

(Although CC0 is arguably unenforceable.)

If the original translation is pre-1925 though, you're good to go. (Years after that get a bit more complicated.)

Note: I skimmed through your site + see you have CC3.0 on your pages. Perhaps consider updating to 4.0. Creative Commons has since made some changes to apply much more internationally:

https://creativecommons.org/version4/

Originally Posted by Notjohn

It's not just phones. I was sent a PDF advance copy of a book to be published in June. Usually I can handle this on my 8-inch Fire tablet, but this one is a large-format book, and though I'm fascinated by the subject [...], I finally quit reading. It's just too aggravating.

Yep, exactly.

And on most ereaders, reading PDFs are just sluggish and painful. Every page turn is a chore, every pan/scan lags, trying to highlight text and leave notes is horrendous.

Not to mention: Most people who design PDFs do not design with proper Accessibility in mind, so things like headers/footers are still "a part of the text" + figures/captions/tables are all botched and read out of order.

I always like to link to one of my favorite talks from ebookcraft 2019: "The User's Perspective: Accessibility Features in Action", which was given by a blind person and explained many of the pitfalls of poorly converted ebooks.

[olbeggaols]

Hello Tex,

I thank you for your attention to my work and for your suggestions.

I do not know how to respond to this without seeming like a cranky stubborn old man ... which I am ... but I will make an effort not to tick you off.

You are looking at code, and that from the narrow perspective of these e-book devices. I am looking at the meaning of the text and the amount of work it would take to adopt your style. I am set in my ways after 20+ years of this and as this thread demonstrates, learning new stuff is a real problem.

These lines are not poetry, they are single paragraphs broken up into sentences given one new line each. In theory at least a person is to stop and think at the full stop, period, end of sentence. These works are more like scripts for a movie. They were written down from an oral tradition and should be read as though they were being spoken: very slowly and disṭinctly, one sentence at a time. In other cases the sentences will be broken up into meaningful phrases.

I do not care if my code is readable by others. The text of my files is readable in source because that is how I like it, but virtually nobody in my audience will ever be looking at the code. (Well there are, interestingly enough, a disproportionate number of tech experts in my audience and I admit they will probably look at the code, but the code is not the important thing.)

I have converted files from another site that uses code for poems (these works do have poetery) identical to that which you suggest and have found it more burdensome than the coding I use and it clutters the file equally or moreso.

My code for poetry is simplicity itself:

<p class="in2"> <br />
<br />
<br /></p>

I have many thousands of files on that site, all coded in this way; balance out the possibility of work saved by your method (not by my count) and work created by making the change and factor in a typesetter with only a few more years left on his sentence vs 20+/- years needed for the re-do and ...

by my count my code for this is less typing than yours.

Using my text editor, the next generation that comes along and wants to put these works into some other format needs to press two keys: "Macros" "Strip Tags". He will then be free to recode according as he wishes.

I do not care if these works do not appear on phones. First: these works are 'sacred' and reading suttas on a phone is disrespectful — it shows haste. This stuff needs to be studied; it is not for casual entertainment. In truth it should not even be on the web. In truth, it should never have been put into writing. But we are weak and sentimental and wish to make the valuable available to the many. One way is enough to be able to say: "It is available. Easily copied. Free to use in any way you see fit." That will satisfy me when I think that I had a responsibility to pass along the information I had. Adding to the cyborgization of the human race via these things is not in my interest.

Now that I have had a little expereience with e-pub etc. I feel almost the same way about those devices. Reading in this way is not conducive to deep concentration. This is not yet a place for this stuff.

