Touch Rooting for ebook management?

[BookJunkieLI]

I've been reading through several of the threads that talk about rooting but they all seem to be mostly concerned with turning the Touch into essentially a tablet or a Android device and adding things like a web browser and Twitter. I could care less about these things. I simply want better library management but I haven't seen this mentioned in any of the rooting threads so far. I know with my 1st gen Nook library management was part of the basic 'rooting package' from Nookdevs so I didn't have to go searching for it. Is this still the case? Or is rooting a la carte now and I'd have to hunt down a program that does it?

Thanks

[SCION]

Good post. I'm interested in this as well.

[Xenophon]

+1.

I'm waiting to see whether we get a port of trook to the STR. That's the key thing that makes my original eInk nook the best reading device for my needs (as always, YMMV). With trook (or an equivalent program), the STR could be a contender. Without those capabilities, I'll stick with my existing nook.

Xenophon

[iandix]

I agree if someone could port trook over to the new touch .. I would be looking at buying one

[spedinfargo]

Originally Posted by iandix

I agree if someone could port trook over to the new touch .. I would be looking at buying one

Does Trook really get you much that a web browser and/or RSS reader can't do? There are lots of options since a rooted Nook Touch is essentially a full-on Android device.

I saw another thread where someone was asking for Trook on the Nook Color and they got a similar response. I didn't really use Trook on my Classic that much to know what feature gaps would be compared to other standard Android apps though...

[SCION]

I recall reading Trook allows you to sync with a calibre server. Does this include the recognition of book metadata (tags/collections)? This is the aspect I'm interested in. Is there any way we can sync with calibre AND recognize metadata?

[SCION]

How can we extract highlights and notes on a rooted device?

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by spedinfargo

Does Trook really get you much that a web browser and/or RSS reader can't do? There are lots of options since a rooted Nook Touch is essentially a full-on Android device.

I saw another thread where someone was asking for Trook on the Nook Color and they got a similar response. I didn't really use Trook on my Classic that much to know what feature gaps would be compared to other standard Android apps though...

I don't use trook for web browsing or as an RSS reader. I've never used those features of the program, and really couldn't care less about them! The important feature of trook (for me, YMMV) is that it reads opds formatted book catalogs. And that, in turn, lets me use it to get really good navigation through my 2K-book library of ebooks.

Specifically, I use calibre to organize and tag the books and fill in metadata, calibre2opds to build the opds formatted catalog and move the books onto my nook, and trook to display the catalog and support navigating to the book I'll be reading next.

Having convenient, multi-level drill-down access to all my books sorted by author, by series, by date added, by title, etc. ad nauseum PLUS hierarchical display when there are too many options to fit on the screen, PLUS cover view browsing once I get to individual books, PLUS cross-reference links from book entry to series/author/whatever... Let's just say it provides the navigation that should have been available from the beginning, except that the various eBook device makers assumed that it would be "too complicated" for the typical user. Never mind that anyone who can use a card catalog at the library, or a telephone book, or a rolodex understands the metaphor in an instant.

For example, my Mom (who has trouble with point-and-click on her Mac) picked up my nook when I had the trook catalog running, and navigated her way directly to several different authors and series that she was interested in with no trouble. The only tip I had to give her was how to scroll sideways on the lower screen on the nook. Everything else was just obvious.

Convenient navigation through a large catalog is a killer app for anyone with a large library. And trook is a key part of the toolset for that purpose.

Xenophon

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Having convenient, multi-level drill-down access to all my books sorted by author, by series, by date added, by title, etc. ad nauseum PLUS hierarchical display when there are too many options to fit on the screen, PLUS cover view browsing once I get to individual books, PLUS cross-reference links from book entry to series/author/whatever... Let's just say it provides the navigation that should have been available from the beginning, except that the various eBook device makers assumed that it would be "too complicated" for the typical user. Never mind that anyone who can use a card catalog at the library, or a telephone book, or a rolodex understands the metaphor in an instant.

This has been a contention of mine since the beginning with any ereader, but particularly B&N and Amazon as they are actual booksellers, that doesn't support hierarchal sorting or heck even tag sorting. How many people go into a bookstore or onto Amazon's site and say show me all the books that start with A? Or the Authors that start with M? I mean, seriously. You walk into a store, head for the main genre you want and then, if it's a good bookstore, the sub-genre before you search for the author or title. Ditto pretty much for a website.
The bookshelves/collections were a step in the right direction but then they shot themselves in the foot by not letting you work on them from a computer and upload to the device. Sony being the intelligent exception. Plus it's still only two-level sorting that doesn't come close to being truly useful.

