The Art of Reading - CarlZeng

Edited on In Views: Reading time ≈ 15 mins.

Background

In recent months, I have cultivated a profound interest in reading—immersing myself earnestly and diligently into the act of reading. It is within these “good books” that individuals find solace, allowing for the purification of the soul.

By immersing oneself in the realm of literary art, one endeavors to mitigate a degree of mundanity.

The benefits are plentiful; without further verbosity, this composition aims to potentially offer assistance:

In swiftly and seamlessly accessing electronic books from around the world (while ardently recommending the pleasure of reading physical copies).

Update as of December 2023

In an attempt to establish “zlib-searcher” using Docker, it was discovered that the original author (for reasons unbeknownst to me) had deleted the source repository. After an extensive search with the assistance of friends, I managed to locate an alternative and attempted the following:

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docker pull ghcr.io/puzzithinker/zlib-searcher:master

Downloading Electronic Books - Preview

Steps to Use

  1. Open the browser and visit the website: https://cn.carlzeng.com/book, then input/paste and press enter to access.
  2. Enter the book title (in the first text box, “Title”), or input author and other information for searching (press tab or enter):
    1. The “A文” icon on the top right can switch between Chinese and English.
    2. If the desired book is not found through regular search and the book indeed possesses an accurate ISBN code, consider trying the following supplementary tools: Library Genesis (requires a touch of magic), or try https://zlib.qtoh.xyz
  3. Once the book is found in the list, click on the book to reveal optional download gateway buttons (such as: cloudflare-ipfs.com, dweb.link, ipfs.io, gateware.pinata.cloud—select any one), copy the button’s URL to obtain the download link (on mobile, long-press the button’s link to copy the address).
  4. Open ‘Magic Internet Access https://cn.carlzeng.com/web‘ and paste the download link obtained from the previous step into the text box, then press enter to begin downloading the specific book. Alternatively, attempt using other gateway link addresses.

Building Steps

Update as of December 2023

In an attempt to establish “zlib-searcher” using Docker, it was discovered that the original author (for reasons unbeknownst to me) had deleted the source repository. After an extensive search with the assistance of friends, I managed to locate an alternative and attempted the following:

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mkdir book-searcher && cd book-searcher

docker-compose.yml

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version: '3'

services:
  book-searcher:
    image: levizhao/zlib-search:0.0.1
    # Unable to fetch ghcr.io/book-searcher-org/book-searcher:latest
		# Fetch failed, runtime error: dockerguagua/zbook:2023-10-21
    # Fetch failed: ghcr.io/zlib-searcher/zlib-searcher:latest
    # Succeeded, but no search results: ghcr.io/puzzithinker/zlib-searcher:master 
    container_name: book-searcher
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "7070:7070"
    volumes:
      - ./index:/index

Pulling Z-Library index files

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cd book-searcher  

docker-compose up -d

docker-compose run --rm -v "$PWD:$PWD" -w "$PWD" book-searcher /zlib-searcher index -f *.csv
# This crucial command is the key step in establishing the zlib index (indispensable and directly affects the book directory, ensuring books can be correctly located), see the screenshot below for details:

indexing

Version Information

Search program version: 2022

Book index version: 20230113

Acknowledgments for this Chapter

https://yorg.top/10.html

https://github.com/puzzithinker/zlib-searcher

https://od.007.al/OneDrive/book_index/

Library Genesis (2023.12 Additional/Expansion)

Several older methods were found to be obsolete, prompting the addition of a new channel:

http://libgen.is/

Usage:

  1. Requires magical access, first open https://c.carlzeng.com/web.
  2. Enter the above website (http://libgen.is/) and press enter.
  3. Once the website is open, simply search for the book title.

libgen.is Preview

libgen.is

Reflection:

Downloaded a book: Juan Yan - I Deliver in Beijing - Hunan Literature and Art Press (2023).epub

This book was not found in Z-Library, yet it was found in libgen, quite an unexpected discovery.

