How to help lots of kids to happy eBook reading
67A non-religious conversion
This little how-to article is going to be out of my "ordinary." I will be dealing with the written works of other people, most, if not all of whom, are long gone from this earth. As this story goes, I have fairly recently come upon some really fine software that seems to work well in my little desktop computer. It is named, Calibre, and it was free of cost, at least at the outset. (My donation to its maker came later after I learned how useful the program was and how well it had been put together to help people like me do what we wanted to do...)
This is not a small calibre Calibre
The program is described as a management tool for eBooks. That is a minimization of what the software can do for folks. Calibre lets me take text and image files I already have in some particular format and convert them into other formats useful to me and to others on a current computer or on other electronic file-reading devices. Those devices might be other desktop computer systems, laptops, portable (hand-held) eBook readers of many different types and brands, and even some of the more complicated cellular (wireless) telephones.
For example, I may have a file in my computer in ordinary text format (*.txt) such as can be put together using the programs, Notepad, Wordpad, and the like. But now I want that file to be converted into the format called "Portable Document Format," or "PDF" as it is commonly called. Then I may run out to the store and buy a Kindle eBook reader gadget. Although the newer models of that reader are said to be able to display PDF file content, the older models did not do so. My budget, being what it usually is, dictated that I buy a used, older model of the Kindle. So, I must forget trying to read an eBook, the files of which are formatted as PDFs. Needed are files in the MOBI format.
Into my PC goes the eBook’s PDF file(s) and, with the help of the Calibre software, out can come the same eBook formatted as a MOBI set. Now I can read the thing on my el-cheapo, deluxe new (to me) Kindle thing.
Planning on happy kids
Then I did a bit of daydreaming. Suppose I couldn’t afford a used Kindle. What would I buy to take the place of one of those Kindles? Maybe it would be a used Sony, or a used Barnes and Noble Nook reader, or maybe one of the host of similar gadgets that are known by any number of tradenames – with more names on the way, at that. No matter the situation as to what I should buy, that Calibre software would almost certainly offer me the ability to convert formats from one to another until I found a match with what my budget might afford in the way of eBook readers.
You can believe that I was both amazed and made very happy to realize my new situation as to making eBooks of my own and those of other authors available to the world at large. I could supply people with things they could actually use to read texts and enjoy illustrations, all without their having to convert file formats on their own.
This brings us along to children’s eBooks and how they can serve to make for happy children and happy children’s caretakers, too.
An eBook "motherlode"
There is a really fine organization that builds and maintains a wonderful eBook library consisting of thousands and thousands of books – all of them eBooks. The organization is a foundation named Gutenberg.org on the Internet. Anyone with a suitable computer connection can access its vast store of eBooks.
Most of their eBooks are textual in nature, but they also have many electronic books in audio form. Every eBook in their extensive library is in the public domain; that is, all are out of copyright either by virtue of statute or because the copyright owner placed the work there voluntarily. Gutenberg's eBooks are formatted in files of plain text, HTML (hypertext markup language such as is used on Internet pages and the like) and, now, also in EPUB and sometimes in one of the Kindle-compatible formats, "Ebook."
While virtually all desktop computers are able to handle ordinary text, PDF, and regular HTML documents, not many can make use of EPUB or MOBI files without special reading programs. The converse is so as well, if the viewing of the files is to be in a portable, hand-held, eBook reader. What can be used in one gadget is likely to not work, or at least not work well, in some other device.
The other day I visited Gutenberg's children’s books "bookshelf." From that bookshelf I downloaded nine books of children’s verse to my computer. Each book was in the EPUB format. The goal was to be able to offer copies of one or all of the downloaded eBooks to anyone who wanted them. This could be either as a service of our newly established "FREE eBook Project" or as an offering to try to recoup our actual costs via a low-cost Internet store, such as eBay. Quite likely, both methods will be used; give books away via Internet downloading from our website and sell some as a package at our cost over the Internet sales outlets.
