Post ideas and questions about Bookworm

Some publishers have the author name as "First Last" (e.g. O'Reilly); some put "Last, First" (e.g. FeedBooks). Right now Bookworm always does a normal string sort, in contrast to some other apps -- notably, FBReader takes the last whitespace-separated token to be the surname and sort based on that by default.

There should be an option, when adding a book, to indicate whether the surname is the first word or the last. Being able to custom-edit the sort name would be a huge plus too.

Thanks,

--
Michel Salim

I love the concept of Bookworm. I've been driving myself nuts trying to find a decent ebook reader for my PDA (a Nokia n810 Internet Tablet) and Bookworm is a very strong candidate.

Of course, I have a few suggestions...

1) To paraphrase Charlton Heston, TAKE YOUR STINKING HANDS OFF MY FONTS, YOU DAMNED DIRTY APE! I really do feel strongly about this. I've gone to the trouble of setting my browser's default fonts. I like my fonts. They're comfy. I chose them because they're a family and size that I find readable on my system. I absolutely hate it when a web site or web app goes and changes them to what the designer prefers. That applies in spades to an ebook reader, since text is 100% the point of the app. Please don't set the font. Just let it default. People will be happier. And it alleviates a lot of the need for a "mobile" version of the site with bigger fonts. Just leave the fonts alone and it'll be viewable everywhere.

2) Bookworm needs an offline mode. Yeah, I can download the EPUB file, but that doesn't give me the software to view it. If I had a decent ebook reader on my PDA I wouldn't be looking for something like Bookworm in the first place. This seems like an ideal application for Google Gears or something similar.

3) Regarding the sorting order of the authors' names as mentioned above, the OPF specification has a "file-as" attribute for the creator and contributor fields. It's meant for storing the canonical sorting-order version of the name. I don't know if this attribute is widely used. Bookworm should honor it if present, though.

4) Of course, a full metadata editor integrated into Bookworm wouldn't be a bad idea, either! :-)

All in all, I like what I see. I hope Bookworm matures nicely.

Thanks for the response. Regarding the fonts, you're absolutely right about the CSS. I'd forgotten that EPUB uses it. (I've been using FBreader on my PDA, which doesn't honor the CSS in an EPUB book. Or in any other format, for that matter...) I'm perfectly happy if the book's CSS controls the font.

Hello - I'm new to Bookworm but think it's GREAT! Just a quick question for you: Is there a way to upload more than 1 book at a time to my account?

Thanks!

Awesome! look forwarding to using Bookworm and seeing how it grows.

Thanks for the response!

Bookworm is fabulous. Hands down, a wonderful app. I love how it integrates with the iPhone for easy offline reading.

Quick related question: Any reason a hand-created epub will test perfectly with no errors on Liz's web-based epubcheck and the cmd line epubcheck, load great in Bookworm and Calibre, into Stanza from Bookworm, but *not* load in Stanza desktop (displays gibberish)? Any suggestions would be met with much gratitude and glee!

Thanks for creating this (and the other epub tools and tutorials). I'll use Bookworm as my central library going forward.

Linda

Very. We're a baby publisher and we've just released our first book - and getting it in epub was my first priority. Bookworm not only helped me test it; I now have a wonderful resource to point readers to who are just dipping their toes into the world of mobile/electronic and online reading.

Without Bookworm, your words on the TOC blog and in the TOC book, your tools and general expertise (and the guide on the IBM site I just found!), this whole epub learning experience would have been a very negative one. As it turns out, it was only very tiring ;-)

I'll be posting a link to Bookworm on our epub download page (now that we have the server configured properly). Your faq page is excellent, and I'll be encouraging readers to try the service.

It's amazing to me how much better the electronic versions sell - far more people want the PDF than the hardcover... I'll be eager to see how many want the epub (and others once i get them coded and loaded).

I checked the Lexcycle forums (before my question here) and didn't find anything - I'll send them a proper email now that you've confirmed my feelings.

Thanks, Liza - I'll let you know if I get any feedback about Bookworm from our readers once I get that page up.

Loving Bookworm (and incredibly grateful to Liza),

Linda

Is it possible to upload many eBooks at the same time? (Sorry for my bad English)

Hello, - I am new to bookworm and I found that bookworm is not supporting my css file when epub uploaded. What could be the reason? Please guide me.

Hi there,

First off, I'd like to say thanks for creating Bookworm. I think it's going to be a really exciting project..

I've created an ebook from scratch but the content doesn't seem to show up on Bookworm. I've tested it and it loads fine in Adobe DE as well as Calibre. Unfortunately, Stanza renders it funny. I'm wondering how can I troubleshoot what's going on? There weren't any error messages when I was adding the book.

Thanks,
Teren