8 ms·

> Calibre does its job so well it's downright essential for anyone thinking about dealing with ebooks. Its “job” is not well-defined. I read electronic books

by akho 4y ago

> Calibre does its job so well it's downright essential for anyone thinking about dealing with ebooks. Its “job” is not well-defined. I read electronic books almost exclusively (for prose fiction; art and equations are a different bag) since 2008 or so, and never saw any point in it beyond format conversion. It does format conversion very well. The command-line converter requires a running graphical session for some reason, though.

blowski 4y ago
I use it extensively for managing the books on my devices (Kobo Libre, and my wife has an old Kindle).
- akho 4y ago
  What’s there to manage? They are files. Read a book, copy a new book over, delete old book. A file manager does all that, and is simpler and easier.
  - blowski 4y ago
    If I knew how to do that on either the Kobo Libre or the Kindle 2012 model, I'd do it. As it is, Calibre is very easy to use anyway.
    - akho 4y ago
      I don’t understand. All Kindles I had — from Kindle 2 to Voyage — mounted as external drives when connected via USB, and copying mobi files just works (but their email delivery works fine, so I usually use that). From a brief Google search, Libra is the same (with epub). I feel like I’m missing something every time Calibre comes up. People seem to love it, but I just found it confusing and unnecessary when I dealt with it.
      - blowski 4y ago
        When I connect the Kindle via USB to a MacBook Pro running macOS Monterey, I do not see a mounted drive with files in it, just the device itself. To email the files to Kindle, I first need to convert them anyway to mobi files. For the Kobo Libre, I can indeed see a mounted volume, but copying a file into it does not consistently make that book available for reading. Given I don't have these problems when I use Calibre, I'd definitely say it makes my life easier.
        pasc1878 4y ago
        Then you need to provide more details. I have used many versions of macOS with Kindles including 12.4 and attaching a Kindle has always shown it as an external drive (called Kindle) What do you mean by the device itself - how does a device show up on macOS?
        blowski 4y ago
        I'm totally fine with Calibre, so not going to bother digging any more, but thanks for the offer.
      - goosedragons 4y ago
        It's iTunes for eBooks. If you're someone that has 19 different readers, wants to keep them synced to the same page, make the metadata perfect, rate books, write notes about them etc. it makes a lot of sense. For me it's basically a way to use two plugins and occasionally fix a book cover. It's a bit bloated IMO.
        blowski 4y ago
        With iTunes, you were forced to use it to manage an iPod, iPhone, and any media bought from Apple. With Calibre, you can use it or not use it to manage your ebooks as much as you like. That's a very important distinction.
        4y ago
  - addicted 4y ago
    Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. And a file manager doesn’t track which books of mine are synced and which are not. Calibre does. A file manager does not make it easy for me to correct the ebook’s metadata so it appears properly on the ebook reader. Calibre does. Calibre will also automatically download metadata for you from a variety of sources (with many options for the level of automation, including individual review with diffs from the existing metadata). Calibre also makes it trivial for me to create a web server so I can access my books from any device from anywhere. Calibre will also track which books I’ve read and which ones I haven’t. Which a file manager won’t. Calibre also makes it possible for me to read the books on my computer itself before I sync them to my device. Calibre will also automatically convert my book to a different format depending on the device I’m syncing to, something a file manager won’t do either.
    - akho 4y ago
      > Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. Only if you make them. Have been pretty simple for me. I don’t do most of the things you mention, and do not see myself wanting to. I do use Calibre for conversion (through the command-line ebook-convert tool, wrapped in a script that converts and mails to Kindle in one operation). I don’t use different devices, to “automatically” does not mean much.
      - selfhoster11 4y ago
        > Only if you make them. Have been pretty simple for me. I don’t do most of the things you mention, and do not see myself wanting to. That's not how it works. Each device and firmware has its own way of doing things. For example, I would have no idea how to build "ebook groups" on my reader, but I don't have to worry about that because Calibre knows how to do it for me. Creating those by hand would likely involve a third party tool or XML/other structured text format editing, which would be annoying. > I don’t use different devices That's your setup. Another person may have three readers, for whatever reason. How would you keep track of it then, and would it not be easier to just hand over things to Calibre for automatic synchronisation?
