Cogitation Blog

I have noticed over the years that my ebook collection is expanding exponentially. Which is not really surprising. I have multiple devices to read them on now; Tablet, Kindle, Smart Phone, etc...

One thing I notice, a lot of ebooks do not have covers. I notice this more on the ebook reader I use with my tablet, as it attempts to display cover art. But a lot of books have its default image, so the covers look the same. If I go to list mode, then I can search by name. However, I find myself skimming through the cover mode most often to locate a book. So I thought it would be a good idea to create distinctive covers for the books that are lacking them.

This is probably not something most people are going to want to expend the effort to do, but for me it is a technical and artistic challenge. Along the way I will be looking at how to also make minor corrections to some formatting, as long as I am digging around in the ebook file structure.

To accomplish this I am using the following programs (all of which are available for Linux, and windows for the less adventurous); Calibre, GIMP, and Sigil.

Depending on the ebook, Sigil may or may not be necessary. However it is a great program for editing epub ebooks.

Both the GIMP and Calibre are essential to automate the process as much as possible.

In the introduction to his book, Heretics, G. K. Chesterton states;

"Good taste, the last and vilest of human superstitions, has succeeded in silencing us where all the rest have failed."

This was written in the very early twentieth century. One hundred years later I would suggest changing the term "Good taste" with "Political correctness". For Chesterton is referring to a convention designed to stifle other, opposition, opinions while masquerading as something practical and noble. In truth, however, neither good taste or political correctness is particularly noble or practical. Rather they are a kludge to silence the opposition and do nothing to promote the free exchange of ideas or solve problems.