The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

If I see one more person complaining that KU loans can't be downloaded-and-transferred and subsequently DeDRMed, I'm going to scream. Stop ripping off the authors!

Can you do a good Fay Wray scream?

[ownedbycats]

Maybe later. My cat is sleeping.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I just read a fanfic where a character had tears "forming rabidly." That's a bit concerning.

I've also read multiple fanfics that had scenes involving characters needing to "diffuse" a bomb. I think setting it off would probably do that...

This seems to be rampant in self published.
I wondered if they used Speech to text? That might account for those homophones, but still does not excuse lack of critical proofing (and correction).
What have they got to [strike]loose [strike] lose?

Then the are the glaring (to anyone with basic knowledge of the subject/item) technical errors without explanation (a magic spell?)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Renate

There is always the nuclear option.
Just delete all .css files from the EPUB (.zip).
You can do this to DRMed files without any problems.

Then you run into the #*%&$%)!@ who use inline styles. I ran into one ebook recently that had 52 stylesheets (one for each text file). Each stylesheet contained an @page with the left and right margins set to 21px. All the rest of the styling was done inline.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Then you run into the #*%&$%)!@ who use inline styles. I ran into one ebook recently that had 52 stylesheets (one for each text file). Each stylesheet contained an @page with the left and right margins set to 21px. All the rest of the styling was done inline.

Oh, that's...what software is that? If Jon were here, he could tell you. But I've seen that and it makes me insane. Fairly easy to clean up, OTHER THAN the redundancy (same inline CSS repeated sheet after sheet after sheet, without comments like "repeated" or the like.)

Hitch

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I just read a fanfic where a character had tears "forming rabidly." That's a bit concerning.

I've also read multiple fanfics that had scenes involving characters needing to "diffuse" a bomb. I think setting it off would probably do that...

Foaming rabidly or forming rapidly?

The problem is that automated tools are no substitute for human proof reading, at least not yet.

You want the bomb to diffuse if it's anthrax or radioactive dust in it and you are a terrorist. I'm guessing it's not that.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Oh, that's...what software is that? If Jon were here, he could tell you. But I've seen that and it makes me insane. Fairly easy to clean up, OTHER THAN the redundancy (same inline CSS repeated sheet after sheet after sheet, without comments like "repeated" or the like.)

Hitch

What I hate about it is the lack of consistency in things like the paragraph indent, line spacing, etc. I use Sigil's RemoveInlineStyles plugin and then merge similar styles in calibre to do the first pass at clean up.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

What I hate about it is the lack of consistency in things like the paragraph indent, line spacing, etc. I use Sigil's RemoveInlineStyles plugin and then merge similar styles in calibre to do the first pass at clean up.

Yup, yup, I feel ya. I can't abide the inconsistency myself. If you're gonna screw up, screw up all the way through.

Hitch

[ownedbycats]

Also, mind if I complain about bad table of contents? It accounts for a lot of my eBook edits.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also, mind if I complain about bad table of contents? It accounts for a lot of my eBook edits.

Don't get me started on ToCs.

Also, when did this trend of sticking the copyright at the end of the book start?
I don't mind the legalese being stuck at the end but the publication date should appear in the first few pages.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Renate

Also, when did this trend of sticking the copyright at the end of the book start?
I don't mind the legalese being stuck at the end but the publication date should appear in the first few pages.

Due to Amazon making Kindle eBooks open after all the Front Matter! A stupid arrogant decision (there, my Rant for today!). So publishers put all the Front Matter at the end now.

[Rumpelteazer]

I vented before how Amazon doesn't list the release date of not not yet released books anymore in the wish list. I've found a work around to that. If you go to your wish list you see on the right of the items listed "add comment, quantity & priority" just below the Buy, Move and Delete buttons. Press that and you can add the release date (or any other comments) and save, the comment will now be displayed in the empty space to the left of the buy button. The comment is displayed very prominently, more prominently that the release date before, so you can quickly see when something is released.

[Quoth]

Or add "Only 40 pages!"

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Renate

There is always the nuclear option.
Just delete all .css files from the EPUB (.zip).
You can do this to DRMed files without any problems.

Deleting the CSS is always a bad idea. So we'll forget that you ever suggested it.

It's best to learn HTML/CSS and edit the HTML/CSS. I do edit and I do fix these sort of font sizes so they are normalized,.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Oh, that's...what software is that? If Jon were here, he could tell you. But I've seen that and it makes me insane. Fairly easy to clean up, OTHER THAN the redundancy (same inline CSS repeated sheet after sheet after sheet, without comments like "repeated" or the like.)

Hitch

There are some eBooks that have CSS but do stupid stuff like <p class="somedumbclass" style="text-indent: 5%">.

I've looked at a few of them and they don't say what software was used,