  - johnchristopher 4y ago
    While you can do that with a Kobo you can't drop the file and expect it to appear in some collections. To associate a book with a collection you have to either use Calibre or the vendor's app. I have epubs and PDFs that weren't bought through the Kobo/Rakuten store and they don't get filed in my collections. With Calibre (and a plugin) I can do that. I do agree I could live without it but files tend to accumulate and putting books in collections help. All of this would be much easier if the kobo was dumber and just created shelves/collections based on folders.
    - johnchristopher 4y ago
      Curious about the downvotes here.
      - hoppyhoppy2 4y ago
        >Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - spondyl 4y ago
    There's a lot of nutty stuff under the hood like ensuring that covers are sized optimally for each device, which often have their own aspect ratios, DPIs and what not. It also does a lot of database management ie; for Kobo, inserting things into the Kobo database, where schemas have varied over time etc etc. You can of course just copy paste files as a baseline and it'll work.
  - swozey 4y ago
    They may be "files" but I have thousands of them on my devices. And there is no way in the world I'm managing that through Kindles interface.
    - akho 4y ago
      I only read 60-80 books a year, maybe 40-60 on a Kindle. I guess I need to take up some sport to live long enough to reach your numbers (and to stop deleting things). Even including an occasional article, 'thousands' is very impressive.
      - swozey 4y ago
        I'm a horrible hoarder but I've also had a kindle and have been using Calibre since it started. You can store a ridiculous amount (thousands+) of books on a Kindle but as soon as you do that the interface slows to a crawl, it's really unpleasant to use at that point. Just page turning in your library takes seconds and I think it only lists 10-20 books a page.. oof. I bounce between books a LOT. I don't read daily or anything and no speed reading skills but I'm usually reading 5-10 at a time and I fall asleep to audiobooks.
        akho 4y ago
        Yeah, I delete things I’ve read. Quicker to re-download than to find on the device.
      - WorldMaker 4y ago
        My worst habits are largely (TT)RPG manuals. I've got a huge collection from DTRPG especially. Sometimes one RPG purchase will have ten/twenty PDF files inside it (player's guides, GM guides, adventures/modules, etc). (Not to mention the combinatorial explosion if you ever talk yourself into a big sales bundle or two.) There's a bunch of weird reasons to keep them around "read" or not, and make them searchable if I need to look something up or am trying to remember a detail. Syncing some of them to my kindles or to other tablet devices from time to time can be handy for portable retrieval (or on the go skimming). I eventually realized my Books folders were huge and unmanageable even with a detailed folder structure and have been happy with moving that all to Calibre with better tags and metadata management.
  - sigzero 4y ago
    I use its ability to add the number of the book in a series. So I get: This is a book - book 1 of 3 That book - book 2 of 3 There book - book 3 of 3 There's more to it but that is the gist of it. It's awesome.
  - jxdxbx 4y ago
    the extensive library of plugins allows you to do things not possible with just command line tools or the file manager. But of course the basics are just awareness of metadata, metadata editing, and grouping different file formats of the same book together in one entry. Using an app that is aware of the metadata conventions of the specific media files you are managing is indispensable to me.
  - mitchdoogle 4y ago
    I have an old Kindle and it's always had trouble trying to just load files over a USB connection - books show up in the wrong section, no metadata, etc. Calibre makes it simple and the books appear properly on the device. And it can fix metadata on books downloaded from the internet. That's the main reason I use it. Add in the fact that it's a nice management tool for seeing all my books at once and I'm very pleased with it.
doliveira 4y ago
Yeah, I wanted to separate the conversion code into another package, but it's all so tangled
- akho 4y ago
  I’ve also spent an hour looking at it at one point. I’m sure it all makes sense in the overall Calibre context (formats can be plugins, so the perimeter includes stuff like customization code), but conversion is not easily extractable. The Calibre conversion CLI tool is easy to run though. A bit unfortunate I can’t do it in an SSH session from my phone.