The first thing I did was to convert all of the existing formats such that my computer disk contains PDF, EPUB, and MOBI formatted files of all of them. (Something for everyone, right?) I used the Calibre program to accomplish this. While I was "messing around" with the kid’s books, I did the same sort of things with a bunch of eBooks dedicated to "adult humor," "American cookery," "Italian Cooking," "Jewish Cooking," "Cooking of India," Vegetarian Cooking," and even some eBooks on bartending, distillery, and beer recipes. I assure you, bedtime was long in coming before the chores were finished, but finished they were. Now, back we go to the children’s eBooks.
Some "hot" titles of some cool books for kids
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Here are the titles for the nine books of children’s verse I now have in all three different file formats. Likely you have only heard of one or two of them. All are fine pieces of work.
The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes
The Infant’s Delight
Animal Children
Aesop in Rhyme (Do you remember Aesop’s Fables?)
Child Songs of Cheer
The Jingle Book
A Child’s Garden of Verses
Songs of Childhood
Nonsense Drolleries
Can't read? Look at the pictures ! Listen to the voices !
Of course, the wee little ones won’t be able to read the verses on their own, but they surely will have no problem with enjoying views of the fine illustrations while a parent or caretaker reads to them from the screen – or from the printout that issued from the system printer – or from the voice reading of screen texts using a voice reader program such as "WordRead." What fine possibilities.
As I learned, too, you don’t have to be a little kid to enjoy these eBooks. I had fun reading many of the verses. Most were superbly done by amazing authors.
Run on over to the suggestion box
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If you have any advice to offer as to good ways by which these children’s verse collections might be promulgated and widely distributed, I would take it as a kindness if you would offer your suggestions to me. Kids need good stuff like these eBooks. Thanks.
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Hi Hyphenbird - It is wonderful that you donate time and lots of effort to the great work being done through Project Gutenberg. I have long enjoyed that website and all of the good things that Gutenberg does for the world of classical literature and those of us who enjoy and profit from reading it. Thanks for what you did and are doing still.
Gus :-)))
I'm all for anything that inspires children to read and Hyphen bird and yourself Gus get a gold star! I loved this Hub, the info, lay-out and the potential Gutenberg.org has to reach those precious minds. Well done. :-)))
Howdy Alastar - Thanks to people like Hyphenbird, Gutenberg.org is a huge success. That outfit depends on volunteer effort and those must be the finest literary volunteers who ever lived, Hyphenbird included. I am very happy that this article pleased you. Thanks.
Gus :-)))
I once typed an entire book into project Gutenberg. I can't remember which book it was but it was by Charlotte Bronte. It was a lot of work but I actually enjoyed it.
Great hub by the way.
Univited Writer - Consider yourself totally invited! One cannot say enough nice things about people like you and Hyphenbird. I marvel at you both and at all of your fellow volunteers who have provided Gutenberg.org with thousands upon thousands of items of important literature, making them available throughout the entire world. Thanks for the hard work you all do for the rest of us.
Gus :-)))
Thank you for a very enjoyable hub. I have the Calibre software on my computer but haven’t explored all its capabilities yet. It certainly is a great program. I love reading books that I’ve downloaded from Project Gutenberg as well. Your list of children’s books reminded me that my parents gave me “A Child’s Garden of Verses” as a Christmas gift and that I loved reading it as I grew up. I still have the book on one of my bookshelves, but haven’t looked at it for a long time. It’s time to get it off the shelf again!
Hello Alicia - You are one of the lucky ones to have Calibre on your computer and "A Child's Garden of Verses" on your bookshelf. Although there are other websites from which we can download good books, Gutenberg.org is likely the biggest and the best.
Thanks for the read and the interesting comment.
Gus :-)))
I wish I had some suggestions for you about distributing, that's probably the hardest part! On blurb.com I'm in the process of making a self published children's book based on one of my hubs called "Tracks in White Snow, Where Do They Go?" I can take it into local stores later on and try to sell more that way. Hm, maybe I should offer an e-book version too! If you say Calibre is user friendly, I want try it out! Best of luck to you Gus! Thank you for sharing this very useful info!