Copyright. The law is self-contradictory and in a sane uncorrupted world would be tossed. If I own a thing then I should be able to do with it as I wish (that is basic Buddhism; I could probably win my case claiming religious freedom), and anyone following my wish is free from guilt. I will act according to my beliefs in this case. I doubt it will be objected to by anyone. The law was made for Disney who wants to keep making money off Miki Mouse and authors like Mark Twain who wants his work to keep making money for his family. Fine. Go to it. That is not my thing. Leave me alone. In my case, by the nature of these works, selling them is against the rules and amounts to 'thieving in the name of the Lord.' I didn't create this work, I am merely translating it. It doesn't belong to me or to anyone. Copyrighting that work would be claiming an ownership I do not have. Translation depends on the original, and by that belongs to the original. So say I. You are talking law; I am talking ethics. On the positive side, I believe in what is being taught in these works, and that is generosity, a sophisticated ethical code, self discipline and the development of the mind and these are things I want to see available for learning both for those who have money and for those who do not. I think I am a very small fish in a very large pond and as there is no money in either my own work for me or my own work for future generations, and further there are already hundreds of copies of these files 'out there' I think it very unlikely that anyone will think it in their interest to contest my putting them into the Public Domain and chase down all the others who have made and who distribute 'illegal' copies. There's no money in it.

If I have offended you by this rant, I apologize, it was not my intent to do so. Best of luck in your career.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

You are looking at code, and that from the narrow perspective of these e-book devices. I am looking at the meaning of the text and the amount of work it would take to adopt your style.

No. I take a long-term + long-run view across all formats (even ones that don't exist yet).

Clean + human-readable code is just as important as the text itself... and actually makes your life much EASIER in the long-run.

This also allows you to more quickly:

• Maintain the works
• Fix typos/bugs
  
  • and debug if any crop up.
• Convert between different formats

You spend a little bit of extra time up front, and you've saved yourself TONS of hours of headaches in the future.

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

I do not know how to respond to this without seeming like a cranky stubborn old man ... which I am ... but I will make an effort not to tick you off.

Old dogs can learn new tricks! Stop putting yourself down, you cranky old fart!

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

I am set in my ways after 20+ years of this and as this thread demonstrates, learning new stuff is a real problem.

That's okay, people are here to help.

If anything I've said is confusing for you, or you need more reasoning, I can break it down further.

Hopefully you'll learn to do it the clean/"correct" way, then you'll have 20+ more years of ebook creation!

And from all the time saved by having maintainable books, who knows how many other extra Buddhism texts you'd convert and get out there!

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

These lines are not poetry, they are single paragraphs broken up into sentences given one new line each. In theory at least a person is to stop and think at the full stop, period, end of sentence. These works are more like scripts for a movie. They were written down from an oral tradition and should be read as though they were being spoken: very slowly and disṭinctly, one sentence at a time. In other cases the sentences will be broken up into meaningful phrases.

Okay. Poetry or poetry-like sentences, doesn't matter to me.

Then name your 3 classes:

- "scripts"
- "sentences"
- "phrases"

Similar negative indentation concepts should apply.

It would make these works infinitely more readable. Because right now, I skimmed through the PDFs... and the layout itself made for a very tough read.

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

[...] The text of my files is readable in source because that is how I like it, but virtually nobody in my audience will ever be looking at the code.

Hmm... so this:

<p class="f4">I H<span class="f2">EAR</span> T<span class="f2">ELL:</span></p>

more readable than:

<p><span class="smallcaps">I Hear Tell:</span></p>

This is news to me!

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

(Well there are, interestingly enough, a disproportionate number of tech experts in my audience and I admit they will probably look at the code, but the code is not the important thing.)

You're right, the clean code is even more important.

Now you're getting it!

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

I have converted files from another site that uses code for poems (these works do have poetery) identical to that which you suggest and have found it more burdensome than the coding I use and it clutters the file equally or moreso.

The poetry poem/stanza/line code looks a little more complicated up front, but the support across all reading devices will be infinitely better... as you can tell from your Kobo/Kindle issues!

I'll even make it easier for you. Here's three Find/Replaces:

Note: In Sigil, Press Ctrl+F. You see the "Mode" dropdown? Make sure to put Sigil into Regex mode.

Find: <p class="f4">
Replace: <p class="line">

Find: <p class="ctr c">(.)</p>
Replace: </div></div> <p class="break">\1</p> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza">

Then you run a:

Find: <br/>
Replace: </p> <p class="line">

Then press the "Prettify" code button in Sigil/Calibre, and bing, bang, boom... 99.9% of the work is done.

All you'd need to fix is the <div>s for the first/last poems.

Now what's so hard about that?

* * *

Side Note: You can even save these three in Sigil as "Saved Searches". Then all you have to do is press a single button!

