fb2-tools-perl is a project for creating set of utilities to manage collection of FictionBook2 files.
FictionBook2 is an XML-based format to store books in electronic form. It is absolutely DRM-free, supports logical markup (such things as epigraphes, poems etc), contains extensive metainformation (about author, translator etc). (See XML Schema for the format).
This makes FictionBook2 an ideal format for reading books on PDA and other devices, since book can be easily reformatted to take maximum advantage of the varying screen capabilities.
See www.fictiobook.org (site is mostly in Russian).
There are good reading programs for this format for various platorms. My favorite is open source FBReader which runs on variety of hand-held devices as well as on desktop Unix-like and Windows XP systems. There are also some proprietary programs for Windows Mobile (such as Haali Reader).
There are some programs for converting other formats to FictionBook2 and vice versa (note that conversion to FictionBook2 typically requires user interaction, since good FictionBook2 files use logical markup).
There are tens of thousands book in the FB2 format, available in the internet or p2p networks, both free or for fee.
Our project is aimed to develop set of cross-platform tools which simplify management of collection of books, converting other text formats into FictionBook2 format and fixing markup errors.