How To Add Ebooks?

[LTCSZ]

I have a huge library of e books in the .epub format...How and where do I load them into my A500 so I can read them with the default e reader? Or, would I be better off purchasing a different reader from the Market? Thanks for your help...

Steve

 

[dragon37]

You can load them onto a USB stick or via your network to your LumiBooks folder. You might need to install a file manager first to do all this. I would suggest File Manager HD. Once in this folder your books will show up when you launch Lumiread.

Sent from my A500 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[hawkeye680]

I had to reboot mine once I copied my files. They were a bunch of PDFs though.

 

[Icebike]

My recommendation would be to download Calibre on your compute calibre - E-book management

With Calibre you can manage your collection of ebooks and put them on any platform you want, dedicated e-readrs, nooks, smartphones and the Acer.

You simply specify where you want the books stored and Calibre will put them there for you.
Calibe will run on your PC/Linux/Mac and it can even act as a web server so that you can download all your ebooks to the Acer with just a web browser.

But you can also drag your entire Calibre library from your PC to your Acer without even hooking up a cable if you get a free file manage from the Android Market. ES File Explorer works well.

Calibre will also convert from one format to another. So if you have some old PDB books it will put them into epub, fetch meta data from the web, even fetch covers from the web.

The LumiRead ereader preloaded on the the Acer will open ebooks that are placed in it's sub-directory (as well as doing some minimal searching of the Acer memory) but its kind of dumb about organization. Calibre likes to keep things organized by authore, title, etc. Its pretty configurable. You could also select to organize by Genre or some such.

Calibre seems to fail to detect the Acer at this time, but you can simply copy your books over there by dragging directories and dropping them on the Acer.

Lubiread seems to want its own organization and does not seem to work from meta data at all.

So If you dump a bunch of books on Lumiread, you have to organize them the way you want them to appear, which for Lumiread pretty much means long-pressing each book, and tagging it manually. Not something you want to do for a large library.

You can approximate this by configuring Calibre to load the books into sub-directories by Author or Genre or what ever structure you like, and storing this structure in Lumiread's subdirectory. But LumiRead is too dumb to handle structures more than one subdirectory deep.

Alternatives:

So then there is The free Kindle app. Nice reader, but it is very Amazon focused, and in order to get your books into it you have to upload them to Amazon, and store them in your shelf and download them to the Acer. Not fun. It works great for Amazon purchases.

The free Nook application from Barnes and Noble allows you to "sideload" content into their directory (into a subsirectory called "My Documents") in any directory structure you want. So it will easily accept your books.

But then it totally ignores any sub-directories you set up, and shows you all your documents in one heap, sortable by title or author. Its a good reader, and like the kindle any new purchases are automatically downloaded and easy to find.

Google books, well, it needs a lot of work, and I don't think this version can handle any of your sideloaded content.

There are probably a dozen more e-reader apps out there in the market. Most are free.

But to get back to the question you asked:

Get Calibre.
Import all your books into Calibre. Clean up the metadata and covers for any books that are missing using the Calibre tools.
Connect your nook, (calibre

 

[dan776]

I love coolreader. Best for reading epubs IMO. Except I don't think it'll do the protected ones but it does all mine.

 

[fuzzface]

Ive got the same issue with loading PDF documents with 100+ pages. PDF viewer works ok but is a bit slow with no page turn option. With adobe I couldnt even figure out how to access my files. Whats the best way to go about this?

 

[hatcht]

Morning icebike,

I am new to the android application game. I have always used MS.

Good info on calibre - can you recommend a good file manager for my (soon to buy) new acer A500 16gb tablet?

This winter we will be driving around the Yucatan and normally there is no wifi capability.
I want to load some maps of towns/villages into the A500 so we wll not get so lost while driving.
I am 'assuming' I can store my maps and all other documents on the A500.
Is my assumption correct?
Can you advise?

 

[Icebike]

Good info on calibre - can you recommend a good file manager for my (soon to buy) new acer A500 16gb tablet?

ES File Explorer or File Manager HD. Both Free in the market

This winter we will be driving around the Yucatan and normally there is no wifi capability.
I want to load some maps of towns/villages into the A500 so we wll not get so lost while driving.
I am 'assuming' I can store my maps and all other documents on the A500.
Is my assumption correct?
Can you advise?

I REALLY CAN NOT recommend the A500 as a stand alone navigation aid (without specific navigation packages), and I recommend you break down and Get a Garmin, and (never leave it in the car).

You can store maps as pdf images, but that is probably not a great option, unless you are really good with maps, and can translate GPS readings to map coordinates quickly.

Navigon (in the market) has GPS-only packages (with onboard maps, no connectivity required), but I don't think they have mexico coverage.

Sygic: GPS Navigation, in the market has Mexico Coverage, and stores Tom Tom maps on the device so you don't need internet coverage. Application is free, Maps cost about 23 to 29 Euros each, see their webpage.

There are some free apps in the market that will allow you to use Topo maps that you download. But these are mostly out of date (especially in places like Mexico.

Remember this is Mexico, and while Yucatan is not the worst part of Mexico, its far from free of violence, and you need to be really careful, carry a large bag of money to bribe the corrupt police (all cartel employees these days), and perhaps several automatic weapons with multiple clips.

 

[Icebike]

Ive got the same issue with loading PDF documents with 100+ pages. PDF viewer works ok but is a bit slow with no page turn option. With adobe I couldnt even figure out how to access my files. Whats the best way to go about this?

You do know that Lumiread can handle PDFs right?

I've set it as the default for PDF viewing.
I access them with a File Manger, or with Lumiread directly. It seems to find them all.
It has pinch zooming, rotation, page turn, search, even bookmarking capability within PDFs.