I wonder when the ebook device makers are going to realize that their true target audience is made up of fairly hardcore readers who own more than 10 books at a time?

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

I don't use trook for web browsing or as an RSS reader. I've never used those features of the program, and really couldn't care less about them! The important feature of trook (for me, YMMV) is that it reads opds formatted book catalogs. And that, in turn, lets me use it to get really good navigation through my 2K-book library of ebooks.

Specifically, I use calibre to organize and tag the books and fill in metadata, calibre2opds to build the opds formatted catalog and move the books onto my nook, and trook to display the catalog and support navigating to the book I'll be reading next.

Having convenient, multi-level drill-down access to all my books sorted by author, by series, by date added, by title, etc. ad nauseum PLUS hierarchical display when there are too many options to fit on the screen, PLUS cover view browsing once I get to individual books, PLUS cross-reference links from book entry to series/author/whatever... Let's just say it provides the navigation that should have been available from the beginning, except that the various eBook device makers assumed that it would be "too complicated" for the typical user. Never mind that anyone who can use a card catalog at the library, or a telephone book, or a rolodex understands the metaphor in an instant.

For example, my Mom (who has trouble with point-and-click on her Mac) picked up my nook when I had the trook catalog running, and navigated her way directly to several different authors and series that she was interested in with no trouble. The only tip I had to give her was how to scroll sideways on the lower screen on the nook. Everything else was just obvious.

Convenient navigation through a large catalog is a killer app for anyone with a large library. And trook is a key part of the toolset for that purpose.

Xenophon

All the videos I saw show trook using the color lcd to browse the catalog. Is there a way to have trook use the opds catalogs and display information on the eInk panel?

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by BookJunkieLI

This has been a contention of mine since the beginning with any ereader, but particularly B&N and Amazon as they are actual booksellers, that doesn't support hierarchal sorting or heck even tag sorting. How many people go into a bookstore or onto Amazon's site and say show me all the books that start with A? Or the Authors that start with M? I mean, seriously. You walk into a store, head for the main genre you want and then, if it's a good bookstore, the sub-genre before you search for the author or title. Ditto pretty much for a website.
The bookshelves/collections were a step in the right direction but then they shot themselves in the foot by not letting you work on them from a computer and upload to the device. Sony being the intelligent exception. Plus it's still only two-level sorting that doesn't come close to being truly useful.

I wonder when the ebook device makers are going to realize that their true target audience is made up of fairly hardcore readers who own more than 10 books at a time?

+1, and nice analogy. It's definitely true that MY physical library isn't sorted simply by alphabet.

[spedinfargo]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

I don't use trook for web browsing or as an RSS reader. I've never used those features of the program, and really couldn't care less about them! The important feature of trook (for me, YMMV) is that it reads opds formatted book catalogs. And that, in turn, lets me use it to get really good navigation through my 2K-book library of ebooks.

...

Convenient navigation through a large catalog is a killer app for anyone with a large library. And trook is a key part of the toolset for that purpose.

Xenophon

Forgot to respond to this Xenophon (if indeed that is your real name...).

Definitely not discounting the OPDS browsing aspect of Trook as far as navigating a huge Calibre library. When I mentioned using other apps (such as web-browser or RSS reader) I meant using one of those apps to browse the OPDS library like Trook does now.

I think that there are other Android apps that would do that as good or better than Trook would be able to.

I'm actually interested in getting Dropbox to work well for me on the rooted STR - theoretically you could get the _catalog directory to sync down in addition to your entire library (well, maybe not 2k+ books!) and then just fire up the local index.html file in a web browser and navigate the library that way... That could be a really cool way to navigate the local library...

[spyrule]

Originally Posted by spedinfargo

Forgot to respond to this Xenophon (if indeed that is your real name...).

Definitely not discounting the OPDS browsing aspect of Trook as far as navigating a huge Calibre library. When I mentioned using other apps (such as web-browser or RSS reader) I meant using one of those apps to browse the OPDS library like Trook does now.

I think that there are other Android apps that would do that as good or better than Trook would be able to.

I'm actually interested in getting Dropbox to work well for me on the rooted STR - theoretically you could get the _catalog directory to sync down in addition to your entire library (well, maybe not 2k+ books!) and then just fire up the local index.html file in a web browser and navigate the library that way... That could be a really cool way to navigate the local library...

Like this? http://www.anamardoll.com/2011/03/er...-in-cloud.html