by akho 4y ago

blowski 4y ago

I use it extensively for managing the books on my devices (Kobo Libre, and my wife has an old Kindle).

akho 4y ago
What’s there to manage? They are files. Read a book, copy a new book over, delete old book. A file manager does all that, and is simpler and easier.
- blowski 4y ago
  If I knew how to do that on either the Kobo Libre or the Kindle 2012 model, I'd do it. As it is, Calibre is very easy to use anyway.
  - akho 4y ago
    I don’t understand. All Kindles I had — from Kindle 2 to Voyage — mounted as external drives when connected via USB, and copying mobi files just works (but their email delivery works fine, so I usually use that). From a brief Google search, Libra is the same (with epub). I feel like I’m missing something every time Calibre comes up. People seem to love it, but I just found it confusing and unnecessary when I dealt with it.
    - blowski 4y ago
      When I connect the Kindle via USB to a MacBook Pro running macOS Monterey, I do not see a mounted drive with files in it, just the device itself. To email the files to Kindle, I first need to convert them anyway to mobi files. For the Kobo Libre, I can indeed see a mounted volume, but copying a file into it does not consistently make that book available for reading. Given I don't have these problems when I use Calibre, I'd definitely say it makes my life easier.
      - pasc1878 4y ago
        Then you need to provide more details. I have used many versions of macOS with Kindles including 12.4 and attaching a Kindle has always shown it as an external drive (called Kindle) What do you mean by the device itself - how does a device show up on macOS?
        blowski 4y ago
        I'm totally fine with Calibre, so not going to bother digging any more, but thanks for the offer.
    - goosedragons 4y ago
      It's iTunes for eBooks. If you're someone that has 19 different readers, wants to keep them synced to the same page, make the metadata perfect, rate books, write notes about them etc. it makes a lot of sense. For me it's basically a way to use two plugins and occasionally fix a book cover. It's a bit bloated IMO.
      - blowski 4y ago
        With iTunes, you were forced to use it to manage an iPod, iPhone, and any media bought from Apple. With Calibre, you can use it or not use it to manage your ebooks as much as you like. That's a very important distinction.
        4y ago
- addicted 4y ago
  Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. And a file manager doesn’t track which books of mine are synced and which are not. Calibre does. A file manager does not make it easy for me to correct the ebook’s metadata so it appears properly on the ebook reader. Calibre does. Calibre will also automatically download metadata for you from a variety of sources (with many options for the level of automation, including individual review with diffs from the existing metadata). Calibre also makes it trivial for me to create a web server so I can access my books from any device from anywhere. Calibre will also track which books I’ve read and which ones I haven’t. Which a file manager won’t. Calibre also makes it possible for me to read the books on my computer itself before I sync them to my device. Calibre will also automatically convert my book to a different format depending on the device I’m syncing to, something a file manager won’t do either.
  - akho 4y ago
    > Most (all commercially available?$ebook readers are not as simple as that. Only if you make them. Have been pretty simple for me. I don’t do most of the things you mention, and do not see myself wanting to. I do use Calibre for conversion (through the command-line ebook-convert tool, wrapped in a script that converts and mails to Kindle in one operation). I don’t use different devices, to “automatically” does not mean much.
    - selfhoster11 4y ago
      > Only if you make them. Have been pretty simple for me. I don’t do most of the things you mention, and do not see myself wanting to. That's not how it works. Each device and firmware has its own way of doing things. For example, I would have no idea how to build "ebook groups" on my reader, but I don't have to worry about that because Calibre knows how to do it for me. Creating those by hand would likely involve a third party tool or XML/other structured text format editing, which would be annoying. > I don’t use different devices That's your setup. Another person may have three readers, for whatever reason. How would you keep track of it then, and would it not be easier to just hand over things to Calibre for automatic synchronisation?
