From b7872873dd10cbf1085bca78556b27dbba0c9378 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:57:13 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] Fix #3022 (Receiving error during convert from pdf to any
 file)

---
 src/calibre/__init__.py           | 8 +++++---
 src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py | 2 +-
 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/calibre/__init__.py b/src/calibre/__init__.py
index b455c55553..5cdf03888a 100644
--- a/src/calibre/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/__init__.py
@@ -114,9 +114,11 @@ def prints(*args, **kwargs):
                     raise
                 arg = repr(arg)
         if not isinstance(arg, str):
-            arg = str(arg)
-            if not isinstance(arg, unicode):
-                arg = arg.decode(preferred_encoding, 'replace')
+            try:
+                arg = str(arg)
+            except ValueError:
+                arg = unicode(arg)
+            if isinstance(arg, unicode):
                 try:
                     arg = arg.encode(enc)
                 except UnicodeEncodeError:
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py
index 0a305dbe1c..d1b4076cd9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/mobi/writer.py
@@ -1972,7 +1972,7 @@ class MobiWriter(object):
                         continue
                     if h not in self._id_offsets:
                         self._oeb.logger.warn('  Ignoring missing TOC entry:',
-                                child)
+                                unicode(child))
                         continue
 
                     currentOffset = self._id_offsets[h]