newhouseb/zhread

chinese epub reader

ben's hacky chinese ebook reader

disclaimer: i wrote this while binge watching ozark on netflix, so it's pretty much stream of conciousness. let this be proof that sometimes decent engineers can write miserable code :).

how to

1. clone this repo
2. acquire chinese epub books and put them in this folder
3. run python -c "import SimpleHTTPServer; m = SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler.extensions_map; m[''] = 'text/plain'; m.update(dict([(k, v + ';charset=UTF-8') for k, v in m.items()])); SimpleHTTPServer.test();"
4. go to http://localhost:8000/#[epub filename renamed to ascii for best results].epub/0
5. read some chinese (note, you may need to click through a few sections to get to meaningful material)

controls

• mouse hover - show definitions / select word.
• down arrow / j / l - go to next word.
• up arrow / k / h - go to previous word.
• enter - toggle presentation of the word in the glossary.
• b - bookmark current word so that when you refresh we jump to this letter.

credits

• the amazing cc-cedict (cc-cedict.org)
• the amazing zip.js (https://gildas-lormeau.github.io/zip.js/)

gotchas

• i don't load styles and/or images. haven't needed them.

zhread's Issues

Browser displays only "next section" & " previous section"

Hi,
I have copied the ebook to the folder on which webserver is running. But the browser shows white screen with only "next/previous section" icons. Is there a specific format of ebook reader you are expecting?

Contents of my ebook:
Aruns-MacBook-Pro:zhread arun$ cd F917BCFB6B1DDCF7FBEF29C2C3166D19.epub/
1.txt.html META-INF/ OEBPS/ mimetype

Accessing the following folder:
http://localhost:8000/#F917BCFB6B1DDCF7FBEF29C2C3166D19.epub/