Split book records

[Rellwood]

Is there an option to split up book records?

Multiple formats in one record split into individual records?

[ownedbycats]

I asked this once myself. I think the solution was to duplicate the record (Add Book > add empty book > duplicate current book & make sure that the copy formats checkbox is checked) and delete the other format from it.

[Rellwood]

Yeah, that's not going to work for me.

Just about every book file I have is multiple formats.

I just might have to do what I have been doing, which is creating a library for each format.

Seriously? Why can't Calibre have the option to NOT combine multiple formats in the beginning? I have a lot of .RAR files I import and sometimes they have multiple formats, and they all get blended. Being able to easily separate book formats makes a huge difference in the metadata.

[ownedbycats]

Check out this option:



You'll have to unpack your RAR archives first, I think. I like ArcThemAll for batch extract of archive files.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Yeah, that's not going to work for me.

Just about every book file I have is multiple formats.

I just might have to do what I have been doing, which is creating a library for each format.

Seriously? Why can't Calibre have the option to NOT combine multiple formats in the beginning? I have a lot of .RAR files I import and sometimes they have multiple formats, and they all get blended. Being able to easily separate book formats makes a huge difference in the metadata.

What legitimate sources for ebooks combine multiple formats into a single .RAR file? The only place I've seen that has been on pirate sites. Inquiring minds are eager to know.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by DNSB

What legitimate sources for ebooks combine multiple formats into a single .RAR file? The only place I've seen that has been on pirate sites. Inquiring minds are eager to know.

Baen Books, at least they did it.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Baen Books, at least they did it.

To the best of my knowledge, Baen has always used .zip not .rar format and they placed multiple books in one format in that .zip archive. Their current download books functionality allows selecting up to 100 books per archive but only 1 format at a time.

Going back into my archives, my first ebook from Webscriptions was in 1999 and I downloaded "Mother of Demons" for my Palm as a zip archive. The good old days when I could actually read text that small.

As I said, the only sources for multiple formats of the same ebook in a .rar archive that I am aware of are pirate sites.

And no, I do not consider the zip archives generated from Baen's bound-in CDs as being from Baen.

[Terisa de morgan]

Ah, rar, sorry. No, I haven-t found any place who uses the rar format.

[Rellwood]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Check out this option:

Attachment 180409

You'll have to unpack your RAR archives first, I think. I like ArcThemAll for batch extract of archive files.

I have about 1800 total individual book files in all formats (HTML, LIT, MOBI, EPUB, AZW3, FB2) packed in .RARs with some having a couple of formats (Usually EPUB and MOBI) together. Then I may have the same book in files containing only the EPUB and only the MOBI. Then there are the different editions of the same book. I like to see which one I like better, so I import all of them and compare.

Don't get me started on the hoops I have to jump (and remember to do them and do them correctly) to get the unpacked modified dates to be the same as the packed dates. If I import unpacked .rars into Calibre and use the "get filename" plugin, the dates added are the same as the dates I downloaded the .rar. which is what I want. Unpacking the .rar changes the modified date to whatever it was when the initial book file was created - not the date I got the .rar. I can change that date by changing the created date of the rar to the modified date, then unpacking it and changing THAT modified date to the created date. I just have to remember to do it and to not make a mistake of mixing the dates up.

Like I said, a bunch of hoops.

[ownedbycats]

ArcThemAll preserves the last-modified date when extracting so maybe that's not an option.

I've been adding a bunch of fanfic I downloaded years back and trying to preserve the date-added myself. I ended up using a program to split all the files into date-folders and then adding them one folder at a time and then batch-editing them to change the date. It's a bit of a PITA to be honest but I like preserving the dates.

[Rellwood]

Originally Posted by DNSB

What legitimate sources for ebooks combine multiple formats into a single .RAR file? The only place I've seen that has been on pirate sites. Inquiring minds are eager to know.

Yup, I have a ton of books from .nzb sites (and other) from 2015 to today. However I have gone from maybe 600 books in one year to like 30. I am dealing with old .rars and not new ones. Sometimes I like to download a huge amount is a single folder full of random files to see if there is anything new or good I would otherwise never know about.

However, I have been purchasing or getting Kindle Unlimited and or Library books before I choose to read one of those old books taking up space in my library.

