Ectaco Jetbook downloads.

Choisya · 10-07-2008, 10:17 AM

I recently purchased an Ectaco Jetbook but have been disappointed to find that only one (inefficient) website, Diesel Ebooks, has any modern bestseller type books to purchase. Most are classics which at 75 years of age I have either read or do not want to read!

I am currently trying to buy Monica Ali's Brick Lane to no avail as I cannot get onto the Diesel website to buy it. Anhy ideas where else I can get it?

Also, I downloaded War & Peace fro Gutenberg in txt format but it is incorrectly aligned - any ideas why this is or are Gutenberg txt files always like this?

HarryT · 10-07-2008, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choisya

Also, I downloaded War & Peace fro Gutenberg in txt format but it is incorrectly aligned - any ideas why this is or are Gutenberg txt files always like this?

What do you mean by "incorrectly aligned"? PG books are plain text files.

Unfortunately with the JetBook your choice of format is extremely limited - PDF or plain text. You're going to have to buy a book in a different format (eg LIT) and convert it.

pilotbob · 10-07-2008, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choisya

Also, I downloaded War & Peace fro Gutenberg in txt format but it is incorrectly aligned - any ideas why this is or are Gutenberg txt files always like this?

It's probably because there are linefeeds in the text at a certain line length. You should be able to remove these with any text editor... Assuming there are two line feeds between paragraphs it shouldn't be to hard.

For contemporary ebooks you are probably going to want to do some DRM removal. Then you will need to convert that file to .txt.

BOb

JSWolf · 10-07-2008, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choisya

I recently purchased an Ectaco Jetbook but have been disappointed to find that only one (inefficient) website, Diesel Ebooks, has any modern bestseller type books to purchase. Most are classics which at 75 years of age I have either read or do not want to read!

I am currently trying to buy Monica Ali's Brick Lane to no avail as I cannot get onto the Diesel website to buy it. Anhy ideas where else I can get it?

Also, I downloaded War & Peace fro Gutenberg in txt format but it is incorrectly aligned - any ideas why this is or are Gutenberg txt files always like this?

Since you have a Kindle, just ditch the Jetbook and use that instead to read moder eBooks. The Jetbooks reflowable format is just plain text. Rather useless if you want proper reflowing with bold, italics, links, images, etc. Basically, as Bob said, you'll have to buy DRMed eBooks and rip out the formatting to make then plain text. Just stick with the Kindle and try to sell the Jetbook.

tazzle · 10-07-2008, 12:34 PM

For free books, I prefer to get them from manybooks.net because they nicely offer the texts in many convenient formats... For example, here is their page for War and Peace; try downloading the PDF version of this (look for the download button at top right, and choose PDF from the menu), and see if this looks better on your Jetbook.

Choisya · 10-10-2008, 03:52 AM

Thanks folks but (a) I do not have a Kindle - I am in the UK so could not purchase one without complications.

(b) I am not technical enough to change these formats - haven't the faintest idea how to start!

(c) I will try the Manybooks format to see if it is better than Gutenbeg. By 'not aligned properly' I mean that the sentences do not run on in the normal way, there were lots of broken lines on the page.

(d) I will have another go at getting on to Diesel since they have quite a few books from the bestseller lists - the only website I have seen so far that has and that have a suitable format for Jetbook (Adobe).

Choisya · 10-10-2008, 03:57 AM

Sorry Bob, but I do not know what a line feed, text editor or DRM is, nor do I know how to convert! You are dealing with an elderly ignoramous here!

bill_mchale · 10-10-2008, 10:11 AM

Choisya,
A line feed is simply what tells the computer that you have reached the end of the current line and need to start a new one. They work great at the end of a paragraph, if they are used in other places, the document will only look right if the screen displays as many columns as the original document.

A text editor (assuming you have windows) would be something like notepad... or even Word in Microsoft Office (Though that would be overkill for this purpose).

If you are on a Mac, Perl might be installed, if so, I can write a little script that will strip the new line characters (except at the end of paragraphs and for blank lines) pretty quickly.

The PG txt version of War and Peace (edition 12) uses new lines to break paragraphs apart, which makes it easy to convert. If it used normal indentation, it would be a little more complicated (Mainly because you would have to look at the next line before you decided to strip the new line character from the current line), but it still would not be tough.

If you have perl installed, let me know, and I will put together the script for you.

--
Bill

HarryT · 10-10-2008, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choisya

Sorry Bob, but I do not know what a line feed, text editor or DRM is, nor do I know how to convert! You are dealing with an elderly ignoramous here!

You don't know NOW but you can learn. We're all here to help.

Choisya · 10-15-2008, 04:36 AM

I've given up on my Ectaco except to read the classics that are already there. All the conversion stuff is far too much trouble and not worth the bother. I will wait until Kindle comes to the UK because I understand that it is simpler and anyway you can buy books from a proper bookseller. I tried the new Sony but I need a search facility and it does not have one

.

Thanks for your help guys!

Dr. Drib · 10-15-2008, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choisya

I've given up on my Ectaco except to read the classics that are already there. All the conversion stuff is far too much trouble and not worth the bother. I will wait until Kindle comes to the UK because I understand that it is simpler and anyway you can buy books from a proper bookseller. I tried the new Sony but I need a search facility and it does not have one

.

Thanks for your help guys!

Yes, conversion does take an effort, but for many of us here the effort is very much worth it. For example, I convert .lit files for my Sony. It takes about one second; then, I load the file into calibre and convert it for Sony. It may sometimes take 15 seconds to do that.

We thought you had a Kindle based upon what you chose in the User's Preferences section.

