Humor Jerome, Jerome K.: Three Men in a Boat (illustrated) v6 07 april 2010

[zelda_pinwheel]

I made this book to see how far i could push the epub format. I played with advanced features like wrapping non-rectangular images, and included stylistic details like drop caps, illuminated capitals and an embedded font. it was meant as an experiment and a learning experience for myself, but i decided to share it as well because it's a brilliant, hilarious story and i think the illustrations really add to it.

because of the advanced formatting i used, this particular version can't easily be converted to mobipocket, and won't render as well on a small screen (like iphone screens) ; to see it in all its wrapped-illustration, embedded fontification glory, i recommend reading it on a 5" or 6" screen minimum, or alternately on a pc / notebook / netbook (i know, i know ! but apparently some people do that )... i've justified the text since i know a lot of people prefer that, and that will show up in ADE or Bookworm.

Since this is my first 100% hand-coded epub, all comments are welcome, and if you spot any errors (i haven't proof-read the text) please let me know.


Description from wikipedia :

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford.

The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers, the jokes seem fresh and witty even today.

The three men are based on Jerome himself (the narrator J.) and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who went on to become a senior manager in Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom he often took boating trips. The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional, but "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog." The trip is a typical boating holiday of the time in a Thames camping skiff. This is just after commercial boat traffic on the Upper Thames had died out, replaced by the 1880s craze for boating as a leisure activity.

edit : v2 already ! fixed a few details in the metadata. previous downloads : 7.
v3 : removed thumbs.db to reduce filesize. downloads of version 2 : 26
v4 : added missing hr to chapter 2. downloads of v3 : 15
thank goodness for the mad proof-reading skillz around here.
v5 : corrected more typos, removed unused font file, and removed extraneous alt texts (thank you to alecE, Esseb, and Valloric). downloads of v4 : 228
v6 : thanks to Jellby, corrected many many (...many...) typos and formatting errors. much karma to him for taking the trouble to make notes of all those little details. downloads of v5 : 924

This work is assumed to be in the Life+70 public domain OR the copyright holder has given specific permission for distribution. Copyright laws differ throughout the world, and it may still be under copyright in some countries. Before downloading, please check your country's copyright laws. If the book is under copyright in your country, do not download or redistribute this work.

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[mtravellerh]

Fantastic work! I bow before thee, o our queen! This is the new reference for ePubs!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Fantastic work! I bow before thee, o our queen! This is the new reference for ePubs!

wow !! thanks so much for your enthusiastic response ! actually i think jellby is still the epub god, and much of the advanced code i used here was developped / refined with his help ; i certainly could never have done this without him. but i'm glad you like the book.

[Jellby]

Now, where is the ePUB firmware for the Cybook?

Thanks, Zelda, this is a book I have to read!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Now, where is the ePUB firmware for the Cybook?

Thanks, Zelda, this is a book I have to read!

i can't wait to hear your thoughts !! i bow to your mad epub skillz, so i'll be interested to hear what you have to say.

and if this is the first time you're reading this story, you are in for a real treat !!

(and yes, where *is* the epub firmware for the cybook ????? )

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i can't wait to hear your thoughts !! i bow to your mad epub skillz, so i'll be interested to hear what you have to say.

Well, I just opened it in the browser and it looks great, of course

My only (minor) comments this far are:

1. I'd put the names in the metadata in the "normal" first-name last-name order: Jerome K. Jerome and A. Frederics, and put the complete names in the "reversed" order in the file-as attribute: Jerome, Jerome Klapka and Frederics, A.

2. I wouldn't use an embedded font for the normal text, the font to use should be a user's choice, even if some ePUB readers don't allow that. I think special fonts for titles or decorative texts are fine, but not for the main text.

3. The cover illustration has some ugly jpeg artifacts and it's blurry, can't you find a better version? And in general, prefer PNG over GIF, it's better (supports more features and can have a better compression).

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Well, I just opened it in the browser and it looks great, of course

My only (minor) comments this far are:

1. I'd put the names in the metadata in the "normal" first-name last-name order: Jerome K. Jerome and A. Frederics, and put the complete names in the "reversed" order in the file-as attribute: Jerome, Jerome Klapka and Frederics, A.

crotte !!! i actually fixed that already on a different version, but forget to fix the content.opf of this one. i'll take care of that and reupload.