I also have a lot of books from
Beam,
Smashwords
Author Websites
Walmart
Kobo
Bookstrand
Ellora's Cave
Free for signing up to a newsletter
Free internet download (free being truly free for the taking and not pirated)
Individual retail sites

I haven't been reading them as much as using them as a guide to what I do want to read. I can get page counts, and check out the most frequent words, and check the formatting. Those "samples" are never really good enough, and really, I end up not reading them. However, if I am putting it in my Library and formatting it, checking out the metadata, I get a better idea if I would read it or not.

I don't have to pay $3.99 for each book in a serial of 4 books that should only be one book, and I would only read it once. I can find out before I buy any other books in the series if I am going to like it. Reading the first book in a new series that I can't locate anywhere "legit" that is free gives me a good idea if I plan on buying the next books. If I deem a book "good" enough to read more than once, I buy it. If I have a downloaded book in my library but find it in the public Library, or in Kindle Unlimited, I get it there.

Also, I am on Social Security for disablity and live off of $1000 a month. Reading is my only hobby and yeah, glass houses. Do you have pirated tv, movies or music? I don't. The only thing I have is books. I pretty much dont' even read them, I just keep them in my library like a dragon hoards gold. I MAY read them, but mostly they take up space. My previous habits were if I read a single book by a new author and really loved it, I used to go and get EVERY book by them or EVERY book in the series, but what ends up happening is I would get the books and end up not reading them because I ended up not likeing the next book. This is the bulk of my collection. I need to get rid of them.

In the end I try and do what's right. Like I said, I hardly ever use them anymore. It's just when I am trying to read a new author who isn't free, to see if he/she is worth buying, or if they have a bunch of books that are all "full price" and I know that I would only read them once. Reading a standalone that I normally wouldn't buy because it is priced too high, but I really want to read it - but only once. And of course to stick it to those authors who think line heights of 150% and spaces between paragraphs along with exerpts of other books in the end means that the book is 400 pages in length and so charge $4.99, a book that I would only read once (after formatting it of course).

My problem with the .rars is because I have a bunch of old files that I want to reimport into a "pristine" library, not because I am currently downloading billions of books.

Also, I have read here about people whose libaries are in the tens of thousands - are all of their books legit?

Get out the stones y'all.

Also, I wasn't just talking about .rars, I have .zips too with ever format available in a book when I purchased it from some vendors. Or purchased a whole series.

[BetterRed]

I think you would find that many who have libraries numbering in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of 'books' are using calibre to manage datasets other than off-the-shelf commercially published works - e.g news clippings.

See ==>> How Many Books You Can Read Before You Die

BR

[ownedbycats]

There was a thread recently from someone using Calibre to manage sheet music.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There was a thread recently from someone using Calibre to manage sheet music.

a couple of people use calibre to manage NCP/CNC code for knitting machines, 3D printing, metal working machines etc etc.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Yup, I have a ton of books from .nzb sites (and other) from 2015 to today. However I have gone from maybe 600 books in one year to like 30. I am dealing with old .rars and not new ones. Sometimes I like to download a huge amount is a single folder full of random files to see if there is anything new or good I would otherwise never know about.

Sorry but I don't know of any legitimate publishers who posted their books to Usenet.

As for your justification of piracy? Pirating an ebook based on you possibly not finding the series interesting is not going to fly⁠—you pays your money and you takes your chances. As for using your public library or Kindle Unlimited as a source for books to keep longer than the loan period (or maximum number of books loans at one time for KU)? Not only piracy but a nasty form of piracy.

And justifying your piracy based on your income? Who do you think you are? Google?

La majestueuse égalité des lois, qui interdit au riche comme au pauvre de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.⁠—Anatole France

(In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.)

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Also, I am on Social Security for disablity and live off of $1000 a month. Reading is my only hobby and yeah, glass houses. Do you have pirated tv, movies or music? I don't.

I don't have pirated TV shows, movies or music. And I have trouble seeing how the fact that some people do have collections of pirated content somehow makes your piracy less heinous. "But I only stole books! I never stole a movie!" doesn't fly.

I am one of those people who have over 10K of books in my collection. All of which are public domain, free (commercial and fanfic), paid for or scans of paperbacks that I own (after scanning, the sales value of a mass of loose pages is effectively 0). A good chunk of my book purchases are funded by my sideline of cleaning up ebooks for some local authors. Most of those get me a free copy of the ebook as well but sadly, most of them are in genres that I have little to no interest in.