I had been itching to get some ebooks to read on the iPhone. Buying paper books meant cutting down more trees, so I have resolved to read ebooks. However, being in Malaysia, it is quite a pain as due to ebook contracts, there are geographical limitations and we can’t get most of the ebooks here. Furthermore, ebooks are rather pricey too, above USD11 plus. I had recently downloaded Stanza and Ereader thinking I could buy some off Fictionwise but it is quite a hassle. I used to just read my PDF files off FileAPP but the format is terrible and it doesn’t remember where you last read. Stanza reader is really good and easy to use .And then I found Calibre!
Calibre is like a desktop software that I can load most formats like PDF and convert it to ePUB which can be read on Stanza ebook reader. However, Calibre is not exactly user friendly, so here are some steps on how to get started.
First of all, you’d need to download a couple of software.
- Stanza ebook reader. Get this from your iPhone appstore for free, or download through iTunes.
- Calibre Ebook Management: Calibre is open source but the website looks pretty good. You can download it for multiple platforms, Windows, Mac or Linux. Most importantly, it’s totally free and based on donations. Download now.
Getting Started
- Click on “Add Books” button to get it to load your Ebook files, for me it’s mostly PDF. But Calibre can support all kinds of format such as these, you may also drag and drop files into the library:
Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR, TXTOutput Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, TCR, TXT
Getting your books into Stanza iPhone reader.
- Click on Preferences in Calibre and choose Content Server. Ensure that the button Start Server is clicked on.
- Make sure your iPhone and PC are on the same WiFi network
- In Stanza iPhone, click on Get Books (bottom) and then Shared (top menu).
- You will automatically see Computers Sharing Books, Books in Calibre. Click on that and you will see By Author, By Title, By Newest, By Tag, By Series. Regardless, just click by Title.
Walla, you will see the list of the books you just added in Calibre and converted. Click on any of the books you want and click on the Download Button to start downloading. Immediately, you can read your books and they are now also found in your Library on Stanza!
Note
Depending on your original file, some formatting might seem out of place. Definitely not as perfect as if you bought the ebook.
Most importantly, there’s no more carrying loads of books around, you have all your books in one nifty little device.
Hey, thanks for this – couldn’t find much info on this process, but you explained very well, cheers! 🙂
Rob
Thanks!