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

by my count my code for this is less typing than yours.

And? Readability? Maintainability? Getting help?

"Oh shoot, my line-spacing is broken and I'm getting crazy page breaks. Can anyone help me?"

"No problem, stubborn old dog. What's your code?"

Spoiler:

<p class="f4">Once Upon a Time, The Lucky Man,<br />
Ukkattha-Town,<br />
Good-luck Grove,<br />
at the root of the Old Sal Willow<br />
came a revisiting.</p>

<p class="f4">There, to the Beggars gathered round, he said:</p>

<p class="f4">"Beggars!"</p>

[...]

p {font: 1em "Times", "Times New Roman", serif;
   margin-top: 0;
   margin-bottom: 0px;
   }

.f4 {
   font: 1.1667em "Times", "Times New Roman", serif;
}

p.lgqt {
   margin-left: +36px;
   margin-top: 0;
   margin-bottom: 6px;
   margin-right: +36px;
   font: 1em "Times", "Times New Roman", serif;
   }

.ctr {
   text-align: center;
   }
.rt {
   text-align: right;
}
.left {
   text-align: left;
}
.just {
   text-align: justify;
}
.in1 {
   margin-left: 24px;
   }
.in2 {
   margin-left: 48px;
   }

.c {
   color: #cc6600;
   background: none repeat;
}

.g {
   color: green;
   background: none repeat;
}

.r {
   color: red;
   background: none repeat;
}

[...]

.hrctr {
	width: 25%;
	margin-left: auto;
	margin-right: auto;
   color: #cc6600;
   background: none repeat;
	}

"Ahhh yes. Perfectly readable. I know exactly what lgqt c g r means! I'll just pull a 180 and f2 + hrctr right out of here!"

* * *

Or Scenario #2:

"Hey, my ebook is acting weird. Can anyone help me?"

"Sure, what's your code?"

Spoiler:

<div class="poem">
	<div class="stanza">
		<p class="line">He takes Radiant Beings as Radiant Beings.</p>
		<p class="line">Taking Radiant Beings for Radiant Beings, he conceptualizes Radiant Beings.</p>
		<p class="line">[...]</p>
	</div>
</div>

div.poem {
    margin-top: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
    margin-left: 2em;
    page-break-before: always;
}

div.stanza {
    margin-top: 1em;
    margin-bottom: 1em;
}

p.line {
    text-align: left;
    text-indent: -2em;
    margin-left: 2em;
    page-break-before: always;
}

"Ahh, yes. No problem, my finely dressed (and non-stubborn) mature dog! Your problem is you accidentally did a page-break before every single one of your poems and lines!"

... now which dog would you rather be?

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

I do not care if these works do not appear on phones. [...] In truth it should not even be on the web. In truth, it should never have been put into writing.

Sadly, it took TOO LONG to digitize/translate all these Buddhist works.

Where certain other religious works were translated and brought around the world for hundreds (thousands) of years... Buddhism only was really translated to English in ~1880s.

Big shame.

And trying to keep this stuff completely off the internet only relegates it to the dustbin of history. How will you even get people interested/excited about topics if they don't even know it exists. (Another reason why you want your code to be as clean/maintainable as possible.)

I even wrote about this back in 2014: "Delicate text digitalizing + scanning issues":

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

I jumped ship from physical books once I stumbled upon the treasure trove of all PDFs/EPUBs for free. Now I will NEVER touch a physical book again (unless I have to digitize it).

I dedicate all my time now towards getting books into EPUB (VASTLY SUPERIOR to reading some crappy pictures/scanned PDF).

Most of the books that we work on went out of print, got lost in time, etc. etc. Now, ANYONE around the world can have access to them within a minute of searching/downloading.

Having them up in digital form is ALSO fantastic when you yourself are needing to use them for reference. You can quickly look up the PDF version, pull out what you need, and move on with typing your paper.

• Stone Ages:
  • Go to the library, they don't have it.
  • They search around... only one library across the country has it.
  • Weeks later, they get some dusty tome shipped to them.
    • Or better yet, it is locked up, and you have to spend a whole day traveling to get it.
  • Only one person can use the book at a time.
• Now:
  • Search in your browser
  • Download PDF/EPUB/XYZ format
  • Copy/Paste into your paper
  • Move on without ever having to leave your desk.
  • Everyone can use the book at the same time.

