HD Sideloading books and have them in the library

[Jellby]

Hi all,

I've been given a Kindle Fire HD for my birthday, and I'm trying to make something useful out of it.

First obstacle I haven't been able to solve is sideloading books (in mobi format) and have them appear in the "Books" library, not in "Documents". All I've found is this tip, but that involves converting the books with calibre, which is more than I would like.

Is there no other way to download a book from the net (from the MR library, for example) and have it in the library? If converting and adding the [EBOK] tag is really needed, is it possible to do that without calibre and without modifying anything else in the book?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Is there no other way to download a book from the net (from the MR library, for example) and have it in the library? If converting and adding the [EBOK] tag is really needed, is it possible to do that without calibre and without modifying anything else in the book?

The mobi2mobi tool (part of Mobiperl) can still handle modifying the EXTH records of plain-jane MOBI files without altering the rest of the book.

If the mobi already has the 501 EXTH record then:

mobi2mobi --outfile new_book.mobi --exthtype 501 --exthdata EBOK book.mobi

Should be enough.

If it doesn't have the 501 EXTH record then:

mobi2mobi --outfile new_book.mobi --addexthtype 501 --exthdata EBOK book.mobi

Some newer MOBIs don't always seem to have a Palmdoc database name for some reason and that would need to be fixed first:

mobi2mobi --outfile new_book.mobi --databasename BOOKNAME book.mobi

You could also read/write the same file if you have good backups.

[KimberlyFDR]

I just re-converted 150 of my mobi files in Calibre this afternoon to take out the PDOC tag because I got frustrated with some of my library ending up in docs It doesn't take that long to run through a conversion really, so that would be my suggestion for a straight-forward and fast way to get your books listed under books instead of docs.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The mobi2mobi tool (part of Mobiperl) can still handle modifying the EXTH records of plain-jane MOBI files without altering the rest of the book.

Thank you, that's probably what I'll end up doing, as I want to touch my files as little as possible. (And my own mobis are already built with Mobiperl )

[Jellby]

Unfortunately, it doesn't work:

Setting extended header data: 501 - EBOK
EXTH setting data: 501 - 501 - EBOK - 0x45424f4b
EXTH add: 501 - 501 - EBOK
GETSTRING: Author - Twain, Mark
CoverOffset - not printable
ThumbOffset - not printable
CDEContentType - EBOK

but the book still appears under "Documents" and not "Books". Interestingly, AZW3 books (converted with calibre) appear under "Books".

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Unfortunately, it doesn't work:

Setting extended header data: 501 - EBOK
EXTH setting data: 501 - 501 - EBOK - 0x45424f4b
EXTH add: 501 - 501 - EBOK
GETSTRING: Author - Twain, Mark
CoverOffset - not printable
ThumbOffset - not printable
CDEContentType - EBOK

but the book still appears under "Documents" and not "Books". Interestingly, AZW3 books (converted with calibre) appear under "Books".

It must be something else (or a combination of things, then). I admit that the majority of my library on the Fire is AZW3, but the few MOBIs that I have still show up in "Books" rather than Docs. So it is certainly possible, at least. Perhaps EBOK in conjunction with an Amazon ASIN (perhaps any ASIN)?

Also note that even though my AZW3s and MOBIs show up under the "Books" menu, they're all still physically located in the "Documents" directory (file system).

[salsaguy]

I would check the official Calibre thread or one of the threads already setup for sideloading books as there are many folks there who can help with your issue.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by salsaguy

I would check the official Calibre thread or one of the threads already setup for sideloading books as there are many folks there who can help with your issue.

calibre can't help this situation without conversion. Not having to re-convert his books was one of the OP's wishes.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Perhaps EBOK in conjunction with an Amazon ASIN (perhaps any ASIN)?

That's probably it (or I did something wrong before). I just tested with a random ASIN (with this script) and it worked, the book appears under Books, with cover and everything.