- johnchristopher 4y ago
  While you can do that with a Kobo you can't drop the file and expect it to appear in some collections. To associate a book with a collection you have to either use Calibre or the vendor's app. I have epubs and PDFs that weren't bought through the Kobo/Rakuten store and they don't get filed in my collections. With Calibre (and a plugin) I can do that. I do agree I could live without it but files tend to accumulate and putting books in collections help. All of this would be much easier if the kobo was dumber and just created shelves/collections based on folders.
  - johnchristopher 4y ago
    Curious about the downvotes here.
    - hoppyhoppy2 4y ago
      >Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- spondyl 4y ago
  There's a lot of nutty stuff under the hood like ensuring that covers are sized optimally for each device, which often have their own aspect ratios, DPIs and what not. It also does a lot of database management ie; for Kobo, inserting things into the Kobo database, where schemas have varied over time etc etc. You can of course just copy paste files as a baseline and it'll work.
- swozey 4y ago
  They may be "files" but I have thousands of them on my devices. And there is no way in the world I'm managing that through Kindles interface.
  - akho 4y ago
    I only read 60-80 books a year, maybe 40-60 on a Kindle. I guess I need to take up some sport to live long enough to reach your numbers (and to stop deleting things). Even including an occasional article, 'thousands' is very impressive.
    - swozey 4y ago
      I'm a horrible hoarder but I've also had a kindle and have been using Calibre since it started. You can store a ridiculous amount (thousands+) of books on a Kindle but as soon as you do that the interface slows to a crawl, it's really unpleasant to use at that point. Just page turning in your library takes seconds and I think it only lists 10-20 books a page.. oof. I bounce between books a LOT. I don't read daily or anything and no speed reading skills but I'm usually reading 5-10 at a time and I fall asleep to audiobooks.
      - akho 4y ago
        Yeah, I delete things I’ve read. Quicker to re-download than to find on the device.
    - WorldMaker 4y ago
      My worst habits are largely (TT)RPG manuals. I've got a huge collection from DTRPG especially. Sometimes one RPG purchase will have ten/twenty PDF files inside it (player's guides, GM guides, adventures/modules, etc). (Not to mention the combinatorial explosion if you ever talk yourself into a big sales bundle or two.) There's a bunch of weird reasons to keep them around "read" or not, and make them searchable if I need to look something up or am trying to remember a detail. Syncing some of them to my kindles or to other tablet devices from time to time can be handy for portable retrieval (or on the go skimming). I eventually realized my Books folders were huge and unmanageable even with a detailed folder structure and have been happy with moving that all to Calibre with better tags and metadata management.
- sigzero 4y ago
  I use its ability to add the number of the book in a series. So I get: This is a book - book 1 of 3 That book - book 2 of 3 There book - book 3 of 3 There's more to it but that is the gist of it. It's awesome.
- jxdxbx 4y ago
  the extensive library of plugins allows you to do things not possible with just command line tools or the file manager. But of course the basics are just awareness of metadata, metadata editing, and grouping different file formats of the same book together in one entry. Using an app that is aware of the metadata conventions of the specific media files you are managing is indispensable to me.
- mitchdoogle 4y ago
  I have an old Kindle and it's always had trouble trying to just load files over a USB connection - books show up in the wrong section, no metadata, etc. Calibre makes it simple and the books appear properly on the device. And it can fix metadata on books downloaded from the internet. That's the main reason I use it. Add in the fact that it's a nice management tool for seeing all my books at once and I'm very pleased with it.

doliveira 4y ago

Yeah, I wanted to separate the conversion code into another package, but it's all so tangled

akho 4y ago
I’ve also spent an hour looking at it at one point. I’m sure it all makes sense in the overall Calibre context (formats can be plugins, so the perimeter includes stuff like customization code), but conversion is not easily extractable. The Calibre conversion CLI tool is easy to run though. A bit unfortunate I can’t do it in an SSH session from my phone.