eBooks are an accepted way of reading
nowadays. They've been included by government statisticians E in the basket of
goods used to measure the cost of living. The ONS believes it to be "a
significant and growing market", and it notes huge increases in the number
of people reading digitally.
In 2012, in the UK, eBooks accounted for
13-14% of all book sales in volume terms and 6-7% in value terms. What that
also means is that many of us have not just one or two eBooks but an
overwhelming number of them. Depending, too, on the devices you own, you may
even have them in varying formats or, at the very least, want to convert one
format into another.
In 2006, a piece of software was born
called Calibre. Initially called libprs500, it was introduced way before the
Kindle started its path to dominance (that happened in November 2007) and it
coincided with the launch of the Sony PRS-500 e-ink based reader that happened
to be the first to be sold commercially in America.
EBooks
are an accepted way of reading nowadays.
Produced by Kovid Goyal, who wanted to get
this device to work with Linux, Calibre is incredibly useful. You can use it to
create an eBook collection. Users select the type of eBook reader they own and
they can then convert between virtually every single eBook format available.
As well as allowing for conversion, Goyal
realized that this only increased the sheer number of books he was able to
amass. As his library grew, he knuckled down and worked on a set of management
features. Using these, you can also ensure that you have a complete log of all
your books, regardless of the device on which they will be used. Calibre allows
you to quickly sort through the eBooks by title and author. It lets you scan
through by ratings and series. With the ability to add tags and comments and
even jot down a short synopsis so that you can remind yourself of the useful
nature (or not) of each book, it becomes the ultimate way to keep your library
in check.
As if all of that was not enough, Calibre
throws in a news downloading feature too. Websites can be converted to Calibre,
which allows you to read articles on your portable ebook device or your desktop
in a form that best suits. Quite simply, Calibre is an essential app to have on
your PC or Mac, and it keeps getting better since many developers, testers and
bug reports are constantly working on it.
Getting Started With Calibre
To find Calibre, go to calibre-ebook.com
and select the download option. All you need is the app, some books and a
folder in which to put them all, and you're then able to get on with managing
them. Calibre will ask you to create a new folder before prompting you to let
it know which eBook reader you use. You can also configure Calibre so that it
can email books to your reader.
To
find Calibre, go to calibre-ebook.com and select the download option.
Once you have everything ready, it's time
to add some new books. This is done by clicking the Add Books icon in the
top-left corner of the Calibre interface. By clicking the main icon, you will
be able to scour your hard drive for the book you wish to add, but you can also
click the downward arrow. This will let you add specific types of books and
from certain locations.
For most people, adding books from a single
directory is of most use, since you can manually pick the books that you want.
Adding from directories including sub- directories is useful if you have a
number of books already in a folder. Calibre can import them all if you wish,
but do be wary of clicking the multiple books per directory option, since it
can start to confuse you, especially if you have some duplicates knocking
around.
When you've added the books, Calibre scours
them for information that it will use to populate the various fields of book
name, author and so on. You can then go into each book and edit them, adding
covers if you wish (grab them from the internet) and tidying up the author
names and so on until you get the data that works best for you.
Right-click on an book and select 'Edit
metadata' either individually or in bulk. You can then go into each book and
make your alterations. The Edit panel is very flexible, as you will see in our
boxout.
For
most people, adding books from a single directory is of most use, since you can
manually pick the books that you want.
As you begin to build up your database, you
will see the books listed in the main panel of Calibre. Clicking on the
headings of each section will reorder the books for you and highlighting a book
will display the cover and some details in the right-hand window.
Running down the left of the screen are
lots of other options to help you better organize, and you can see, at a
glance, just how many books are available in each one of those sections.
Fetching News And Books
You're able to produce your own bespoke
news feeds, with Calibre automatically pulling in information from the sources
that you select. This option is within the Fetch News tab and selecting the
arrow within this icon, you get to see a host of different sources (there are
41 in the UK). They range from BBC News to the Birmingham Post and include
Digital Spy, FHM, Financial Times, Glasgow Herald, Kerrang!, NME and the New
Statesman. As you can see, that is a very varied range, so there will be
undoubtedly something of use.
By fetching that news, you can read it on
you’ re reader by pulling it into Calibre and sending it on. You can also
manage your news feeds too.
Another great feature of Calibre is that it
lets you find books without having to go to lots of different websites
yourself. The Get books option opens up a window that tells you it will look
through commercial and public domain websites and find books for you. You get
to see the DRM status of the book and then obtain them.
By
fetching that news, you can read it on you’ re reader by pulling it into
Calibre and sending it on.
The transaction stage of the book acquiring
is done between you and the third-party website rather than Calibre, but you
can search by title, author and keyword and go through a host of sites
including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Manybooks and Nook UK. When you click the
book that you want, the website will appear and you can download and then
import as normal.
And don't forget that Calibre doesn't only
allow you to read eBooks on a computer. You can also view them on a desktop
useful if you have a laptop with you when travelling.
