Ereader that lets you read book synopsis/info (like a back cover)?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

So it's mostly hardware. I have similar feelings comparing Nooks vs Kobos

I haven't used a Glo. My only comparison is the 6" Aura. The Clara is definitely rounder. I stick my readers in a slim case, so the material feel of the back of a reader is ignored by me. From memory, the Clara is definitely more plastic-y than other ereaders I've used, but I did like the feel in my hand the one day I used it.

Well, at the time it was partly software as well (tap zones).

The Kindle default of 1/4 back and 3/4 forward worked much better for me than any of the tap zone options on the Kobo for both 6.8" Aura HD and 6" Glo HD (small hands with short, stubby fingers).

Mind, having plenty of affordable third-party cases available for the Kindle is another pro for it.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

For old PD books that you get from Gutenberg or Standardebooks, finding an actual match using Calibre's metadata downloader likely won't happen. But you can still go find a synopsis on Goodreads or Librarything and paste the synopsis in yourself.

If you can manually find the book the book in Goodreads, then the Goodreads Metadata Source plugin should find it. Unless the title and author from the book source don't match. And then it comes to fixing those. Or accepting the differences for whatever reason. In that case, you can set the Goodreads ID and force a match. Copy the URL of the book you want to match and use the paste button next to the identifier field in the metadata editor. That will convert the URL to an identifier if the URL is matched by a metadata source plugin.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Well, at the time it was partly software as well (tap zones).

The author display and presentation on the kobo is what wins it for me. When you select author display it shows the authors' name and how many books you have by them, and then you can sort by last name, first name, recent, and number of books. When you tap on the author's name it opens a page and shows you their books. Within that list of books by an author you can sort by recent, date added, title, author, series, file size, and file type. And the authors are sorted by last name even though their name in the metadata has first name first, and they are displayed with first name first.

When you select books display, within that you can sort by recent, date added, title, author, series, file size, and file type. This is similar to the long list you get on the kindle.

And then I went through this whole anguish because before I had bought the kobo I had gone through all of my books and changed the author names to be in LastName, FirstName format and I thought I was doing that because it was how things should be done. When I got my kobo it wants the names in FirstName LastName format so I went through them all and did that. Then I decided to re-upload all of them to the kindle as well so that the metadata would be consistent on both devices and then discovered that the kindle sorts by whatever's at the beginning, i.e., the first name. Good grief, how stupid is that. And that must be why I did the LastName, FirstName change but I forgot about the kindle being brain dead. But the kindle's presentation of the books and authors is so crappy and nearly useless that I'm not losing any sleep over it. When you have a lot of books, with the kindle generating catalogs with calibre's Create Catalog is what makes it bearable.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

The author display and presentation on the kobo is what wins it for me.

Lol, majority of my author names are like "42AngryCymraeg" and does need strictly alphabetical sorting. Apart from a handful of favorites, it's darned hard to remember usernames, what they've written and even for what fandom without reading the synopsis. Hence, my default browsing method is by necessity via Calibre-PHP server. I need it regardless if I use Kindle or Kobo.

I do create catalogs using Calibre but it's just not as robust as the PHP server.

Personally, I wish I can get an interface that shows synopsis directly ala-Moon+ Reader.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Unfortunately that's not particularly true when you're downloading public domain books from Gutenberg and other public domain sites. Of which the majority of my books are.

Sorry, I should have specified Amazon Kindle, which I just refer to as Kindle, while the Kindle variants from Gutenberg are the older format of MOBI, and I call them by that.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I add the synopis to all my books using Calibre which 'finds' them for me. Most downloaded books don't have a decent synopsis, it has to be added.

I have to use Calibre to convert most books to azw3, my prefered format, so I might as well add the synopsis while I'm at it.

Yes, that is true and I wish I had been better organized before my collection grew so big.

I use several of my own programs now to semi-automate things, but not dealt with the synopsis/blurb/summary element until more recently ... so somewhat belatedly and still playing catch-up.

The method I use now for Conversions, does not lend itself to also acquiring that added info ... working purely with the calibre command-line programs.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Can you explain what you mean by "original cleansed version" and "unclean version." It sounds backwards with how you've used them.

The 'unclean' version is the DRM one. You could call this the original original.
The 'clean' means DRM removed ... still original, but no DRM, no conversion.
Other versions are converted ones, so in no sense original.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I’ve always been able to use Calibre to download metadata including synopsis (ever since 0.6.x, around 10 years ago).

It never occurred to me that downloading the metadata would get a synopsis, and as all my ebooks already had metadata I never bothered to check.

For a good while now, I have also been using my own program to view and correct the metadata to my own preferred specifications, which is then updated in calibre.

Add to that the fact, that my latest acquisitions are only briefly on a PC with a web connected version of calibre, and are mostly dealt with on an older non-web connected PC, so the opportunity to gain a synopsis from another source hasn't been a consideration until recently.

Furthermore, I would need to adapt my program(s), which I have not yet seriously considered or examined.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by BookCat

My PW2, which currently has 616 items on it, opens books instantly. It takes no time at all. Maybe the number of books you have on your kindle is slowing it down, or it's older and has a slow processor, or whatever. I just touch the book name, and the book is open!