2. I wouldn't use an embedded font for the normal text, the font to use should be a user's choice, even if some ePUB readers don't allow that. I think special fonts for titles or decorative texts are fine, but not for the main text.

actually, i agree with you ; however, i wanted to know how to do it. there are a lot of stylistic effects i wouldn't use on a "typical" book because they're better left to the user's choice or because they limit compatibility (like the wrapped images which will cause problems on smaller screens), but as i said, this was really more of an experiment to try out as many special features as possible.

3. The cover illustration has some ugly jpeg artifacts and it's blurry, can't you find a better version? And in general, prefer PNG over GIF, it's better (supports more features and can have a better compression).

sadly, these are the only images i have. i didn't scan them myself, and i don't have access to the original book, so i'm happy to have them at all ! obviously, for future illustrated books, i hope to have better quality ones. but i chose this book because i had been wanting an illustrated epub version of it for a long time anyway, so i just made do with what i had available. you are right though that i'd rather have png images !

thanks for your comments !

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Jellby

1. I'd put the names in the metadata in the "normal" first-name last-name order: Jerome K. Jerome and A. Frederics, and put the complete names in the "reversed" order in the file-as attribute: Jerome, Jerome Klapka and Frederics, A.

fixed !!!

[Valloric]

This is one of the most advanced epub files I have ever seen. Truly great work Zelda. Congratulations.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Valloric

This is one of the most advanced epub files I have ever seen. Truly great work Zelda. Congratulations.

thank you valloric ! just think what i (and everyone else) will be able to do, once we finally have an epub editor worthy of the name.

[Valloric]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

thank you valloric ! just think what i (and everyone else) will be able to do, once we finally have an epub editor worthy of the name.

I'm working on it.

[dreams]

Thank you, Zelda. I had this put in a file for summer evening reading on the patio as it looked to be a fun read. Having your epub version with pics will be an added bonus. I'll have to check it out once I hook up the 505 for reload time Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the Dog) just sounded too good to pass up.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Valloric

I'm working on it.

and we're waiting with bated breath.

Originally Posted by dreams

Thank you, Zelda. I had this put in a file for summer evening reading on the patio as it looked to be a fun read. Having your epub version with pics will be an added bonus. I'll have to check it out once I hook up the 505 for reload time Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the Dog) just sounded too good to pass up.

it is definitely too good to pass up ! it's hilarious. enjoy the story !

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

actually, i agree with you ; however, i wanted to know how to do it. there are a lot of stylistic effects i wouldn't use on a "typical" book because they're better left to the user's choice or because they limit compatibility (like the wrapped images which will cause problems on smaller screens), but as i said, this was really more of an experiment to try out as many special features as possible.

You could have tried the embedded fonts for the titles and the chapter "summaries" only (which would probably benefit from a decorative calligraphic font). Just an idea

sadly, these are the only images i have. i didn't scan them myself, and i don't have access to the original book, so i'm happy to have them at all !

And there's where the Internet Archive comes useful These two versions could serve as a source for illustrations and proofreading:

http://www.archive.org/details/three...atto00jeroiala
http://www.archive.org/details/three...atto00jerorich

(For the illustrations, go to "All Files: HTTP", and select the "*orig_jp2.tar" file, it contains the scans of all pages from which the images can be extracted and cleaned up)

By the way, you can reduce the filesize (from 2.0 MB to 1.7 MB) by removing the Thumbs.db file from the images directory.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Jellby

You could have tried the embedded fonts for the titles and the chapter "summaries" only (which would probably benefit from a decorative calligraphic font). Just an idea

hm, that is a good idea. i think i might try that on the next one.

And there's where the Internet Archive comes useful These two versions could serve as a source for illustrations and proofreading:

http://www.archive.org/details/three...atto00jeroiala
http://www.archive.org/details/three...atto00jerorich

(For the illustrations, go to "All Files: HTTP", and select the "*orig_jp2.tar" file, it contains the scans of all pages from which the images can be extracted and cleaned up)

wow, thanks ! (sheesh, just when i thought i was done working on this book... ) i won't have time to work on that right away but i would like to make this book as good as possible so i will definitely try to fix the images as soon as i can. and, if i get better quality ones i could add the dimensions in ems as well so the images can be enlarged with the text.

By the way, you can reduce the filesize (from 2.0 MB to 1.7 MB) by removing the Thumbs.db file from the images directory.

thanks ! i did that. now up to version 3.