ZXReader: The best (and only) ebook reader for the N97 and 5800XM.

The Mobipocket eBook reader used to be my reader of choice. That is, until their Symbian programmer disappeared like a fart in the wind (or so I’ve heard), leaving behind nothing but a half-finished S60 Fifth Edition port. One that can’t even exit fullscreen mode without a complete reinstall. To put it mildly, I think it sucks.

You can move the info/progress bar around the screen – I have it set to the right side.

So the only thing left is an eBook reader called ZXReader, and it’s actually an impressive piece of work. You can customize almost every facet of the eBook display, from changing the fonts and colors to things like screen margins and the location of the info bar. Navigation is neat, too: the app divides the screen into touchable regions that can activate different functions – by default, the top portion of the screen is used to move back a page, and the bottom portion to move forward. But you could also change it to left, center, right, and have each section perform a different task. It’s so far and away from the crap that is Mobireader S60 v5 Beta Unsigned that it’s amazing. Did I mention it’s free?

ZXReader provides a wealth of customizations. Lots of good stuff here.

There is a catch, however.

And that catch is – ZXReader is only compatible with two types of file formats: regular text files and .fb2 files. Text files are fine, but unfortunately don’t have support for things like bold headings and the like. Also, they tend to run the gamut in terms of quality since nothing’s standardized.

Enter FB2. FB2 is apparently a newfangled ebook format based on XML and created by some Russian programmers. It’s not a very popular file format, and finding software for it was a pain in the butt. An application called FictionBook Designer can open up a bunch of different ebook formats (html, doc, rtf, pdf, lit, pdb, rb, xml, and best of all prc). Yep, that’s mobipocket’s file format. One of the help files does say that the prc file format is a little wonky (not the exact words) and you’re probably better off converting the prc to html with MobiPerl. I personally tested a couple prc->html->fb2 conversions and it worked fine.

Download ZXReader 1.2.3 For Symbian S60 Fifth Edition Devices (N97, 5800 XpressMusic)

Right click and select “Save Target As…” for the download to work correctly: ZXReader

Using FictionBook Designer to Create FB2 Files

This is pretty straightforward.

1. Download and install Fiction Book Designer.
2. Go to File -> Open Book and select your ebook file. It can be in any number of formats, but if you’re trying to convert a .prc file see the directions below. It’ll take awhile for the file to process.
3. Go to File -> make Fiction Book file (F8) or just hit the F8 key.
4. This will pop up the make Fiction Book file dialog box. I would fill out the Author’s First/Last name and Book Title, but everything is pretty much optional.
5. Click the “make book” button in the bottom left corner.
6. You’ll hear some annoying sound effects, most notably a chime when it’s finished. Another box filled with XML tags and other junk should appear.
7. Go to File -> save as (F5) or just hit the F5 key. Save your .fb2 file.
8. Your fb2 ebook is now ready to be copied to your phone!

Converting PRC Files to HTML

Since Fiction Book Designer does a lousy job with prc files, use MobiPerl to do the conversion to HTML, then have FBD do the rest.

1. First, grab MobiPerl. I’m going to assume you’re using Windows – download the latest binary, mobiperl-win-0.0.42.zip.
2. Unpack everything into one directory. You’ll see a bunch of executable files, the only one that you’ll need is mobi2html.exe.
3. Create a shortcut to mobi2html.exe. A quick way to do this is to click on the file, hold the Alt key, and, while still holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse away. That will create a shortcut to mobi2html.exe.
4. Drag your prc file on top of the shortcut you just created and let go. You should see a command prompt box open up, output some garbage text, and close. It’s done!
5. Check the “unpacked” folder in the directory you placed MobiPerl and you should see your html file. Now plug this file into Fiction Book Designer, and follow the rest of the directions above.

I highly suggest creating an ebooks directory on your memory card or mass storage or wherever. To add your ebooks to ZXReader, simply go to Library -> Options -> Add file.