Chinese Ebook Downloader

Download Chinese ebooks from multiple sources with automatic fallback and format conversion.

Quick Start

# Single book download (multi-source fallback)
python scripts/download_book.py --title "超越百岁" --author "彼得·阿提亚"

# Multi-source batch download (A→B→C fallback + EPUB→PDF conversion)
python scripts/multi_source_download.py ~/Books/

# Search Anna's Archive directly
python scripts/search_source_c.py "书名" "作者"

# Convert EPUB to PDF
python scripts/epub_to_pdf.py book.epub book.pdf

Download Sources (Priority Order)

Source	Coverage	Limit	Notes
Source A (online book library)	~100%	None	Primary — high coverage for popular Chinese books
Source B (secondary library)	~8%	None	Fallback for missing titles
Source C (Anna's Archive)	Wide	Rate-limited	Last resort — uses libgen.li mirrors

Note: Z-Library has been deprecated due to 10/day download limit.

Multi-Source Fallback

The multi_source_download.py script automatically tries sources in order:

Source A → Source B → Source C → EPUB→PDF Conversion

Workflow per book:

1. Try Source A (ZIP → extract PDF/EPUB)
2. If failed, try Source B (file host download)
3. If failed, try Source C (Anna's Archive via libgen.li)
4. If only EPUB found, auto-convert to PDF using weasyprint

Usage:

# Edit BOOKS list in script, then run:
python scripts/multi_source_download.py ~/Books/

EPUB → PDF Conversion

When only EPUB format is available, auto-convert using weasyprint:

# Single file
python scripts/epub_to_pdf.py input.epub output.pdf

# Batch convert directory
python scripts/epub_to_pdf.py --batch ~/Books/

Requirements: ebooklib, weasyprint, CJK fonts installed.

Scripts Reference

Script	Purpose
download_book.py	Primary download from Source A
search_secondary_source.py	Source B search & download
search_source_c.py	Anna's Archive search & download
batch_download.py	Batch download from JSON list
multi_source_download.py	Multi-source A→B→C fallback
epub_to_pdf.py	EPUB/MOBI to PDF conversion
anna_iso_batch.sh	Anna's Archive isolated batch (one process per book)

Source A Workflow (Primary)

Search → Get file host link → Decrypt → Wait countdown → API fetch → curl download → Extract ZIP

Step 1: Search

Search the primary library for the book title. Navigate to download page, extract file host URL and password.

Step 2: Decrypt

Navigate to file host URL, enter password, click decrypt.

Step 3: Wait for countdown

File hosting service requires countdown before download. Do not skip.

Step 4: Fetch real download URL

Get page variables:

JSON.stringify({api_server, userid, file_id, share_id, file_chk, start_time, wait_seconds, verifycode})

Call API:

(async () => {
  var url = api_server + '/get_file_url.php?uid=' + userid
    + '&fid=' + file_id + '&folder_id=0&share_id=' + share_id
    + '&file_chk=' + file_chk + '&start_time=' + start_time
    + '&wait_seconds=' + wait_seconds + '&mb=0&app=0&acheck=0'
    + '&verifycode=' + verifycode + '&rd=' + Math.random();
  var headers = typeof getAjaxHeaders === 'function' ? getAjaxHeaders() : {};
  var resp = await fetch(url, {headers: headers});
  return JSON.stringify(await resp.json());
})()

Response code: 200 → downurl is real URL.

Step 5: Download

curl -L -o "book.zip" "DOWNURL" \
  -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7)" \
  --max-time 1200

Step 6: Extract ZIP (GBK encoding)

import zipfile
with zipfile.ZipFile('book.zip', 'r') as z:
    for info in z.infolist():
        try:
            name = info.filename.encode('cp437').decode('gbk')
        except:
            name = info.filename
        ext = os.path.splitext(name)[1].lower()
        if ext in ('.epub', '.azw3', '.mobi', '.pdf', '.txt'):
            data = z.read(info.filename)
            with open(os.path.basename(name), 'wb') as f:
                f.write(data)

Book Name Matching Strategy

When a book title is long or contains multiple names (e.g. box sets):

• Removes subtitles (after "：" or ":")
• Removes parenthetical content ("（...）", "(...)")
• Removes "套装共X册" bundle descriptions
• Splits "+"-connected titles into individual books
• Tries each keyword until match found
• Falls back to full title + author

Examples:

• "杨定一全部生命系列：真原医+静坐+好睡（套装3册）" → tries "真原医", "静坐", "好睡"
• "超越百岁：长寿的科学与艺术" → tries "超越百岁", then "超越百岁 彼得·阿提亚"

Format Selection

Flag	Description
--format pdf	PDF only (default, preferred for NotebookLM)
--format epub	EPUB only
--format mobi	MOBI only
--format azw3	AZW3 only
--format any	Accept any available format

Batch Download

python scripts/batch_download.py --book-list books.json --output-dir ~/Books/

JSON format:

[
  {"title": "超越百岁", "file_url": "<file_host_url>", "password": "<password>"}
]

Features: resume via _progress.json, skip existing, rate limiting.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
IP blocking	Use browser tool, not web_fetch
Link 404	Link expired, re-search
API non-200	Re-navigate and re-decrypt
Download is HTML	URL expired, fresh API call needed
ZIP filenames garbled	Use Python cp437→gbk, not unzip
Timeout on large files	Increase --max-time to 1200
Anna's Archive blocked	Try different mirror, use anna_iso_batch.sh