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56up · 06-03-2011, 11:01 AM

I'm new to this forum and to introduce I like to set the scene and maybe get some suggestion

I am an avid reader, up to 30 a year and now my bookshelves are groaning with the weight. My wife and I purchased an iPad and I also have an Android tablet from work. To retain compatibilty I installed the Alkido app on the Android. I loaded several books from Gutenberg and, in spite of the odd formatting error I found reading them enjoyable.

I am a Science Fiction fan (SF please not Sci-Fi) and when I saw a download of 43 books (zipped - pdf) of Harry Harrison it was too good to miss.

Calibre made a poor job of extracting the text, not the software's fault as there were huge amounts of advertising on the page headers and that became mixed in with the text as well, as throwing the formatting out of the window.

So I used a pdf editor to crop the pages, extracted the text and imported it into Calibre as a text file. For some of them this worked fine the only broken sentences appearing at the pdf page boundaries, but for others the lines were broken all over the place; fixable, but I would end up reading the book in a disjointed manner on my PC whilst I did it. Not what I had in mind at all when I started. It was easier to read the pdf direct on the PC, ads, warts and all.

So now I come to the point of this discourse.

I will not do all that work just for me, but can I offer the result to others to read?
How do I find out if they copyright is out of date for the books? I would not want legal action, but I have not seen any of these even for sale on any e-book website.
I was happy to read them and then forget them but will not expend all that effort just for me.

Hello, by the way.

06-03-2011, 11:01 AM	#1
56up Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Android, iPad	New I'm new to this forum and to introduce I like to set the scene and maybe get some suggestion I am an avid reader, up to 30 a year and now my bookshelves are groaning with the weight. My wife and I purchased an iPad and I also have an Android tablet from work. To retain compatibilty I installed the Alkido app on the Android. I loaded several books from Gutenberg and, in spite of the odd formatting error I found reading them enjoyable. I am a Science Fiction fan (SF please not Sci-Fi) and when I saw a download of 43 books (zipped - pdf) of Harry Harrison it was too good to miss. Calibre made a poor job of extracting the text, not the software's fault as there were huge amounts of advertising on the page headers and that became mixed in with the text as well, as throwing the formatting out of the window. So I used a pdf editor to crop the pages, extracted the text and imported it into Calibre as a text file. For some of them this worked fine the only broken sentences appearing at the pdf page boundaries, but for others the lines were broken all over the place; fixable, but I would end up reading the book in a disjointed manner on my PC whilst I did it. Not what I had in mind at all when I started. It was easier to read the pdf direct on the PC, ads, warts and all. So now I come to the point of this discourse. I will not do all that work just for me, but can I offer the result to others to read? How do I find out if they copyright is out of date for the books? I would not want legal action, but I have not seen any of these even for sale on any e-book website. I was happy to read them and then forget them but will not expend all that effort just for me. Hello, by the way.