Please no more omnibus edition and de-omnibusing the ones we have

[Phogg]

[colinsky]

My Sony Reader slows down the more that get puts on it, so as far as I am concerned, the more books that can be stuffed into one file, the better!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by colinsky

My Sony Reader slows down the more that get puts on it, so as far as I am concerned, the more books that can be stuffed into one file, the better!

Is it an issue with the number of eBooks or is it an issue with the amount of space they are taking up?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is it an issue with the number of eBooks or is it an issue with the amount of space they are taking up?

Number of ebooks; the indexing system slows down when more than a few hundred are on the reader or in the card at one time. Reading individual books isn't affected, but navigation between books, looking at the title/author/date lists, slows down immensely, as does the time for boot-up after loading new books onto the device.

None of the ereader nav systems are actually built for anything like the number of books that can now be stored on the devices; none of them have coherent methods for coping with several thousand ebooks.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

None of the ereader nav systems are actually built for anything like the number of books that can now be stored on the devices; none of them have coherent methods for coping with several thousand ebooks.

None is a pretty all inclusive term. The Hanlin models have a simple directory structure that works perfectly fine for lots of books. Implementing a simple Unix file system works fine so long as the reader doesn't try to traverse it and make a collection from the various folders.

Dale

[HarryT]

Yes, there are many readers which simply present the user with a view of the folder structure of the storage device. Bookeen's various readers are another example, as is the BeBook Neo.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

None is a pretty all inclusive term. The Hanlin models have a simple directory structure that works perfectly fine for lots of books. Implementing a simple Unix file system works fine so long as the reader doesn't try to traverse it and make a collection from the various folders.
Dale

I maintain: none. I have a PEZ, which supports folders; it works fine for a few hundred books. It does not work well for a few thousand, much less an entire large library.

A 2gb card can easily hold 3,000 novel-length ebooks... or five times that many short stories. A library at your fingertips... viewable 8-10 titles at a time. EReaders don't even have the elegance of Windows Explorer, with filenames in a neat list & resorted by date or filetype with a single click.

If you put the entire Baen CD collection of ebooks on an ereader--limited to a single format of choice--how would they be sorted? Folder per CD, so you wade through a couple-dozen folders, trying to remember which CD name corresponds to which series? How are the ebooks organized inside the folders--is it easy to note sub-series, or are they all in filename order, or renumbered in chrono order, or release-date order?

If a person also wants a collection of fanfiction related to some of those books (the Vorkosigan Saga has inspired several excellent novel-length stories), where should those be placed; how can the nav system identify them as related-to-these-other-books?

These aren't insurmountable problems; we all manage to find something that works for us. But computer nav systems don't have the versatility of physical shelves--there's no "stack these on the shelf right below those, so they're visible but obviously separate"; there's no "place a bit of cardboard between these two books to identify different series."

Currently, ebook readers are designed well for reading, not for storage and archiving. While memory capacities have increased, the navigation software hasn't kept pace. It's especially troublesome for readers of short stories; it's easy to quickly wind up with several dozen tiny files cluttering up the folder structure.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

If you put the entire Baen CD collection of ebooks on an ereader--limited to a single format of choice--how would they be sorted? Folder per CD, so you wade through a couple-dozen folders, trying to remember which CD name corresponds to which series? How are the ebooks organized inside the folders--is it easy to note sub-series, or are they all in filename order, or renumbered in chrono order, or release-date order?

If a person also wants a collection of fanfiction related to some of those books (the Vorkosigan Saga has inspired several excellent novel-length stories), where should those be placed; how can the nav system identify them as related-to-these-other-books?

It's for these reasons that many current reading devices have gone for collections - ie, tags - rather than folders. It makes it much easier to organize your collection by multiple attributes.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's for these reasons that many current reading devices have gone for collections - ie, tags - rather than folders. It makes it much easier to organize your collection by multiple attributes.

The Sonys take a ridiculous amount of time to load after changing the contents; they're really not prepared for a 4000 book library, even a well-tagged one. (The hassle of library software to manage the collections is a separate issue; a nuisance, but not a major one. It'd be better if the management software could be stored on the reader itself instead of installed on a desktop or laptop.)

I've heard no good things about the Nook's ability to manage a large library, especially one split between BN purchases and books from other sources. Treating sideloaded books as an afterthought was a horrible decision.

[JSWolf]

Actually, with the software on the x50 line, you can manage your collections on the Reader.

[HarryT]

And on the Kindle, too.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's for these reasons that many current reading devices have gone for collections - ie, tags - rather than folders. It makes it much easier to organize your collection by multiple attributes.

I don't agree with that, at least not with the current collection options on both the Kindle and Sony. The lack of sub-collections I find highly annoying. Why have collections if you have more than 100 to go through? And tags... If you have too many, your collection of collections will grow so large that it'll be completely useless.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I don't agree with that, at least not with the current collection options on both the Kindle and Sony. The lack of sub-collections I find highly annoying. Why have collections if you have more than 100 to go through? And tags... If you have too many, your collection of collections will grow so large that it'll be completely useless.

Given that collections are tags, the concept of "sub collections" isn't really a meaningful one.

The real issue is the lack of boolean expressions for searching your books, and that's purely a firmware issue. Eg, if you want to search for science fiction mysteries you should be able to search for books that are in both the "SF" and "Mystery" collections.

I agree that, with the current firmware, proliferation of books is simply replaced by proliferation of collections.

[Sweetpea]

Naturally, it's the firmware... Subcollections or some sort of boolean search would achieve the same goal: finding books that belong to multiple collections.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I maintain: none. I have a PEZ, which supports folders; it works fine for a few hundred books. It does not work well for a few thousand, much less an entire large library.

A 2gb card can easily hold 3,000 novel-length ebooks... or five times that many short stories. A library at your fingertips... viewable 8-10 titles at a time. EReaders don't even have the elegance of Windows Explorer, with filenames in a neat list & resorted by date or filetype with a single click.

If you put the entire Baen CD collection of ebooks on an ereader--limited to a single format of choice--how would they be sorted? Folder per CD, so you wade through a couple-dozen folders, trying to remember which CD name corresponds to which series? How are the ebooks organized inside the folders--is it easy to note sub-series, or are they all in filename order, or renumbered in chrono order, or release-date order?

The entire Baen CD collection (EPUB) IS on my PEz
There are 2304 books on my SD card.

The layout of your folders (and number of files within) may be the cause of the overload?
Attached is the layout I use. Root folders are shown on the Left pane.