The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Renate]

Gutenberg (US) generates ToC from HTML <h1-6>
Some of them are a complete train wreck.
That's why I generated Shakespeare.
Which is posted somewhere here.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I wonder if this is a way to inflate the page count for KU payouts.

It doesn't count "pages" per se. It counts characters and then performs a bit of math. Otherwise, just imagine how large the default font sizes would be from your typical self-pub, LOL.

Hitch

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by svenlind

My copy looks like below

The most interesting thing to me was that in viewing your screenshot, it was screamingly obvious that it wasn't Frank who'd written the visible text. :-)

Hitch

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by svenlind

My copy looks like below

That's what I've seen it looking like.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

This issue has cropped up in recent years with a lot of self-published authors; presumably they all use the same formatting program without changing the default options. Chapter headers have huge white spaces under them, usually 12-15 em, which can be more than 1/3 of the page. WHY is this necessary?

Note that the size of vertical margins on a Kindle is affected by the font sizing slider, even if the height is given in percent. It's around font size 4 where the scaling generates proper vertical margin sizes. Any size above that gives margins larger than they should be.

Of course, if the original CSS said 12em, that's far too much. A 6" reader with reasonable font size has only 25-30 lines per screen, and a vertical margin of 30-50% of the screen is ridiculous.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Of course, if the original CSS said 12em, that's far too much.

Yes, that's what I meant. It's 12-15em in the css. Absurd. 2em is usually sufficient.

[cgsmom]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Even more problematical i that the main text is sans-serif. I associate sans-serif like that to be a product of someone who has no clue about reading.

You know, I am coming to the conclusion that you and I don’t agree on anything. I change everything to sans serif.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Hitch

It doesn't count "pages" per se. It counts characters and then performs a bit of math. Otherwise, just imagine how large the default font sizes would be from your typical self-pub, LOL.

Hitch

Reminds me of being told to use a specific fontsize while writing term papers, lol. No 72 point.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, that's what I meant. It's 12-15em in the css. Absurd. 2em is usually sufficient.

In most cases with a regular chapter header, I use a top/bottom margin of 0.8em.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In most cases with a regular chapter header, I use a top/bottom margin of 0.8em.

I want a bit more space than 0.8em, that's too cramped for me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I want a bit more space than 0.8em, that's too cramped for me.

In most cases, I use <h2>Chapter Title</h2> and it's the size of an H2, bold, centered, 0.8em t/b margins. That means I don't have too much wasted space.

[Sirtel]

The book I'm reading has quite a lot of errors. Some are obviously OCR errors, but not all - like several instances of "I could care less" where they should be "I couldn't care less".

No, it's not self-published. It's a well-known author from a major publisher (Tor). There was apparently even an editor, according to the copyright page. I wonder if he was asleep or drunk on the job?

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The book I'm reading has quite a lot of errors. Some are obviously OCR errors, but not all - like several instances of "I could care less" where they should be "I couldn't care less".

No, it's not self-published. It's a well-known author from a major publisher (Tor). There was apparently even an editor, according to the copyright page. I wonder if he was asleep or drunk on the job?

"I could care less" is a commonly used phrase. Almost as common as the correct, original version.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

"I could care less" is a commonly used phrase. Almost as common as the correct, original version.

Never seen it in properly edited, traditionally published books before. Only in self-published books.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

The book I'm reading has quite a lot of errors. Some are obviously OCR errors, but not all - like several instances of "I could care less" where they should be "I couldn't care less".

No, it's not self-published. It's a well-known author from a major publisher (Tor). There was apparently even an editor, according to the copyright page. I wonder if he was asleep or drunk on the job?

It's a well-known, longstanding and significant difference between Nth American English and variants more aligned with British English. There are YouTube videos now several years old mocking the US vaersion of the idiom, and it has been discussed often over the last decade or more on various linguistics blogs I follow.

It feels wrong to me, but I try to remind my self that by their definition idioms (and indeed languages in general) are not bound by "logic"