#ebooks

See tagged statuses in the local bookrastinating.com community

Personal Note, January 1 2026: I have a new job: Executive Director of the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Here's what I wrote for PG's January Newsletter.

https://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2026/01/new-job-project-gutenberg.html?m=1

I suggest you support Standard Ebooks đź“š

“Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of … copyright restrictions, and free of cost.” ⚖️

See what’s free to read on January 1 👇
https://standardebooks.org/blog/public-domain-day-2026

Please boost 🙏

CC @standardebooks

Various electronic devices showing the same ebook on the screen.

If anyone wants to check out my fiction, all of my ebooks, Flicka's LOVERS, The Fifth Seduction, BEER POUR, and the Appalachia crime drama I wrote under NJ Edwards in '23, are all free during this BIG smashwords.com end-of-year sale. FREE!

All of my ebooks are FREE at smashwords.com thru the end of the year! Flicka's LOVERS, The Fifth Seduction, BEER POUR, and even my first paperback that I authored under the pen name NJ EDWARDS back in '23, GOOD OL' BOY, are all FREE for this limited sale.

For anyone tracking what's going on with generative AI appearing in the eBook software calibre, the calibre developer seems to be asking us to avoid his software:

In a GitHub issue about adding LLM features:

I definitely think allowing the user to continue the conversation is useful. In my own use of LLMs I tend to often ask followup questions, being able to do so in the same window will be useful.

In other words he likes LLMs and uses them himself; he's probably not adding these features under pressure from users. I can't help but wonder whether there's vibe code in there.


In the bug report:

Wow, really! What is it with you people that think you can dictate what I choose to do with my time and my software? You find AI offensive, dont use it, or even better, dont use calibre, I can …

I've been formatting books for seven years now and have done hundreds of titles. Have a new book you want to self-publish, but just don't quite know how to prep your book files? We use Vellum for the Mac, and provide formatting for ePub (all formats) and pdf/print.

Best of all? It's just $85, changes included. Try it now:

https://www.otherworldsink.com/formatting/

Definitely read this whole thread about the eBook manager calibre adding AI slop to "chat with books", and why that's a horrible move that immediately destroys trust in calibre. Here are some highlights I especially appreciated:

Here, Calibre, in one release, went from a tool readers can use to, well, read, to a tool that fundamentally views books as textureless content, no more than the information contained within them. Anything about presentation, form, perspective, voice, is irrelevant to that view. Books are no longer art, they're ingots of tin to be melted down.
It is completely irrelevant to me whether this new slopware is opt-in or opt-out. Its mere presence and endorsement fundamentally undermines that stance, that it is good, actually, if readers and authors can exist in relationship to each other without also being under the control of a extractive mindset that sees books as mere vehicles, …

Ughhhh, et tu calibre?

New features
- Allow asking AI questions about any book in your calibre library. Right click the "View" button and choose "Discuss selected book(s) with AI"
- AI: Allow asking AI what book to read next by right clicking on a book and using the "Similar books" menu
- AI: Add a new backend for "LM Studio" which allows running various AI models locally

Release: 8.16.1 04 Dec, 2025; or here on their GitHub

Calibre is one of those pieces of software that I use from time to time but don't follow closely. I wasn't aware they'd been sipping from the poisoned chalice.


replied to Sasu's status

I've been formatting books for seven years now and have done hundreds of titles. Have a new book you want to self-publish, but just don't quite know how to prep your book files? We use Vellum for the Mac, and provide formatting for ePub (all formats) and pdf/print.

Best of all? It's just $85, changes included. Try it now:

https://www.otherworldsink.com/formatting/

There's a Specials page at the Book View Cafe cooperative, with everything from deep discount to free.

Including my SPIRAL PATH for $1.99 USD, where Alfreda Sorensson attends a curious school & is reminded the world is woven of secrets. . . . @bookstodon @books

https://bookviewcafe.com/book/spiral-path/

I've been formatting books for seven years now and have done hundreds of titles. Have a new book you want to self-publish, but just don't quite know how to prep your book files? We use Vellum for the Mac, and provide formatting for ePub (all formats) and pdf/print.

Best of all? It's just $85, changes included. Try it now:

https://www.otherworldsink.com/formatting/

I've been formatting books for seven years now and have done hundreds of titles. Have a new book you want to self-publish, but just don't quite know how to prep your book files? We use Vellum for the Mac, and provide formatting for ePub (all formats) and pdf/print.

Best of all? It's just $85, changes included. Try it now:

https://www.otherworldsink.com/formatting/

The ebook of my debut novella, "The Warrior Within", has just dropped in price to $0.50 at Amazon. I don't think it's ever been on sale before.

If you like far-future science-fiction with tidally-locked worlds, mysterious ruined cities, and a hero who just wants to be left alone, this might be the book for you.

https://amzn.to/47jX4Y1