Howdy Fossillady - Thanks for your welcome wishes as to distributingt the kids' classical literature eBooks. I think that your plan to sell your own books, paper or electronic, through the local stores is good for sales and good for you, too.
As to using Calibre to help in the process, it can be most helpful in keeping a good handle on your eBGook library and managing its contents - sorting categories and more. Calibre is really great when it comes to converting eBook formats from one format to others - like right now I can take one format and get it into nine more, essentially just by one click of the mouse.
At the same time, however, you build your eBooks from text and image files using other software, and much of what you need is as free as it can be. There are some commercial (for a price) programs that are good for eBook building that I have become used to using, such as those I bought from Serif and various image libraries obtainable from most computer stores, but even the free program, "Open Office," lets you take ordinary text files and convert them to PDF files and, using Calibre, will let you go on from there, too.
Here is a link to one of my several earlier "eBook" hubs from which you might be able to gain some useful information about making your own eBooks: http://hubpages.com/t/1d79c9
In the above article is a link to our FREE eBook project's first advertising piece. It seems to be productive.
Have fun,
Gus :-)))
I learned things I was unaware of my Redneck friend.
Well done.
The Frog
Froggie - You and I learn such things every day, for there are so many things of which both of us are unaware.
To help you become aware a little more of the new FREE eBook Project, (you, others, and me, too...) I put together an info bulletin this afternoon and have it posted on the website that will be used by the Project for disseminating its free eBooks... Here is the URL on which you can click to see the bulletin. I'd enjoy getting your opinion on it.
Gus :-)))
Thanks for the info on Calibre, Gus, it looks like a useful program and I plan to look into it. Appreciate your sharing your wisdom and experience with the rest of us.
Will respond to your email shortly.
Hi Good Doctor bj - You hit on it just right. Calibre is a very useful program. My "wisdom" has extended pretty much only to the point of being smart enough to use the good stuff that others produce for thee and me. :)
Today (April 23) I put up several of the opening pages for the FREE ebook Project. For those I probably needed way more wisdom and experience than I possessed, but they are there and seem to be functioning. http://tinyurl.com/3vo5pb7 is the lead-in to the rest of them (3 more pages).
Gus :-)))
Totally awesome , , ,I will be recommending this to co-workers and indexing it in my favorite sites
Hi tsmog - I am glad that you enjoyed this little article and that you will be sharing it with your co-workers, too. Very nice. Thank you.
Gus :-)))
Gutenberg is amazing!! I've downloaded so much info from there.... I havent got a kindle yet, but I will be soon, so this hub is super-informative Gus. Thanks and well done!!!! Hugs, A
UP/bookmarked/and v useful!!!
Good morning Ashantina - You are correct about Gutenberg. I recall when it started and it has made such amzaing progress, some of the more startling progress has been recent, what with all of the eBook formatting and audio things going on. Incidently, you can emulate the various hand-held eBook readers on your PC. Download a free copy of Calibre from "SourceForge.net" and have at it.
Gus :-)))
This is all new information to me and I'll tweet it so that others can learn from your experiences. Best of luck to you and rating this useful. Thanks!
Hi Peggy - Do you remember that "old" saying, "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better?" Maybe that applies to the two of us with eBooks, the Gutenberg library thing, and fine software such as can be obtained with "Calibre" and more...
Gus :-)))
Hi Gus, Awesome program!!!I have touched on a book idea in one of my hubs "Asparagus Road" it is going to be a biography available in a book soon, I talked to hubpages and they were ok with it too. plus I noticed we can now download our hubpages into PDF and save them for uploading into books :) I thought my idea was new.. turns out you have already been working on it!! HUGS M.
Howdy mindyjgirl - I recall an old expression that went like this: "...there is nothing new under the sun..." It was, as I recollect, part of a longer passage in the bible.
