Organizing Books

toberead · 10-02-2010, 08:39 PM

I just bought a Kindle, but I haven't started putting any books on it yet. I have some books already on my computer, and I've been playing with Calibre and the Kindle for Mac app to see how they look in the Kindle format. But I've been waiting to start using my Kindle until I can figure out how to organize my books on the Kindle. I've been reading posts here about collections, archives, PDF's, side loading, etc., but I don't feel like I really get the big picture - I just get answers to specific questions. (For example, I've read about collections, but I'm not sure how collections fit in with PDF's.) The Amazon users guide is also not altogether clear, especially when it comes to non-Amazon books.

Is there a good place to go to find a beginner's guide to organizing books on the Kindle?

desertgrandma · 10-02-2010, 08:53 PM

Welcome to MobileRead, toberead

The Kindle lets your organize by author, most recent, or title.

Collections is another thing altogether.......this page may not answer all your questions, but it has some great FAQ's....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200503360

Jack Tingle · 10-02-2010, 09:05 PM

A Beginner's Guide
by A. Beginner

Collections are just groups of books arranged by tags. For example, if you add the book to the collections "Mystery", "Fantasy", "Werewolves", "Erotica", it would appear four places. What happens in fact is the big flat file of all .azw, .mobi, .prc, .mbp, etc. files has an associated database. In that database the file has those tags associated with it. When you look at the screen, you'll see those (and other) collections, and inside each one is the book you tagged.

PDFs and collections are orthogonal. You can put a PDF in a collection, or have a collection named "PDFs", but it doesn't really affect much else. A PDF is just a book, so far as organization is concerned.

Organize them however you please. Suggested collection titles: "prOn", "skiffy", "Vanilla", "Infrastructure", "fantasy", "Mystery", "erotica", "literachure", "IsRussian", "OBE", "junk", "oddGenre", "theLifestyle", etc. Since a book can be part of more than one, but it's just a big database, there's no cost to have a book in "IsRussian" and "theLifestyle" simultaneously.

You're welcome.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

Leep · 10-02-2010, 09:19 PM

I like to organize my ebooks by author with a Calibre created listing of what books I have and the series data for the books so that I can read them in order.

Therefore I have a "collection" created for major authors, plus some general collections like: Games, Travel, Self Help books, Cookbooks, Currently Reading etc.

You may have noticed from some of the other posts on the subject, if you beginning the name of your collection with a symbol and a space, then the "Collections" folders will sort first. An Example. - Follet, Ken would be my collection folder for works by Ken Follet.

Hope this helps.

cheers

Balerion · 10-02-2010, 10:20 PM

As far as the actual organisation of the books (in the file system), I do it this way...

(Author) - (Series and # if applicable) - (Book title).prc

So if I'm looking at the complete list I get something like this...

...
Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently 01 - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.prc
Douglas Adams - Drik Gently 02 - The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul.prc
Douglas Adams - HGG 01 - The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy.prc
Douglas Adams - HGG 02 - The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.prc
Douglas Preston - Impact.prc
Frederick Forsyth - The Day Of The Jackal.prc
Frederick Forsyth - The Odessa File.prc
...

*** your ebook files can be renamed to this sort of format, without it changing the metadata ofcourse, and can be done while connected to a computer using the Explorer/Finder standard method of course***

You can separate your books by using subfolders within the (Kindle drive letter):\documents\ folder, but they are just for organising and don't have anything to do with collections.... whereas a folder within a (Kindle drive letter):\pictures\ folder is how you organise your photos because each sub folder will become a photo album.

10-02-2010, 08:39 PM	#1
toberead Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle	Organizing Books I just bought a Kindle, but I haven't started putting any books on it yet. I have some books already on my computer, and I've been playing with Calibre and the Kindle for Mac app to see how they look in the Kindle format. But I've been waiting to start using my Kindle until I can figure out how to organize my books on the Kindle. I've been reading posts here about collections, archives, PDF's, side loading, etc., but I don't feel like I really get the big picture - I just get answers to specific questions. (For example, I've read about collections, but I'm not sure how collections fit in with PDF's.) The Amazon users guide is also not altogether clear, especially when it comes to non-Amazon books. Is there a good place to go to find a beginner's guide to organizing books on the Kindle?

10-02-2010, 09:05 PM	#3
Jack Tingle Punctuation Fetishist Posts: 557 Karma: 1070000 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: The Bluest Commonwealth In East America Device: Kindle PW, Nexus 7 (2013), Galaxy S5 phone, Galaxy Tab 4 8.0	A Beginner's Guide by A. Beginner Collections are just groups of books arranged by tags. For example, if you add the book to the collections "Mystery", "Fantasy", "Werewolves", "Erotica", it would appear four places. What happens in fact is the big flat file of all .azw, .mobi, .prc, .mbp, etc. files has an associated database. In that database the file has those tags associated with it. When you look at the screen, you'll see those (and other) collections, and inside each one is the book you tagged. PDFs and collections are orthogonal. You can put a PDF in a collection, or have a collection named "PDFs", but it doesn't really affect much else. A PDF is just a book, so far as organization is concerned. Organize them however you please. Suggested collection titles: "prOn", "skiffy", "Vanilla", "Infrastructure", "fantasy", "Mystery", "erotica", "literachure", "IsRussian", "OBE", "junk", "oddGenre", "theLifestyle", etc. Since a book can be part of more than one, but it's just a big database, there's no cost to have a book in "IsRussian" and "theLifestyle" simultaneously. You're welcome. Regards, Jack Tingle Last edited by Jack Tingle; 10-02-2010 at 09:08 PM.

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10-02-2010, 08:53 PM	#2
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462841 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	Welcome to MobileRead, toberead The Kindle lets your organize by author, most recent, or title. Collections is another thing altogether.......this page may not answer all your questions, but it has some great FAQ's.... http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...deId=200503360

10-02-2010, 09:19 PM	#4
Leep Guru Posts: 739 Karma: 1018859 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Near Seattle Device: kindle1, K3, K3G (thanks MR), iTouch, Kindle Touch	I like to organize my ebooks by author with a Calibre created listing of what books I have and the series data for the books so that I can read them in order. Therefore I have a "collection" created for major authors, plus some general collections like: Games, Travel, Self Help books, Cookbooks, Currently Reading etc. You may have noticed from some of the other posts on the subject, if you beginning the name of your collection with a symbol and a space, then the "Collections" folders will sort first. An Example. - Follet, Ken would be my collection folder for works by Ken Follet. Hope this helps. cheers

10-02-2010, 10:20 PM	#5
Balerion Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 14 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: K2i K3w	As far as the actual organisation of the books (in the file system), I do it this way... (Author) - (Series and # if applicable) - (Book title).prc So if I'm looking at the complete list I get something like this... ... Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently 01 - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.prc Douglas Adams - Drik Gently 02 - The Long Dark Tea Time Of The Soul.prc Douglas Adams - HGG 01 - The Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy.prc Douglas Adams - HGG 02 - The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.prc Douglas Preston - Impact.prc Frederick Forsyth - The Day Of The Jackal.prc Frederick Forsyth - The Odessa File.prc ... * your ebook files can be renamed to this sort of format, without it changing the metadata ofcourse, and can be done while connected to a computer using the Explorer/Finder standard method of course* You can separate your books by using subfolders within the (Kindle drive letter):\documents\ folder, but they are just for organising and don't have anything to do with collections.... whereas a folder within a (Kindle drive letter):\pictures\ folder is how you organise your photos because each sub folder will become a photo album.

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