Spoiler-free searching, for e-readers

Having a sieve-like memory, one thing I like about e-readers is that if you’re reading a novel, and forget, say, a character’s name, you can search on that name for its first appearance, where the character is (usually) properly introduced.

However …

What if, in your search, you inadvertently land on a chapter heading (in initial table of contents) that gives away a crucial future development?

Or, what if, in your search, you inadvertently get a “hit” that is ahead of where you’re at in the text, which also gives away a crucial future development?

These most undesirable outcomes furnish the rationale for my proposal, which I will call “spoiler-free search”. Here’s the idea: The reader would be able to set up parameters, so as to restrict the search “window” as follows:

BEGINNING OF SEARCH WINDOW: Start the search at beginning of the actual narrative. (That would usually be the beginning of Chapter I … after the table of contents, introduction, etc)

END OF SEARCH WINDOW: End the search at the point you have reached in your reading progress.

With the two above restrictions in place, the reader will only get those search “hits” that occur in the part of the book that they have already read. No unwelcome “giveaways”!

Like my idea? Comments welcome. Of course, if you are aware of such a spoiler-free search capability built into any e-reader or e-reading program out there, please let me know.

Dual language e-reader

I’m normally a reader of literature originally written in English.  This is because I feel that the “texture” of a written work is very important, and that comes from the inimitable nature of the original language the book was written in.  However, recently I decided to venture afield, and tackle the great Balzac.  This wasn’t the first time I’ve read him, but — in line with my more recent purism about chronology — I decided to read one of his first (even if not most celebrated) Human Comedy novels, At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.  Or, to revert to the original, respectively La Comedie Humaine, and La Maison du Chat-Qui-Pelote.

Since I don’t fluently read French, my initial impulse was simply to read a (bearable) English translation.  But then I had a Vision.  “Tom,” says the vision, “since you did have a few years of French in school, why not put it to use?  Make yourself a home-brewed Dual Language edition of Cat and Racket / Chat-Qui-Pelote!

I had the raw materials ready at hand.  For an e-reader I have a Nook Simple Touch (NST).  (Regrettably, this model has been discontinued by Barnes & Noble, but I am sure it’s still widely available around the Internet.)  The magnificent thing about this e-reader is that it is possible — and quite easy — to “ROOT” it.  This is the techie term for gaining access to its Android operating system, so that one can break the stranglehold Barnes & Noble has put on the device.  Once the NST is rooted, one can install lots of “Apps” on it — and in effect, run it as a regular Android tablet.  (Apparently one can even play Angry Birds on it … though I would not recommend that, given the limitations of the e-ink screen.)

The magic recipe for rooting the NST — which involves installing “NookManager” — can be found at

NookManager: Everything You Need to Root and Restore a Nook Touch or Nook Glow

In case this super-long URL doesn’t work for you, an abbreviated version is

http://tinyurl.com/ad63b5r

Now, let me explain how I created my dual-language e-reader.  For a long time, I’ve had Aldiko reader installed on my NST.  This is the reading app I habitually use.  (Note that recent versions of Aldiko — and other Android apps as well — may not work on the NST, which only has version 2.1 of Android.  My Aldiko version seems to be 2.0  … though it might also be worth trying 2.1.0 , etc.)  However, to quickly switch from English to French e-books, I needed a second reading app.  The one that  worked the best was Cool Reader (version 3.1.2-69).

Here is what the English version of the Balzac looks like on my NST:

Note the 4 strip-like “buttons” to the left and right of the NST screen.  Their default function is “next page” or “previous page”.  But one nice feature of NookManager is that it includes an app called “Nook Touch Mod Manager”.  Using its “Modify Button Actions” option, one can assign any app one chooses to these 4 buttons.  (One can still turn pages by pressing on the touch screen.)  I have the upper-right button assigned to Aldiko reader, which yields the English version of the Balzac, as you can see above.  The French edition is sitting in Cool Reader, which I’ve assigned to the lower-right button.  When I press that button, I immediately get the French version:

It just takes one button press to toggle between the 2 languages.  And each toggle brings me right back to the place where I was last reading, in the given language.

In this way, I recently got through Cat/Chat with much enjoyment.  I absorbed as much as I could from the French version (the texture, style, cadence of the language).  For the more difficult words, and to read quicker when I got impatient, I reverted to the English edition.

As far as my text sources are concerned … it is worth noting that the entire, mammoth, Human Comedy is available (in English) at

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/metabook/humancomedy.html

I found the original, French text of this particular work at

http://www.feedbooks.com/book/1836/la-maison-du-chat-qui-pelote

Both of the above are free, I am happy to say!

I am looking forward to more dual-language adventures.  I’ve heard so much about what a great and influential work Dante’s Divine Comedy /  Divina Commedia is.  Even though I’ve never formally studied Italian, I still might make it my next dual-language project …