[Android App] Best Android reader software for use with Calibre / Calibre Companion

[ellett]

Before my conversion to calibre I used Aldiko Premium to manage and read my books. Since calibre, Aldiko has remained a favorite reading experience but its insistence on loading and maintaining its own data store of books has become an increasing frustration. If calibre, or calibre companion, maintains an external data store, either books have to be periodically imported into Aldiko, resulting in total book duplication, or books are read from the external store, in which case Aldiko does not remember bookmarks etc. so for instance when you close a book and reopen it you are taken to the front cover, not to the page where you left off in the previous reading session.

Can anyone suggest a book reader that can be invoked from an external book data store (in my case from calibre Companion) and will remember bookmarks, annotation etc., and that has a comparable feature set to Aldiko?

I've seen good write-ups of Mantano, but it also may have its own data store, most of the Mantano doc refers to pdfs, which I don't use, and I certainly don't want to sign up for Mantano cloud.

So, I solicit your clarifications and recommendations. Thanks.

[GoghGirl]

I have never used aldiko so I really cant compare the experience or features.

I use FBReader and (more recently)Moon+ Reader. You can move both of their directories to the Calibre Companion so you dont have to worry about losing your place and bookmarks. Unfortunately each app only remembers where its own bookmarks and where you left off reading so switching between them isn't an option in the long run.

I suggest you try both of them out!

Both have the basic features:
-Bookmarks
-Night/Day screen (light text on dark/dark on light)
-lots of fonts/colors
-recently opened books tab
-easy selection for choosing a different chapter
-probably missing many features than I don't generally use

I don't use annotations or bookmarks but it seems Moon+ might have a more sophisticated bookmarking tool. I also like Moon's smooth scrolling. You can flick through an entire chapter without turning a page. However I prefer RBReaders simple design compared the the flashier and more complicated Moon+.

If you do try out FBReader. After you change the directory it may not work immediately. It took at least a restart for it to start accessing Calibre Companion.

[Adoby]

I use Mantano on my Motorola Xoom. Unfortunately I can't use CC because I keep my entire ebook library on my Xoom. A mix of ePubs an PDFs. Well at least the "good" part. Books and magazines I intend to read, reread or might reference for some reason. CC currently crash because lack of memory after around 580 books.

Instead I use a removable 32 GB micro SDHC card that I connect to as a device, and sync, when I have new books or updated metadata. I send the books to folders depending on genre and can then very quickly create or update collections in Mantano from that. Works great. It allows me to browse using author, title, series and genre. Also I have access to comments and other metadata from Calibre.

I don't really use bookmarks and annotations very much, but it seems to work fine.

[Mr. Goodbar]

I really like Moon+. I import the books into Moon+ after transferring them with CC. The import works very well and although it does scan through the entire directory again, it is very fast and only imports the new books in the directory. It also seems to launch fine from CC if you choose to use it in that fashion.

[GoghGirl]

I suggest changing the Moon+ directory to Calibre Companion rather than importing. After importing the books to Moon+ you wont be able to edit their metadata anymore from calibre which loses a lot of the functionality of CC. Plus then you have to manually import everytiem you add books to your device.
Its pretty easy to do while in Moon+.. Just go to Options >> Main Folder >> then you just have to find Calibre Companion folder.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Originally Posted by GoghGirl

I suggest changing the Moon+ directory to Calibre Companion rather than importing. After importing the books to Moon+ you wont be able to edit their metadata anymore from calibre which loses a lot of the functionality of CC. Plus then you have to manually import everytiem you add books to your device.
Its pretty easy to do while in Moon+.. Just go to Options >> Main Folder >> then you just have to find Calibre Companion folder.

I believe I would still need to import them into Moon+ if I want to use the moon listing and sorting features which I do. Just a different way of using CC and one that works for me. I use CC to transfer and Moon+ to sort and manage.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

I believe I would still need to import them into Moon+ if I want to use the moon listing and sorting features which I do.

You are correct. Since importing the books to Moon+ does not create duplicates it makes little difference where the books are on the device.

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

I use CC to transfer and Moon+ to sort and manage.

This is what I do too. It is nice that Moon+ also groups calibre series, found at the top of the tags list and sorts the books accurately when the series is selected.

[GoghGirl]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You are correct. Since importing the books to Moon+ does not create duplicates it makes little difference where the books are on the device.

This is what I do too. It is nice that Moon+ also groups calibre series, found at the top of the tags list and sorts the books accurately when the series is selected.

Oh. I mostly use FBReader which will sort tags and displays all of the books if its directory is in the Companion. I thought Moon+ was the same. Its been awhile since I used Moon+ and since I last used it it had added the change the directory function so I thought it had all the capabilities now.

Doesn't import add the books to somewhere else on the devise? That is what I had always assumed.
It doesn't create duplicates so it moves the file rather than copying?
I'm curious to know what the purpose of changing the directory is useful for in Moon+ then.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by GoghGirl

Its been awhile since I used Moon+ and since I last used it it had added the change the directory function so I thought it had all the capabilities now.

I don't know what you mean by all the capabilities, but for my dime Moon+ has a much better reading experience than FBReader. Including some nice themes and control of every aspect of book customization. The one thing missing from Moon+ (at least I haven't found it yet) is the book jacket feature that FBReader has that pops up the info on the book before you read it.

Originally Posted by GoghGirl

Doesn't import add the books to somewhere else on the devise? That is what I had always assumed.
It doesn't create duplicates so it moves the file rather than copying?

When I import the books as best as I can tell they are not moved or copied. It seems that the book covers are extracted from the books for easier handling.

Originally Posted by GoghGirl

I'm curious to know what the purpose of changing the directory is useful for in Moon+ then.

Looking at it more closely changing the directory does allow the books to be read directly, but importing seems to extract the covers from the book for use by Moon+ and possibly update a database.

[ellett]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

...
This is what I do too. It is nice that Moon+ also groups calibre series, found at the top of the tags list and sorts the books accurately when the series is selected.

I installed the free version of Moon Reader to check it out, and I must say the reading experience is much better than Aldiko.

You remark that Moon can group by series using tags list, but I don't see any such thing. Am I missing something obvious or is this something that's only in the paid version?

And the author sort seems to be by first name only, which is pretty useless. Once again, am I missing something?

CC's display does it right, grouping by author and then within author sorting by series. Can Moon, or any other reader software, do that?

Thanks.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by ellett

You remark that Moon can group by series using tags list, but I don't see any such thing. Am I missing something obvious or is this something that's only in the paid version?

No you're not missing something. If you click on the dropdown and choose By Tags the first items in the list have a little calibre icon and are all of the series for the books you have on the device, followed by a list of all of the tags you have.

Originally Posted by ellett

And the author sort seems to be by first name only, which is pretty useless.

As far as I can tell youe are correct.

Originally Posted by ellett

CC's display does it right, grouping by author and then within author sorting by series. Can Moon

No Moon reader can't do that, CC is far more valuable in this respect. That's why I use both.

[JMikeD]

I gave the paid versions of several ereader apps a try and ended up with Moon+. It's the only one that will sync pages read with multiple devices through Dropbox and does not require that the devices be rooted or a subscription to the app publisher's web service.

Also, the ability to control both display brightness and type size by screen gestures is handy.