As for where to start looking: I have the books organised into Collections:

My newest Kindle is also a PW2. Not sure how many ebooks on it, but a lot, and it is currently showing only 16 Mb free and 1.31 Gb used. So I guess I better start removing some of them ... BookBub freebies.

Likewise I have my ebooks organized into collections, usually by author name when 3 or more by same author, plus I use a few category collections.

It is not that the ebooks open all that slow, rather that they open and then present a popup window, from where you can access the synopsis, which amounts to another click to see in full, with perhaps scrolling involved too.

Most of the time consumed, and the real painful bit for me, is going in and out of folders (collections). I find that slow and messy, especially with the auto-arrange element. You also need to remember to pay attention and recall what you have previously checked. So not as easy and nice as just scrolling a list of synopses that includes visual clues.

And the more ebooks and collections you have, the messier it gets.

Add to that the fact, that if you work alphanumerically, you tend to always check the same few. I'm certainly not keen to check 50 synopses before choosing one to read, and I would never dream of checking hundreds. So knowing where to start first time around is simple enough ... you start at the beginning. After that it becomes increasingly more complex each time.

Not that I generally do any of that much, as I have a reading order that I try to stick to. So aside from the occasional whim, what I am going to read is preordained. There will come a time though, I imagine ... so my synopses will need to be ready and organised by then.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Yes, I was just bringing it up because I got the impression that Timboli was going to rely on the amazon synopsis. To really do it right for getting a synopsis I think it would be difficult, sort of like Calibre's metadata downloader but even that can't always find something useful. It's kind of pie in the sky to me.

I was only going to partly rely on the Amazon synopsis, and just for ebooks acquired from Amazon. You would be able to manually paste from any source though into my program settings.

You can also do something similar with calibre, by pasting into the 'Description' metadata field, but that would require you to be diligent from the start, as you get each ebook and add to calibre, or you would need to browse with many clicks all your ebooks in calibre, to see which are missing a synopsis.

Or you publish the Catalog, and use that as a guide, which would be similar to what my program would be used like.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

I have a Kobo and a Kindle and the Kobo is leaps and bounds ahead of the Kindle in usability and for being user friendly.

That must be a relatively recent change, as it certainly wasn't the case about 4 or so years ago ... at least for me.

That said, a Kindle, due to the price of ebooks at Amazon (in comparison), was always going to be my primary device, and any other device secondary.

What my Kindle or other ebook devices lack though, is usually made up for on the PC, with calibre etc, as the device for me is primarily the ereader. I don't use it much to browse casually, as I generally already have a pre-determined destination in mind.

So long as the device feels good in my hands, looks and feels well-made, has a decent protective and user friendly cover, is easy to read day or night, remembers its last location, contains all the ebooks I desire it too, I am happy enough. Anything else is just a bonus.

That's not to say I wouldn't appreciate improvements, the main one for me being a color e-ink device. Far better battery life. Large storage. Sub-folder collections one or two levels would also be great. Outside of those, the next major one for me, is making the ereader less of a device (tech toy) and more like a book.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Timboli

Outside of those, the next major one for me, is making the ereader less of a device (tech toy) and more like a book.

Interesting. What do you mean by that?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Timboli

You can also do something similar with calibre, by pasting into the 'Description' metadata field, but that would require you to be diligent from the start, as you get each ebook and add to calibre, or you would need to browse with many clicks all your ebooks in calibre, to see which are missing a synopsis.

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[BookCat]

Timboli: you seem to be making this hard work for yourself. Let me tell you how I do this:

I either download a book from Amazon, or if from another site like mobileread I download the epub version onto my computer.

I then open this with Calibre, using the right click Open With option. In Calibre, I click the Edit Metadata icon, then ensure that the name and author name are correct, then click Download Metadata. This looks for a description of the book from Google, Amazon, and several other sites. I then have a list of sources, click on them, choose the description I like most, then click OK.
I then have the option to change the cover from a boring PG to something pretty. Calibre fetches covers and I click my prefered option. I like to see a cover when I open the book, I have the kindle set to list display.

I then convert to azw3, so that I can use custom fonts. To get the description at the beginning of the book go to Structure Detection in the Calibre conversion box, then click Add Metadata to Beginning of Book. When this has finished I view the outcome and put the resulting azw3 file into a "New Books" folder on my hard drive. This will be put onto the reader and into a collection when I'm next charging the reader.

Or you could leave the book in Calibre (it's there anyway) and just directly sideload into the ereader while charging.

Result: a book, with description, in a format of your choice.

I do far less fussing around finding something to read; it's a matter of mood. For example, I'm just finishing a very light comedy and fancy something more substantial next. Just took me a few moments to find H.G. Wells, The Invisible Man in the Classics Collection; seems like a good antidote to so much silliness.

[Timboli]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Timboli: you seem to be making this hard work for yourself. Let me tell you how I do this:

I think you misunderstood what I've been saying.
I already covered what you said.

Most of what I do is simpler and semi-automated.
The only thing I haven't been doing, is downloading metadata to get any missing synopsis, and I explained the reasons why I hadn't done that.

In simple terms, I stopped using calibre's metadata editor quite some time ago, and use my own, which has many helpful features ... but alas no metadata downloader (for any missing synopsis) ... yet.

Because my ebooks are primarily from Amazon, all the rest of the metadata is always there, just some elements that usually need correcting (case, series, unwanted title elements to Comments, etc), and the synopsis is sometimes missing.