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

Now that I have had a little expereience with e-pub etc. I feel almost the same way about those devices. Reading in this way is not conducive to deep concentration. This is not yet a place for this stuff.

Bah, don't make excuses. You ran across a few stumbling blocks, then trying to write off an entire format. Preposterous.

You want to make a positive impact in the world?

Digitize your books properly and get them spread as far and wide as possible.

* * *

And you'll just have to get it through your thick head:

People read on these newfangled devices called... Personal Computers... and what's that? I can't hear you through my conch. Ahh yes, Cellular Phones.

And remember when we had to concentrate and take minutes chiselling a single letter into stone tablets? These new kids nowadays just smack a piece of paper down and scrape a stick of graphite over it in seconds... Damn technology! There's just no place for that!

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

Copyright. The law is self-contradictory and in a sane uncorrupted world would be tossed.

We're on the same page, my friend. Copyright needed to be abolished yesterday.

Luckily, there's this thing called The Internet, where most of these antiquated concepts locking books/knowledge away are effectively nullified.

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

I didn't create this work, I am merely translating it. It doesn't belong to me or to anyone.

So you're the original translator? Fantastic.

Definitely update to CC-BY 4.0 then. As I said, it's about as close as you can to Public Domain as currently allowed under this rotten system.

And CC-BY 4.0 will be more open and closer to Public Domain than CC-BY 3.0.

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

Copyrighting that work would be claiming an ownership I do not have.

Yep, sadly, there's no way you can relinquish copyrights.

Stephan Kinsella, "Let's Make Copyright Opt-OUT"

If you oppose IP and don’t want a patent–just don’t apply. Unfortunately, someone else might independently invent the same thing, patent it, and shut you down, since your having invented it first, or independently invented it, is no defense.

[...]

But if you don’t want copyright, you’re out of luck. Under the current law, copyright is received automatically. Contrary to popular wisdom, you don’t “copyright” something. It’s not a verb. You don’t need to put a copyright notice on your work. You don’t need to register it. It’s automatic. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Stephan Kinsella, "Copyright is Very Sticky!"

I’ve pointed out to such people innumerable times, to little avail, that copyright is a noun, not a verb–that you don’t “copyright” something–you have a copyright in your original works of authorship as soon as you write them, automatically, courtesy of federal law. No copyright notice is required. No copyright registration is required. You have the right, whether you like it or not.

Well, then, why don’t you just “make it public domain,” some then, a bit unreflectively, retort. The problem is, there is no clear and good way to do this.

[...]

Now, some have tried to find ways to let you abandon your copyright, or “dedicate” it to “the public.” [...]

Creative Commons has a proposed “Public Domain Dedication“, but: [...] there appear to be doubts as to whether it would work–and until it’s clear that it does, it’s worse than a CC license, since publishers would be afraid to rely on it. [...]

Originally Posted by olbeggaols

If I have offended you by this rant, I apologize, it was not my intent to do so. Best of luck in your career.

We have the same goals here. Freeing up these books and getting them in tip-top shape, enabling them to be read by as many as people as possible.

The entire purpose of books and writing is to change people's minds. This cleanup is helping you achieve that, in the present and the long-term future.

You'll thank me when a new Kindle or future-format XYZ comes out.

You'll say:

"Tex, you were amazing. My Buddhist scripts converted perfectly to futuristic e-scrolls—the papyrus transformed beneath my fingers, and the words were chanted to me slowly and methodically by the e-monks themselves... Just as it was originally intended."

[olbeggaols]

Thanks Tex

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

So you would rather return a book instead of pushing the button to set the alignment as you wish?!?!?

I can certainly understand returning a book if there was something preventing you from resetting it, but just because it makes you push the Aa, then the align: justify button....that's..... a little extreme...


But, that is totally your right to have your opinion and preferences!!

Most Kindles will *not* allow you to override align:left. Offered solely FWIW.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

>Weeks later, they get some dusty tome shipped to them.

