Hello. I recently joined the forum and each time I visit it reminds me to say Hello here.
I recently became very interested in the EPUB format when I received a Sony PRS-300 digital book reader for Christmas (2009).
I currently have about 117 books loaded (95 EPUB, 22 non-scanned PDF). One of my favorite sources for free pro-liberty books is mises.org.
http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=MediaType&Id=9
http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=MediaType&Id=3
The EPUB format generally seems to be smaller, when I can find both formats of the same book. I tried a TXT file, but it was easy enough to convert it to EPUB via Sigil, and I could enter title/author metadata that way. I haven't tried RTF yet.
I have tried the Windows versions of Sony Reader Library and Calibre, but I have found the desktop application more trouble than it's worth for free books. I currently just copy new books directly to the "database\media\books" folder on the PRS-300 USB drive. I was ending up with multiple copies of the same book on the handheld, but in different folders. About all I can see that the desktop gave was the ability to set up collections, which I don't have much use for.
I have figured out how to "edit/fix" the name/author metadata (via Sigil in EPUB and CutePDF Pro in non-protected PDF), when it does not display properly or is missing.
So far, the things I miss the most on the PRS-300 compared to reading a PDF on the laptop are not being able to search for text and not being able to copy phrases for pasting into some other application.
I recently discovered that Safari Books Online (
http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/) now offers the ability to download at least some of their books in EPUB as well as PDF format.
Bill Starr
Columbus, Indiana (about 45 miles south of Indy)
http://www.facebook.com/bill.starr
http://twitter.com/bill_starr
http://bill-starr.blogspot.com/
Thu, 28 Jan 2010, 4:42 pm EST