Don

igorsk · 10-15-2008, 05:33 PM

Some people on the-ebook.org forums claim that there is a firmware for Ectaco with FB2 support. But apparently you cannot just download it but need somehow to request from the support.

Choisya · 10-17-2008, 04:28 AM

Thanks Don. It may take seconds to download once you have mastered the conversion techniques but I just do not understand the language of these programs and the jargon defeats me. At 75 years of age maybe my brain is slowing down somewhat or I just lack the patience.

HarryT · 10-17-2008, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Choisya

Thanks Don. It may take seconds to download once you have mastered the conversion techniques but I just do not understand the language of these programs and the jargon defeats me. At 75 years of age maybe my brain is slowing down somewhat or I just lack the patience.

Damn it, don't be so defeatist

. TRY it, don't just say "oh, it's too difficult for me to do". You're obviously not stupid, and there's absolutely no reason that you can't do the same thing that so many of the rest of us are doing without problem.

bill_mchale · 10-22-2008, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by igorsk

Some people on the-ebook.org forums claim that there is a firmware for Ectaco with FB2 support. But apparently you cannot just download it but need somehow to request from the support.

Just a point, but .fb2 support came pre-installed on my Jetbook.

--
Bill

10-07-2008, 10:17 AM	#1
Choisya Member Posts: 16 Karma: 42 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Kindle	Ectaco Jetbook downloads. I recently purchased an Ectaco Jetbook but have been disappointed to find that only one (inefficient) website, Diesel Ebooks, has any modern bestseller type books to purchase. Most are classics which at 75 years of age I have either read or do not want to read! I am currently trying to buy Monica Ali's Brick Lane to no avail as I cannot get onto the Diesel website to buy it. Anhy ideas where else I can get it? Also, I downloaded War & Peace fro Gutenberg in txt format but it is incorrectly aligned - any ideas why this is or are Gutenberg txt files always like this?

10-10-2008, 03:52 AM	#6
Choisya Member Posts: 16 Karma: 42 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Kindle	Thanks folks but (a) I do not have a Kindle - I am in the UK so could not purchase one without complications. (b) I am not technical enough to change these formats - haven't the faintest idea how to start! (c) I will try the Manybooks format to see if it is better than Gutenbeg. By 'not aligned properly' I mean that the sentences do not run on in the normal way, there were lots of broken lines on the page. (d) I will have another go at getting on to Diesel since they have quite a few books from the bestseller lists - the only website I have seen so far that has and that have a suitable format for Jetbook (Adobe). Last edited by Choisya; 10-10-2008 at 03:59 AM.

10-15-2008, 04:36 AM	#10
Choisya Member Posts: 16 Karma: 42 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Kindle	I've given up on my Ectaco except to read the classics that are already there. All the conversion stuff is far too much trouble and not worth the bother. I will wait until Kindle comes to the UK because I understand that it is simpler and anyway you can buy books from a proper bookseller. I tried the new Sony but I need a search facility and it does not have one. Thanks for your help guys!

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
ECTACO Jetbook review	pilotbob	Which one should I buy?	44	02-16-2012 11:08 AM
ECTACO mentions Calibre in their advertisment for ECTACO jetBook MINI	kacir	Calibre	1	09-12-2010 02:57 PM
ECTACO Jetbook	beam	Andere Lesegeräte	8	05-02-2010 02:15 PM

10-07-2008, 12:34 PM	#5
tazzle Glyph Posts: 14 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Athens, Greece Device: Kindle	For free books, I prefer to get them from manybooks.net because they nicely offer the texts in many convenient formats... For example, here is their page for War and Peace; try downloading the PDF version of this (look for the download button at top right, and choose PDF from the menu), and see if this looks better on your Jetbook.

10-10-2008, 03:57 AM	#7
Choisya Member Posts: 16 Karma: 42 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Kindle	Sorry Bob, but I do not know what a line feed, text editor or DRM is, nor do I know how to convert! You are dealing with an elderly ignoramous here!

10-10-2008, 10:11 AM	#8
bill_mchale Wizard Posts: 1,451 Karma: 1550000 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Maryland, USA Device: Nook Simple Touch, HPC Evo 4G LTE	Choisya, A line feed is simply what tells the computer that you have reached the end of the current line and need to start a new one. They work great at the end of a paragraph, if they are used in other places, the document will only look right if the screen displays as many columns as the original document. A text editor (assuming you have windows) would be something like notepad... or even Word in Microsoft Office (Though that would be overkill for this purpose). If you are on a Mac, Perl might be installed, if so, I can write a little script that will strip the new line characters (except at the end of paragraphs and for blank lines) pretty quickly. The PG txt version of War and Peace (edition 12) uses new lines to break paragraphs apart, which makes it easy to convert. If it used normal indentation, it would be a little more complicated (Mainly because you would have to look at the next line before you decided to strip the new line character from the current line), but it still would not be tough. If you have perl installed, let me know, and I will put together the script for you. -- Bill

10-15-2008, 05:33 PM	#12
igorsk Wizard Posts: 3,442 Karma: 300001 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Belgium Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear	Some people on the-ebook.org forums claim that there is a firmware for Ectaco with FB2 support. But apparently you cannot just download it but need somehow to request from the support.

10-17-2008, 04:28 AM	#13
Choisya Member Posts: 16 Karma: 42 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Kindle	Thanks Don. It may take seconds to download once you have mastered the conversion techniques but I just do not understand the language of these programs and the jargon defeats me. At 75 years of age maybe my brain is slowing down somewhat or I just lack the patience.

Advert

Advert