I one time asked Inter-Library Loan to get a Japanese book for me. They found a copy in Australia. By the time it arrived from Oz, the loan had expired. It took all my charm to persuade the ILL librarian to extend the loan for a week. "Hey! How will they ever KNOW you didn't send it back on time?"

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Most Kindles will *not* allow you to override align:left. Offered solely FWIW.

Hitch

I can't remember now but doesn't the KFX format allow you to switch between ragged right and justified? (I'm thinking of text-align but you said align.)

One of the things I like about the Kobo is if you don't use any text-align for either ragged right or justified you can change it on the fly in the reader. But if it's set to justified you're stuck with that. I don't remember if you can change it on the fly if it's specified as left in the css.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by hobnail

I can't remember now but doesn't the KFX format allow you to switch between ragged right and justified? (I'm thinking of text-align but you said align.)

Yes, that option only is available only for books in KFX format.

Originally Posted by hobnail

One of the things I like about the Kobo is if you don't use any text-align for either ragged right or justified you can change it on the fly in the reader. But if it's set to justified you're stuck with that. I don't remember if you can change it on the fly if it's specified as left in the css.

The Kindle works similarly. The switch for justified text does not work if the publisher has forced the book to be ragged right using text-align.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Notjohn

>Weeks later, they get some dusty tome shipped to them.

I one time asked Inter-Library Loan to get a Japanese book for me. They found a copy in Australia. By the time it arrived from Oz, the loan had expired. It took all my charm to persuade the ILL librarian to extend the loan for a week. "Hey! How will they ever KNOW you didn't send it back on time?"

I've never had an inter-library loan start when you place the order. The loan starts when the item is checked out.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The Kindle works similarly. The switch for justified text does not work if the publisher has forced the book to be ragged right using text-align.

Does it work if text-align is used in the body style only?

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes, that option only is available only for books in KFX format.

The Kindle works similarly. The switch for justified text does not work if the publisher has forced the book to be ragged right using text-align.

For the second item do you mean when it's a KFX book? I just tried it with an AZW3 book (converted from an EPUB I made that doesn't use text-align) and the Alignment thing is grayed out and under it it says Not Available.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does it work if text-align is used in the body style only?

Nope.

Originally Posted by hobnail

For the second item do you mean when it's a KFX book? I just tried it with an AZW3 book (converted from an EPUB I made that doesn't use text-align) and the Alignment thing is grayed out and under it it says Not Available.

Well, I can't speak to AZW3, which isn't an actual Amazon format, if you see what I mean. Right?

I've never seen it work when text-align is set, whether ePUB, MOBI or KFX. But then again, I don't spend a lot of time running it down, so I would defer to jhowell's expertise in this.

Hitch

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by hobnail

One of the things I like about the Kobo is if you don't use any text-align for either ragged right or justified you can change it on the fly in the reader. But if it's set to justified you're stuck with that.

No. Slightly different.

Kobo overrides left/justified text with whatever the user chooses.

And it leaves centered/right text alone.

This is the way it should be done across all devices/readers... and it's completely baffling why Amazon/Kindle/others haven't done this.

I explained some of that in the famous "Footnoteception" thread back in 2018.

Originally Posted by jhowell

Yes, that option only is available only for books in KFX format.

Good to hear. At least one okay thing is coming out of KFX. :P

Originally Posted by Notjohn

I one time asked Inter-Library Loan to get a Japanese book for me. They found a copy in Australia. By the time it arrived from Oz, the loan had expired. It took all my charm to persuade the ILL librarian to extend the loan for a week. "Hey! How will they ever KNOW you didn't send it back on time?"

This problem was only exacerbated last year because of THE VIRUS. They believed every surface was infected, so they left both receiving/returning loans an extra week in "quarantine".

Luckily, you still had online (such as Archive.org's Open Library) loaning out all these books, even when physical libraries were closed.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does it work if text-align is used in the body style only?

Setting text-align:left on either the body element or on individual paragraphs overrides the user's alignment setting.

The Amazon Kindle Formatting Guidelines state the following. Ignore it at your own risk.

The body text in a reflowable Kindle book (fiction and non-fiction) must be all defaults. Amazon encourages content creators to use creative styles for headings, special paragraphs, footnotes, tables of contents, etc., but not for body text.