How many use Calibre and / or Apprentice Alf [POLL ENDED]

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by cybmole

i don't track percentages , & I don't buy lots of kindle books nowadays, so maybe I have been unlucky, but is did happen sometimes i.e. some books are sold with a bland "placeholder" generic cover. I'd post an image but I've replaced them all already. maybe it happens less often with newer books...

a quick google fiinds this ( oldish) thread on missin cover art , proving that it is not just me...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/forum/kindle/TxFOF2T0TKD4YM

I do borrow a lot of epub format library books & I say it still happens there with ~20% of covers

as to the wider debate, seems i lost the argument for blaming Amazon vs blaming publishers- it was fun but as they say- when you a e already in a hole it's time to stop digging

Ahh ok now I understand. As I stated I haven't run into the problem with any Amazon books in quite some time. I looked in my library and of my @3800 books, only 10 are missing covers. Now as to epubs, that could be higher, with those though once I put the Amazon ASIN in them after the conversion, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

As to the wider debate.... I am not going to get involved in that because I do not know or care whose to blame, though I am with Harry T, I do not think it is Amazon who is at fault since they are just the retailer not the manufacturer.

[Yolina]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

I honestly do not understand what is going on with your purchases when you state one cover shows on the website and an entirely different one shows up on your device. I have purchased close to 3800 books from Amazon and I have less than 10 where the same cover doesn't show up on the device.

I do come across this regularly and I do buy mostly from Amazon. From my experience (in the UK), Vintage seems to be one of the main "culprits" and tend to just bung a plain, generic cover with the book download - I guess it saves them having to pay for licencing the pbook cover picture for ebooks on their older stuff. All swiftly solved with Calibre

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Penguin books are a prime example. They show up with a proper cover in the Kindle bookstore, but generally have a generic "Penguin" cover inside the book. Of course, the same applies to every other bookstore too - the fault lies with Penguin.

Argh, yes, they're the worst. At least other publishers make some boring generic cover, but Penguin just gives you a stupid picture of a penguin!!!

[Geralt]

Penguin is all one needs.

Spoiler:

[PurpleStar]

No matter where I purchase books from, I always have help from my friend Alf. Especially if I buy from Amazon, since I need to use Alf to read the thing on my Kobo. Of course I also have all my ebooks backed up in Calibre.

[hoichi]

Have Kobo, love Kobo, don't mind bying from Kobo (don't see why is that any different from an Amazon/Kindle situation). That said, I buy (or download, when it's public domain or something obscure and out of print) from other sources too, so I have to use Calibre for that (well, you could just copy files, of course, but that's too much manual labor for my preference). And since I manage my bookshelves with Calibre as well, it's so much more convenient to keep all my library there. And you just have to use Alf to add DRM'ed books to Calibre.
So there. My OCD is not that bad and I wouldn't want to end up spending more time managing my books than actually reading them, but I believe, in the long run setting up a sensible system with Calibre rather saves you some time than wastes it.

EDIT:Blimey. Just noticed the thread is actually in the Kindle forums. Anyway, I think my points are still valid.

[peitsao]

The Poll needs to have a library ebook option--I don't buy ebooks, I rent them.

[Sweetpea]

I have no idea how many books I've bought from Amazon or other sources. So, I can't say where the majority of my books come from.

I do use Calibre, as a book organizer. I don't use Calibre to reformat my books (only to extract the HTML from kindle books), nor to edit my metadata. I reformat each of my books by hand, making the epub using a batch file and creating the Kindle format from that and the PDF from the HTML (by using LaTeX).
I use the tools made by Alf, but not with a Calibre plugin (didn't even know there was one...)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I have no idea how many books I've bought from Amazon or other sources. So, I can't say where the majority of my books come from.

If you go to the "Manage Your Kindle" page on Amazon, it'll tell you how many books you've bought from Amazon.

[mudamiento]

I always use Calibre to turn fonts into sans-serif and bold - makes it a lot easier for my old eyes to read. I sometimes use Alf.

I always check and always edit metadata. For my Sony reader, setting metadata as the author name automatically creates a collection on the Sony, or adds a book to an existing collection.

For my Kindle Paperwhite 2, I need Calibre to turn epubs into mobi.

What Calibre now needs is a collections plugin for the PW2, so that books can be properly organised, rather than the dreadful collections feature that Amazon have.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by peitsao

The Poll needs to have a library ebook option--I don't buy ebooks, I rent them.

Then you shouldn't be alfing them, and this discussion doesn't really apply to you.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by mudamiento

I always use Calibre to turn fonts into sans-serif and bold - makes it a lot easier for my old eyes to read. I sometimes use Alf.

I always check and always edit metadata. For my Sony reader, setting metadata as the author name automatically creates a collection on the Sony, or adds a book to an existing collection.

For my Kindle Paperwhite 2, I need Calibre to turn epubs into mobi.

What Calibre now needs is a collections plugin for the PW2, so that books can be properly organised, rather than the dreadful collections feature that Amazon have.

For the same reason that the KT and PW1 don't have a collections plugin, this can't happen. The info is stored on the System drive in the Kindle, and isn't shown to the computer. You can get around this by jailbreaking and using a patch to the Kindle Collections plugin, and the Kindle developers corner is working to understand the PW2 so they can support it better. Give it time, and this workaround will be updated for PW2 compatibility.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Then you shouldn't be alfing them, and this discussion doesn't really apply to you.

Some people alf them to read from their desired reader and delete them diligently when the timeframe is up. That was more true when *no* library books were available in Kindle format, I'll admit, but there are still a number of ebooks at Overdrive that are ePub only.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Some people alf them to read from their desired reader and delete them diligently when the timeframe is up. That was more true when *no* library books were available in Kindle format, I'll admit, but there are still a number of ebooks at Overdrive that are ePub only.

I suppose that is true. Somewhat of a gray area though. Then again, technically the whole procedure to begin with is gray.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Then you shouldn't be alfing them, and this discussion doesn't really apply to you.

well I do, to remove unwanted front & back stuff. I want to know how many actual story pages there are & I want the story to end on the last page, not with " now read on for an annoying 20 page extract from some other book".... so I fix that & then use count pages plug-in...
and also in some cases I want to remove annoying wide markings, left justification, non-standard text size, locked fonts which disable reader font options... there's a whole bunch of things that can need fixing for a consistent enjoyable reading experience, even with a read-once & return rental.

as ( under USA law anyway) you "shouldn't ever "alf" any book , for any reason, why bother to make the distinction. the tools work just fine.