I have Calibre, and eventually intend to set up Calibre Web and maybe even configure the Kobo to use that as its sync source.

I have accumulated a number of books over the years from various sources in various formats. Obviously, I would want to have as many of them converted into EPUB files or even kepub files. I know that Calibre can help with that process, but I have a strong feeling the PDF to EPUB conversion will be pretty bad. In which case, I need to hunt down existing EPUB versions of books I have.

When it comes to the various works of Marx and Engels, they can be found all over the place, in archives all over the web, but getting them into a good EPUB format isn't exactly simple.

There is a part of me that wants to come up with a strong process of converting markdown versions of these works into well styled and organized EPUB formats and letting them be free online somewhere. Considering EPUB files are just a zip file of HTML files and various specific EPUB formatting, it feels like something I could really tackle. However, that takes time, which I have very little of.

So, I guess, my question might be two things:

  1. Do you have any suggestions for good published collections of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin's works? Not marxist.org archives, but actual book collections (that probably have a good EPUB file I can 'find')
  2. Do you have any suggestions for tools that could be used to pull a page like https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Manifesto_of_the_Communist_Party into a given format (plain text, markdown, etc.)?
  • Andrzej3K [none/use name]
    ·
    9 days ago

    Don't have anything useful to say, but Calibre Web (ideally on a media server) + Kobo is an amazing combo. You change one line on the Kobo's config and suddenly it thinks Calibre is the Kobo store

    • Bureaucrat
      ·
      9 days ago

      Can you share that one line? I have a Kobo coming and enabled Kobo Sync in Calibre Web but dont really know how it all works until it gets here.

      • Andrzej3K [none/use name]
        ·
        9 days ago

        I can't remember exactly, but it's in the Calibre Web documentation (on GitHub). Basically you're just replacing the server address with your own, which you will copy paste from the Calibre Web interface

    • nohaybanda [he/him]
      ·
      9 days ago

      I’ve been eyeing Kobo for a few weeks now. Would you recommend any particular model?

      • Red5@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        9 days ago

        I have the Kobo Klara Colour, and it is very good. The colour is obviously not the most vibrant thing, but it makes a nice change and was only a bit more expensive than the black and white one.