The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Either an indent or a paragraph space works for me. Both is overkill.

I don't like no indent with paragraph spaces.

I tend to prefer a lower line height but I'm not that bothered by 1.2. I suspect that many others have also run into ebooks where the line height is set so high it reminded me of double spaced essays in school. Easy enough to fix and annoying enough to make me want to fix. Sometimes I wonder if the author thinks this will fool the reader into thinking the book is much longer than it actually is or if the belief is that KU will give more page turns and so more money without having to write more words.

I never thought of it that way as bilking the system for KU. But yes, it would work to make more money for less words.

[issybird]

I have always thought the price of a paperbook irrelevant to my decision to buy the ebook; that’s not my rant and we’ve been down the road. However, I think I am entitled to assume that the content of a paperbook and an ebook are the same. I’ve just finished, again, an ebook that was unaccountably lacking the pictures included in the paperbook. It seems to me that when the pictures are excised, the ebook should have a banner akin to that of a bathing beauty running diagonally across the cover, “PICTURES NOT INCLUDED”, so the buyer can make an informed choice.

Me? The reality is that I’m not going to buy the paperbook and the lack of pictures is unlikely to change my mind in regard to the ebook, but there are cases when I can conceive that you’d really want to be able to see the pictures, the whole “one picture is worth a thousand words” thing. So I don’t care how much more expensive an ebook is, but when they don’t disclose that the pictures in the paperbook aren’t included, I do feel ripped off.

[j.p.s]

It can be even worse, sometimes the title or description contain the phrase "Illustrated Edition" but the ebook is not illustrated.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

I have always thought the price of a paperbook irrelevant to my decision to buy the ebook; that’s not my rant and we’ve been down the road. However, I think I am entitled to assume that the content of a paperbook and an ebook are the same. I’ve just finished, again, an ebook that was unaccountably lacking the pictures included in the paperbook. It seems to me that when the pictures are excised, the ebook should have a banner akin to that of a bathing beauty running diagonally across the cover, “PICTURES NOT INCLUDED”, so the buyer can make an informed choice.

Me? The reality is that I’m not going to buy the paperbook and the lack of pictures is unlikely to change my mind in regard to the ebook, but there are cases when I can conceive that you’d really want to be able to see the pictures, the whole “one picture is worth a thousand words” thing. So I don’t care how much more expensive an ebook is, but when they don’t disclose that the pictures in the paperbook aren’t included, I do feel ripped off.

Almost as bad is when the images are too small to be of any use.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Almost as bad is when the images are too small to be of any use.

That happens far too often.

Also bad are scanned images that don't have the contrast corrected. (Light grays that should be white and dark grays that should be black.)

[Renate]

Yeah, the only time I miss paper is when a book has a map in the front material.
Years ago I had the "Times Atlas of the World" (the big one).
Anything less than 45 cm tall doesn't cut it for me!
Ok, so the Rand McNally spiral bound US road map is only 40 cm.
https://collins.co.uk/products/9780008293383

[ownedbycats]

a relatively minor one, but:

Omnibus covers that go heavily on the 'box set' theme and have the cover at a weird angle to display fake book spines... despite the fact that it's only available digitally. These seem to be especially common with self-published books on Amazon.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Omnibus covers that go heavily on the 'box set' theme and have the cover at a weird angle to display fake book spines... despite the fact that it's only available digitally. These seem to be especially common with self-published books on Amazon.

I think it looks rubbish. It's time also that the book websites had support for box set. The SW is trivial. A composite image with image map; click on any cover and have it and blurb entire window (i.e. all from separate book data) with an X. Either click/tap X or hit "back" to see box set again.

I actually find it very annoying and careless.

Also I don't like Digital versions of a Box set done as a giant single ebook. Just offer a discount for selecting the entire set of ebooks and option of multiple download links or a zip with them all.

[ownedbycats]

I'm halfway tempted to split it just to get proper covers.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I think it looks rubbish. It's time also that the book websites had support for box set. The SW is trivial. A composite image with image map; click on any cover and have it and blurb entire window (i.e. all from separate book data) with an X. Either click/tap X or hit "back" to see box set again.

I actually find it very annoying and careless.

Also I don't like Digital versions of a Box set done as a giant single ebook. Just offer a discount for selecting the entire set of ebooks and option of multiple download links or a zip with them all.

I agree with the dislike of the way digital "Box Sets" are done, and agree that they would be better as a discount on the set of individual ebooks. When I do rarely buy these box sets, the first thing I do is to separate them in Calibre. (All thanks to the developer of the epub split plugin!)

Shari

[John F]

This was probably already ranted about, but I'll rant some more.

When a book has "... for fans of AUTHOR and AUTHOR ...".

I was looking at upcoming releases, and it had this. I took a look at these other authors: didn't recognize their names, didn't recognize their books (except for one book I had no plans on reading), didn't really see the connection, and the other authors books didn't really catch my attention.

I liked the author in the past, but due to the reference the other authors that look questionable, I'm going to put this book low on my TBR list, which means I probably won't get to it.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by John F

This was probably already ranted about, but I'll rant some more.

When a book has "... for fans of AUTHOR and AUTHOR ...".

I was looking at upcoming releases, and it had this. I took a look at these other authors: didn't recognize their names, didn't recognize their books (except for one book I had no plans on reading), didn't really see the connection, and the other authors books didn't really catch my attention.

I liked the author in the past, but due to the reference the other authors that look questionable, I'm going to put this book low on my TBR list, which means I probably won't get to it.

I've complained about this too, albeit with 'TITLE and TITLE.'

The weirdest part is that even when I do recognize all of them, there's often very little resemblance.

[DiapDealer]

Sentences like this (especially in traditionally published books by fair to middlin' publishing houses).

"The sound of gunfire lit the afternoon sky as they prepared to leave."

I put the book down after coming across it. Still not fixed/changed in any new ebook editions after 10+ years.

Perhaps the author is a synesthete, but I doubt it.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Sentences like this (especially in traditionally published books by fair to middlin' publishing houses).

"The sound of gunfire lit the afternoon sky as they prepared to leave."

I put the book down after reading it. Still not fixed in any new ebook editions after 10+ years.

No matter how I twist my brain around, I can't get that sentence to make any sense. Did they cheap out on the editing?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

No matter how I twist my brain around, I can't get that sentence to make any sense.

Unless you're one who sees sounds (hence my synesthesia reference), I doubt there's any way it CAN be twisted to make sense.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Did they cheap out on the editing?

It didn't seem to be poorly edited up to that point, but who knows?