The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's not the ASIN or ISBN that gets changed. Some eBooks have a version number at the bottom of the copyright page. So you know that way it's been updated.

I have one ebook that has been through at least 3 revisions since I purchased it. The version number on the copyright page is still 4.1 so that's not a reliable indicator.

[ownedbycats]

Out of curiosity, I checked out a Little Free Library on the way back from an appointment. It was filled with Harlequin romances and religious literature. not sure what I expected, lol.

[Graham44]

Just looking through some books making up a list of what I want to buy and saw a description for a book on the interweb describing it as 'unputdownable' ahhhh

I know there's a debate over whether this is a word or not, whether it is or isn't there's something about it that grates on my nerves,reading it is like biting on a bit of tinfoil (aluminum foil) to me

[ownedbycats]

'Unputdownable' the word always makes me a little twitchy. If you superglue the book to your hand, does it count?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

'Unputdownable' the word always makes me a little twitchy. If you superglue the book to your hand, does it count?

I think "Unputdownable" does mean that you literally can't put the book down which, logically, would mean that you are stuck with the book for life. In that case, I wouldn't want a book like that, just like I wouldn't want a song that is permanently stuck in my head.

Why not say that either "So good you can't stop reading" or "So good it's hard to stop reading"?

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Choosing PDF as the preferred format seems very odd to me, but YMMV. I would never use fixed layout myself, because I often reread something years later and my preferences might have changed by then. With reflowing formats I can still have the book look exactly as I want at the moment, but also be able to easily change things (such as font size or line spacing or margins) later without reformatting the entire book.

As an experiment, I recently tried formatting an ebook as an EPUB (the original source was OpenDocument Text). First, I tried doing it within LibreOffice (it has a "save as EPUB" option) and the results were not very good. Among the issues: It would put a line break between an upper case letter and the rest of the word, would not center items that were centered in the original text (they were formatted with styles), would display horizontal lines I was using as a change of scene marker, and allowed widows and orphans within the ebook. I then tried converting a PDF to EPUB with in Calibre and the results were even worse (as as having double spaced lines which were not in the original).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

As an experiment, I recently tried formatting an ebook as an EPUB (the original source was OpenDocument Text). First, I tried doing it within LibreOffice (it has a "save as EPUB" option) and the results were not very good. Among the issues: It would put a line break between an upper case letter and the rest of the word, would not center items that were centered in the original text (they were formatted with styles), would display horizontal lines I was using as a change of scene marker, and allowed widows and orphans within the ebook. I then tried converting a PDF to EPUB with in Calibre and the results were even worse (as as having double spaced lines which were not in the original).

PDF is the very worst format to convert from. It has fixed layout and almost never converts well.

What I've done with html and office documents is to convert them to epub with calibre and clean the result up manually in the calibre editor.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

As an experiment, I recently tried formatting an ebook as an EPUB (the original source was OpenDocument Text). First, I tried doing it within LibreOffice (it has a "save as EPUB" option) and the results were not very good. Among the issues: It would put a line break between an upper case letter and the rest of the word, would not center items that were centered in the original text (they were formatted with styles), would display horizontal lines I was using as a change of scene marker, and allowed widows and orphans within the ebook. I then tried converting a PDF to EPUB with in Calibre and the results were even worse (as as having double spaced lines which were not in the original).

An extra Save As docx from LO Writer. Do not open the docx again in LO, only edit the ODT. Make sure only one page style and dimensions are pt, not cm or inches (no em option). No direct formatting. Only styles. Ensure document language is correct.

If a custom name is used for headings other than Heading1 etc, then Calibre will use a <p tag, but they will be differentiated by the style -> CSS, so easy to change to <h

Don't use horizontal lines as a scene marker use a paragraph style (optionally with dinkus text or graphic). The CSS later will be obvious and a 20% <hr class="short-break" /> can be substituted if desired.

Also use a suitable style for first paragraphs after chapter heading, scene breaks et.

Don't use lists, but style a paragraph to look like one and a manually letter/number/bullet (due to ereader lists are limited)

No empty lines, no tabs, no frames (but a paragraph can have an outline in style), no columns, only one space ever. Use styles.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I have one ebook that has been through at least 3 revisions since I purchased it. The version number on the copyright page is still 4.1 so that's not a reliable indicator.

What book is this? Ir's odd that the version number has not changed.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

PDF is the very worst format to convert from. It has fixed layout and almost never converts well.

What I've done with html and office documents is to convert them to epub with calibre and clean the result up manually in the calibre editor.

I'd heard that PDF is a bad source format to convert to EPUB but I wanted to see the results for myself...and it was true. The results were truly bad.

The reason I've used PDF is that everything is formatted exactly as I intended, and will look on my screen exactly as it is going to appear on my ereader. Still, I will continue to experiment to see if I can get the same results with EPUB.

[Aleron Ives]

It will look the same, but you may need a magnifying glass to read it. The whole point of EPUB is that it works with devices of any screen size and shape.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

It will look the same, but you may need a magnifying glass to read it. The whole point of EPUB is that it works with devices of any screen size and shape.

If you are talking about a letter-sized PDF being displayed on a small ereader screen that is correct, although some ereaders have the ability to zoom in on the page. That's why I size my ebooks to the screen size of my ereader. I'd never try to read a letter-sized PDF on a small screen.

[ownedbycats]

Fanfics marked as complete when they are not complete.

[issybird]

When archive.org goes down when you’re in the middle of a book.

(It’s an OOP book, so no loss of royalties involved. Only used paper copies are available.)

[ownedbycats]

Four lines in a row, character says something "with a smirk." Fifth one has slimy smile instead.