using search/GET BOOKS can I find books I haven't got?

johnwhelan · 06-02-2012, 01:45 PM

ie find me all the books available by an author omitting those titles I already have in my Calibre database.

Thanks John

kiwidude · 06-02-2012, 02:03 PM

No. As calibre search can only search books in your database. And where out there is the perfect website which says for every author what books they have available?

There are two things you "can" do. The first is to create empty book entries (wishlist items effectively) in calibre for books in advance of actually buying them. Then you can either tag these especially or find them using formats:false, so you can use those as a reminder of books you want (complete with populating the published date to know when they are available).

The other thing you can do that comes to mind is to use the Search the Internet plugin, and use that to lookup an author on a site like Fantastic Fiction. You are still going to have to manually eyeball to find books you are missing to compare though.

A couple of times people have requested a plugin which would alert you to upcoming/new books for authors in their database, which I agree would be super cool. The problem is finding a source for this info. A lot of people use FictFact, but the thing I find unacceptable about them (or at least when I last looked a while ago) is they *only* store information for books that are in a series (plus only some genres). So if your author writes standalones you are out of luck.

orlok · 06-02-2012, 02:17 PM

"Author Alerts" will tell you about any new release from an author, series or not.

kiwidude · 06-02-2012, 02:31 PM

@orlok - nice, simple and clean in concept, nicely done. With an RSS feed, so that could act as a source for a plugin... mmm... on my todo list to investigate further one day...

One problem I see is they don't (obviously at least) expose their internal data via an API, which is understandable. In other words each user would need to setup an account, use their website to add authors to their list, and only then be able to use that list as input for a calibre plugin to allow creating empty books etc.

Another problem is that from a very quick look they are only interested in telling you about "new or very recently released stuff", so it isn't going to help someone get "up to date" with what they are missing.

Still, for those of us who have got all the books to date of interest for an author and are itching to know when more are available, that sort of concept is very cool.

orlok · 06-02-2012, 03:10 PM

You're right, it's not the complete answer for automation, but I do like the fact I can keep track of any new releases from my favourite authors, even if they are newbies or relatively obscure.

kiwidude · 06-02-2012, 03:33 PM

Indeed - compared to nothing it is very good

The other problem is there is no filtering available. So you can't tell what is a genuinely new book from an author, versus what is just a reissue from their back catalog, or a different edition etc. So when my favourite author has 4 upcoming books, turns out it is only one being released in a range of formats. That is where being via a plugin could be handy, to filter out all the "cruft" by comparing with books in your database and only tell you about *genuinely* new books...

orlok · 06-02-2012, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Indeed - compared to nothing it is very good

The other problem is there is no filtering available. So you can't tell what is a genuinely new book from an author, versus what is just a reissue from their back catalog, or a different edition etc. So when my favourite author has 4 upcoming books, turns out it is only one being released in a range of formats. That is where being via a plugin could be handy, to filter out all the "cruft" by comparing with books in your database and only tell you about *genuinely* new books...

They haven't been going very long, from what I understand, or have recently resurrected, so I'm sure they'd appreciate any feedback and suggestions. I agree about the filtering - it's annoying to get an alert and then find it's just back-catalogue being rereleased in a new format.

johnwhelan · 06-03-2012, 01:53 PM

I think what I'm after is using GET BOOKS to search for books by this author then omitting any already in my database.

Cheerio John

06-02-2012, 01:45 PM	#1
johnwhelan Zealot Posts: 104 Karma: 475752 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Kobo Touch, Cybook Gen 3, Google Nexus7	using search/GET BOOKS can I find books I haven't got? ie find me all the books available by an author omitting those titles I already have in my Calibre database. Thanks John

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06-02-2012, 02:03 PM	#2
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	No. As calibre search can only search books in your database. And where out there is the perfect website which says for every author what books they have available? There are two things you "can" do. The first is to create empty book entries (wishlist items effectively) in calibre for books in advance of actually buying them. Then you can either tag these especially or find them using formats:false, so you can use those as a reminder of books you want (complete with populating the published date to know when they are available). The other thing you can do that comes to mind is to use the Search the Internet plugin, and use that to lookup an author on a site like Fantastic Fiction. You are still going to have to manually eyeball to find books you are missing to compare though. A couple of times people have requested a plugin which would alert you to upcoming/new books for authors in their database, which I agree would be super cool. The problem is finding a source for this info. A lot of people use FictFact, but the thing I find unacceptable about them (or at least when I last looked a while ago) is they only store information for books that are in a series (plus only some genres). So if your author writes standalones you are out of luck.

06-02-2012, 02:17 PM	#3
orlok Close to the Edit! Posts: 9,797 Karma: 267994408 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis, Amazon Fire 8", Kindle 6"	"Author Alerts" will tell you about any new release from an author, series or not.

06-02-2012, 02:31 PM	#4
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@orlok - nice, simple and clean in concept, nicely done. With an RSS feed, so that could act as a source for a plugin... mmm... on my todo list to investigate further one day... One problem I see is they don't (obviously at least) expose their internal data via an API, which is understandable. In other words each user would need to setup an account, use their website to add authors to their list, and only then be able to use that list as input for a calibre plugin to allow creating empty books etc. Another problem is that from a very quick look they are only interested in telling you about "new or very recently released stuff", so it isn't going to help someone get "up to date" with what they are missing. Still, for those of us who have got all the books to date of interest for an author and are itching to know when more are available, that sort of concept is very cool.

06-02-2012, 03:10 PM	#5
orlok Close to the Edit! Posts: 9,797 Karma: 267994408 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis, Amazon Fire 8", Kindle 6"	You're right, it's not the complete answer for automation, but I do like the fact I can keep track of any new releases from my favourite authors, even if they are newbies or relatively obscure.

06-02-2012, 03:33 PM	#6
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	Indeed - compared to nothing it is very good The other problem is there is no filtering available. So you can't tell what is a genuinely new book from an author, versus what is just a reissue from their back catalog, or a different edition etc. So when my favourite author has 4 upcoming books, turns out it is only one being released in a range of formats. That is where being via a plugin could be handy, to filter out all the "cruft" by comparing with books in your database and only tell you about genuinely new books...

06-03-2012, 01:53 PM	#8
johnwhelan Zealot Posts: 104 Karma: 475752 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Kobo Touch, Cybook Gen 3, Google Nexus7	I think what I'm after is using GET BOOKS to search for books by this author then omitting any already in my database. Cheerio John

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