PRC/MOBI Book Requests (Public Domain books ONLY!)

[RWood]

At the moment some of us are starting to post PRC/MOBI format books in this forum that are the same titles as we have already posted in the BBeB/LFR section. Hopefully (if we can find all of our source files) the two will contain the same titles.

My purpose in starting this thread is to solicit from the PRC/MOBI users what books they want converted first. I will do my best as time permits (and I can find the source files) to post those titles first.

As I post new books, I will post them to both forums.

[wallcraft]

I would like to see Wallace, Edgar: Mr J.G. Reeder Omnibus. So far as I know, this is the only single volume collection of all Wallace's books and short stories featuring "Mr. J.G. Reeder".

[Robert Marquard]

Can we have rules for PRC/MOBI books? I would prefer to have the books only in default compression (standard Palm compression). The Mobipocket high compression is a proprietary format. The Palm compression is not very efficient, but alternative reader programs (namely FBReader) can handle such PRC/MOBI books.

[HarryT]

Which setting should one use in "Book Designer" to create such books, Robert? There are a number of "device" options for Mobipocket output - do they use different compressions?

[Robert Marquard]

I am not sure. I prefer the commandline tool mobigen.exe from Mobipocket. There it is a commandline option.

I currently improve the german translation of the Mobipocket Reader.

Compression
Compress eBook file
No compression
Standard compression
High compression

There must be a combobox somewhere in the options. "Standard compression" is the Palm compression and "High compression" the proprietary Mobipocket compression.
From the commandline help of mobigen.exe it is obvious that it is just a variation of the Huffman compression though.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Robert Marquard

Can we have rules for PRC/MOBI books? I would prefer to have the books only in default compression (standard Palm compression). The Mobipocket high compression is a proprietary format. The Palm compression is not very efficient, but alternative reader programs (namely FBReader) can handle such PRC/MOBI books.

What I can do is try a few different formats out of Book Designer and you can see what you think works best. I'll do this on Monday and PM you the link to let you know where the attachment is so you can test them all out and tell us what to do. Thanks!

[JSWolf]

I've put together the same book using all the options Book Designer allows for Palm/MobiPocket and FictionBook. Please tlel me what works best overall or do we need a section for FictionBook?

Jon

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[CharlieBird]

My list:
Of Time and the River and You Can't Go Home Again (Thomas Wolfe)
Mrs. Dalloway and The Waves (virginia Woolf)
War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy)
Swann's Way and Within a Budding Grove (Marcel Proust)
Don Quixote Pt.1 (Cervantes)
This is my first post. I have been reading your forum for some 10 or 11 months. Even though it is frequently too technical for me, I have learned much and I thank you all.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've put together the same book using all the options Book Designer allows for Palm/MobiPocket and FictionBook. Please tlel me what works best overall or do we need a section for FictionBook?

I tried these with FBReader under Windows and Linux and with the Windows MobiPocket Reader. Both FBReader and MobiPocket Reader can read the "Mobipocket" version. They display the images but they do not produce a TOC (table of contents) that shows up under the Contents tab, i.e. this is missing from the document. It is possible to navigate by going to the first page and then clicking on the embedded TOC, but this isn't quite a convenient as a formal TOC. Both also read the "Simple prc" version, which only has text and has no navigable TOC. This is actually a PalmDoc (AportisDoc) file. These are the only files readable by MobiPocket, but FBReader also reads the FB2 version. The only advantage of this version is that it does have a formal TOC (it also has enough metadata to be added automatically to FBReader's library view). The "Palm Reader" versions (PeanutPress format) are not readable by either reader.

It would be nice if the "MobiPocket" version provided a formal TOC, but this presumably needs an upgrade to Book Designer. The only other problem I see with this version is that FBReader does not detect that it is encoded using Windows-1252, and assumes it is using ISO-8859-1 by default. The encoding can be manually set using FBReader, and it isn't a problem with MobiPocket Reader. A quick way to check the encoding is to look at the double quotes in Chapter 2, which were not being displayed by default under FBReader.

An example of a complete MobiPocket document is Ring Of Fire from Baen's free library. Under the "Contents" tab in this case, MobiPocket Reader includes entries for the TOC, the cover, the first page, and e-book info.

[JSWolf]

So given what I've posted, what would be the best file types from Book Designer to post for Mobipocket and FBReader? What I've posted seems to be the best we can do at the moment.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by CharlieBird

This is my first post. I have been reading your forum for some 10 or 11 months. Even though it is frequently too technical for me, I have learned much and I thank you all.

Welcome to MobileRead, CharlieBird! Glad you came into the light.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So given what I've posted, what would be the best file types from Book Designer to post for Mobipocket and FBReader? What I've posted seems to be the best we can do at the moment.

The best for MobiPocket is the "Mobipocket" version. The best for FBReader is the FB2 version. A good MobiPocket version would be essentially equal in capability to the FB2 version, but Book Designer apparently provides better support for FB2 than MobiPocket.

I'm not sure which other readers support the FB2 format, and whether it is worth producing a FB2 version just for FBReader. The existing MobiPocket version may be "good enough" for both MobiPocket Reader and FBReader.

[JSWolf]

As long as Fictiobook can read the MobiPocket version, I think that would be best. One copy and both programs can read it. All we need do is make sure each book has an internal ToC since the MobiPocet converter doesn't create an external one like it does for BBeB (LRF) and FB2.

[The GreatGonzo]

I could really use a nicely formatted version of the complete libretti of Gilbert & Sullivan. The Project Gutenberg download is one big text file and therefore next to useless for comic opera lovers. I could use something with a table of contents, italics, proper indenting etc ... Oh dear - the more I think about it, the more work it is... darn ...

[henkvdg]

Originally Posted by The GreatGonzo

I could really use a nicely formatted version of the complete libretti of Gilbert & Sullivan. The Project Gutenberg download is one big text file and therefore next to useless for comic opera lovers. I could use something with a table of contents, italics, proper indenting etc ... Oh dear - the more I think about it, the more work it is... darn ...

Could I help?

Do you mean this one: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/cpogs10.txt