Plan and Strategy (2022)

  1. Search based on book title, author, publisher, ISBN, etc. information. (Note: many sources require ‘creative’ internet access to visit)

  2. search.zhelper.net (tested in August 2023, remarkable performance, the links below need to be copied for use):

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https://search.zhelper.net/?[{%22name%22:%22anna%22,%22url%22:%22https://anna.bookpan.net%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:true,%22display%22:{%22h%22:[%22title%22],%22p1%22:[%22author%22,%22publisher%22],%22p2%22:[%22sizestring%22,%22extension%22]}},{%22name%22:%22Ylibrary-Slib2%22,%22url%22:%22https://slib2.ylibrary.org%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:false,%22display%22:{%22h%22:[%22info%22],%22detail%22:[%22code%22]}},{%22name%22:%22Ylibrary%22,%22url%22:%22https://api.ylibrary.org%22,%22type%22:%22full%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:true},{%22name%22:%22zlib.app%22,%22url%22:%22https://worker.zlib.app%22,%22type%22:%22full%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:false,%22download%22:%22https://worker.zlib.app/download/%22},{%22name%22:%22pdfdrive%22,%22url%22:%22https://pdfdrive.bookpan.net%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:false,%22display%22:{%22h%22:[%22title%22],%22p1%22:[%22year%22,%22pages%22],%22p2%22:[%22sizestring%22,%22id%22],%22detail%22:[%22md5%22]}},{%22name%22:%22Ylibrary%22,%22url%22:%22https://zlibrary.ylibrary.org%22,%22type%22:%22full%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:true},{%22name%22:%22Ylibrary%22,%22url%22:%22https://superlib.ylibrary.org%22,%22type%22:%22full%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:true},{%22name%22:%22bookpan%22,%22url%22:%22https://api.bookpan.net%22,%22type%22:%22light%22,%22sensitive%22:false,%22detail%22:true}]#

  1. [Optional] In the top left corner of the API link, different sources can be selected. Try switching to different resources.

  2. Enter the book title or ISBN and click search.

  3. When a result is selected, click download.

  4. This web page itself does not possess any search or download functionality and requires pairing with an appropriate query interface (API) for use. Direct access will display no available API.

  5. https://zlib.knat.network (added in 20230531)

  6. https://bk.hallowlib.org/ (tested, no longer functional as of August 2023)

    1. Enter the book title or author, then click search.
    2. Once a result is selected, click download (a circular progress display will appear, wait for the progress to reach 100%).
    3. Click “save,” or click “new window” to download the file from the browser to local storage (on mobile or computer).

  7. https://zlibsearch.1kbtool.com/ (When downloading a file, select gateway.pinata.cloud, others might require magic, try several)

  8. https://zlib.awesc.com/

  9. https://zlib.cydiar.com/ (requires *unshipping, see Simple and Convenient Mobile Tor Solution)

  10. WeChat Reading (mini-program)

  11. Reach out to me, I will help you find the book and send it to you (after mastering the method for self-service)

  12. Book file formats and conversion

  13. .mobi, Kindle’s file format. After trying out Kindle reading at a friend’s place, I found the hardware experience to be excellent, akin to reading paper without a light source (the experience was remarkable).

  14. .epub, Apple’s reading file format, performs well on MAC devices.

  15. (Sometimes you can only find e-books that require support for specific devices), use online tools to convert file formats.

    1. MOBI to PDF - Online Ebook File Conversion
    2. Online eBook Converter

  16. .PDF, .txt, and others, easily handled on mobile devices

  17. Eye protection

At times, I convert various book formats into .txt text files in order to utilize my phone’s reading software (I use a customized version of iFlytek’s TTS), having it read the book’s textual content directly to me. This saves on eye strain, serving the purpose of eye protection.

Tools

  1. Book Searcher - GitHub

    A simple and fast book search engine, creating and searching your private library. Index metadata for over 10 million books in one minute and search in 30µs.

  2. https://convertio.co (verified practical results)

  3. iFlytek TTS (after removing ads, it’s really great)

  4. Contact me, and I’ll find the time to help you find the book (if an electronic version indeed exists)

If you have better thoughts, ideas, and tools, feel free to leave a comment to let me know.

(Note: many sources require “creative” internet access. If you cannot access the resources above with your internet, consider solving the problem on your own using https://www.cnblogs.com/backuper/p/tornetwork.html, or leave me a message to help, and I’ll check it later)

Gratitude and Contribution

  1. 202: Zlibrary’s Latest Access, Downloaded Three Books
  2. My precious mentors at home (periodically recommending good books and thoughts)
  3. Friends’ Kinder with low refresh rate broadens horizons
  4. Curiosity (a domestically manufactured e-ink screen, real-time synchronization of the original phone screen, high cost but resists temptation)

Alternative to Z-Library

Another site that can serve as an alternative to Z-Library: Library Genesis; latest libgen address.

Recommendation of a wonderful post on the internet:

https://od.007.al/OneDrive/%E5%A4%A9%E6%B6%AF%E7%A5%9E%E8%B4%B4