A new catalog layout
The catalog page will look a bit different now: nantucketebooks.com/ebooks/.
I had originally used a “tile” layout. On landscape displays, cards showing the cover and info on different books were shown in three different columns side-by-side. On a landscape display, this layout had a pleasing effect, but on portrait they looked too big and it got unwieldy. In particular, it was difficult to scroll through on any device.
I’m hoping the new layout is at least a small improvement. This is an incremental process. I’m using a table element with some simple CSS ‘grid’ styling. I’ve used flex boxes on many projects, but grid seems to be a new trend and I thought I’d give it a shot.
To save on space, I’ve found a way to use the detail/summary elements to hide longer descriptions of books. This is a nice way to save space, and requires no JavaScript. I’ve set the book covers to line up with the top of the rows, so they won’t move around when the description box opens and closes.
I was surprised to find that these new cards, including the detail/summary elements, work with the site’s dark mode. The appearance on text-only browsers could be improved somewhat.
Here’s my next steps:
* Categories. Rather than show every e-book on the site, I’d like to show the top five or so e-books in different categories: most popular, most recent, horror, science-fiction, short stories, novels, and so on.
* Have the SSG build the main page. I’d like to have a template of the index.html file, which could be updated when new e-books get featured.
* Searchability. A search function for the e-books is a long-term goal for me.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT
Many of the site’s e-books come from the public domain, and are adapted (improved) from Project Gutenberg’s e-books. From now on, I plan to focus my time on finding and working with new authors. I have no plans to add further public domain e-books on a regular basis.
A while back, it occured to me that a browser extension could be built that applies a new, better stylesheet to Project Gutenberg titles. It could even run the interactive features of Nantucket E-Books, like note-taking, text-resizing, and dark mode. It would be more efficient, in the long run, to bring the great readability and interactivity of Nantucket E-Books to Project Gutenberg via an extension, than to adapt Gutenberg books to Nantucket E-Books individually.
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