As to the PDF conversion of hubs, I found them to be problematical many moons ago such that I tried working with the originators of the conversion program to correct some of the problems. Mostly, they got things fixed rather nicely but for image placement. That caused me to re-think possibly using the PDF files from that source for eBook or paper-page book construction.
You can write your book pages using a word processor such as the free, open source program, "Open Office" which has a nice PDF conversion feature built in. I use MicroSoft "Word" to generate pages (for HubPages and for other things) and enter that text into Serif's "Page Plus." There I can manipulate text and image placement, size, and characteristics to my liking, and, if I come onto some PDF files along the way, I can insert those into Page Plus where and how I want them to be. Thus, what I prepare for putting into HubPages I can also use for paper-page and electronic books at my own comp;uter as well.
Another nice thing about using a word processor (and Page Plus is a word processor as well as a publishing tool) is that you can convert your print text into sound using programs like "WordRead." I don't do that because WordRead is not 100% on pronunciation, even though it comes close most of the time. For sound I use "Audacity" which works through my $5 microphone to produce MP3 recordings, and those can be inserted into PagePlus and, thence, onto the pages of PDF eBooks (and, if you hve the "Adobe" complete setup, onto PDF paper pages, too, most likely.
From the Gutenberg library (huge and diversified as to subject and type) you can download plain text, HTML, ePub, sometimes "Kindle" (or eBook as they call it) and others that include a variety of audio files. etc. So far I have yet to see downloadable PDF files, but that is not a big hindrance. Using the program, Calibre, you can convert *.txt, *.html, and *.epub documents from one format to another, including to and from *.pdf. These can be stored on your own computer as you like, uploaded to your website for downloading by other people, and put onto CD/DVD for storage and for dissemination.
If you want a copy of the first of our project's ebooks (3 different formats) you can follow this trail and download a copy for your study. http://tinyurl.com/3vo5pb7 .
Gus :-)))
Your hub was so interesting and enlightening that I am going to bookmark it. I will also check out Calire and Gutenberg.org. Excellent hub.
Hello Cathy I - Good of you to read and comment. I may have to put a new personal title onto my calling cards - "Enlightener." Problem is that those to whom I give the cards may believe that I can help them lose weight.
Both "Calibre" and "Gutenberg.org" are worthy friends, free of all cost except your time, and formidable of results. I recommend both to you very highly.
Check out our FREE eBook Project "blog." It is new and has yet to hit its stride, but no one ever said that GusTheRedneck was any sort of expert blogger. A funny thought just now arrived... "I am blooged if I do, and blogged if I don't, but that does beat being "blugged" with a word you don't know how to spell, doesn't it?"
Come visit: http://freeebookproject.blogspot.com/
Gus :-)))
Great post,Thanks
Hello Gus! This is my first stop on your HubWorld! yay! Glad to be a follower... and I am so glad this is the first hub I read from you!
This is so superb and awesome.
I've published a children's storybook on the divorce subject. I have some blogs on my end... I'd be deeeelighted to have your RSS over here!
Did I mention you are funny? You are funny. Good funny.
Good Gus :D!!!! blugged... hahaha!!!
Howdy "Nutty Feline Lady" - As the saying has it, a person (even a writer) can only reach "perfection" once in life. The truth in that old saying, however, is that the perfection event will occur at the moment of death. Can't win the Lotto with such lousy luck, can you?
I am happy that you enjoyed the article before that moment.
Gus :-)))
I wish there was a HUG YOU button!!!!!
Interest piece you have manage to write here. I find it very informative eBook have infact taken the world by storm and should be harness for learning. Thanks for sharing
Hi cebutouristspot - You are exactly correct. eBooks are beginning to become leaders these days.
Gus :-)))
Hyphenbird Level 8 Commenter 13 months ago
Hi Gus. This is a wonderful Hub. Project Gutenberg is awesome. I have been a proofreader there for years and have had access to incredible books. It is is great to know these works are not being lost. If one has an hour or two a week, I highly recommend this site. They always need proofreaders. Thanks for thinking of our little ones and their need for the written word.