reddit2Kindle (beta)

Contact: @Antrikshy

Conveniently compiles text posts from reddit into a .mobi book, readable by all Kindle devices and apps.

Now you can read long text posts from /r/talesfromtechsupport, /r/nosleep, /r/tifu or a story-based subreddit of your choice with the comfort of your e-reader. Here's an example of what the auto-generated books look like:

Note: This README applies to the release version on PyPI. This repo contains an in-development version with several enhancements and completely revamped code (tons of props to TkTech for helping out). This notice will disappear when the release version matches this repo.

Installation

1. Install Python and pip.
2. Install r2K using pip install reddit2Kindle.
3. You have two options to automate conversion to the Kindle format:
4. Download and place the KindleGen executable from Amazon into the directory that you will use to compile your book.
5. Download and install Calibre.

Windows users should be able to install using the .exe installer in the dist folder instead of pip. I have not tested this myself yet.

Suggested setup: Create a folder dedicated to creating Kindle compilations in your Documents folder (or elsewhere). If you want to use KindleGen, place a copy of the KindleGen executable in here permanently. Always cd to this folder to create books.

Usage

1. cd to a directory of your choice (this is where the HTML file will be generated). Make sure KindleGen is present in this folder if you want to use that to automate conversion to the .mobi format.
2. Use reddit2Kindle talesfromtechsupport 15 month or similar, which compiles the top 15 stories of the month from /r/talesfromtechsupport.
3. Transfer this file to your Kindle device or app using a USB cable, or Amazon's email service.

You can pick any public subreddit. Only top posts can be compiled. Time period can be hour, day, week, month or year.

You can also use this program, in part or otherwise, in your own creations as long as it is attributed properly. It's MIT-licensed. Simply download the .tar.gz source distribution package from the /dist folder.

KindleGen

Amazon has a command line tool called KindleGen, which quickly and painlessly converts several file formats to a Kindle-friendly format.

Due to licensing reasons, I cannot include a copy of KindleGen and automate the entire process. But you can download it yourself. Just place this executable into the directory you are working in. r2K will automatically create a .mobi file. If KindleGen is not found in the current directory at runtime, an HTML file is created. This can be manually converted to .mobi using KindleGen, Calibre or some other solution.

Donate

• Flattr
• via Bitcoin at 1Aqvg4zVrdskeaS4dVjSGK7eHavSoEbB7V

Contributing

If you cannot code, you can create a new issue in this project and I should get back to you quickly.

Contributing code is super easy. Simply fork, clone and edit the r2K script and/or code in the /redditKindleLib folder using your favorite text editor. Test using python ./r2K [args]. Once you're done, just commit and send me a pull request. Don't worry about setup.py, version numbers and other stuff. I'll handle that.

If you have a quick question for me, contact me @Antrikshy.

Things to do:

• Add a way to convert single posts from URL (should be very easy)
• Fix some encoding issues so the HTML converts cleanly using Amazon's email service (perhaps replace all Unicode characters)
• Expand compatibility with other ebook formats (I don't know how well it converts at the moment)
• Also add compatibility for hot posts?