Managing your library or how you consume books

[pwalker8]

I've been using calibre since it first came out and donated to the developer several times. IMPO, it's essential for those of use who have a Mac and a Sony. It also works well enough on the iPad. While the UI isn't the best in the world (the developer freely admits he's not a UI guy, plus multiple platform support and the python code base limit the UI), he has added many very useful feature over the years.

Unlike many here, my reading taste tend to vary with my mood, one of the reasons that I might be reading 4 or 5 different books at a time.

[GraceKrispy]

I keep all the books on my device until I read them. I have them organized in collections on my sony, and I delete them as I read them (I have them all backed up on my computer anyways.

I really vary in terms of what I want to read and when, so I really like having a variety of books available to me, depending on my mood.

As for a "netflix" kind of thing with the monthly rentals and such, I have always been an avid consumer of the library services. I don't pay for those services. There are also a lot of books out there for free or very inexpensive. I'm not sure I'd pay for a service allowing me to "rent" books each month, I guess it'd depend on the book stock available and rental terms, and the price. I'm not opposed to checking out pbooks from the library, so paying more to get an ebook just to borrow wouldn't appeal to me all that much.

[bjones6416]

Well, my library was built pretty gradually, and I only have around 200 books, so I don't think the process was as difficult for me as for somebody who started out with a lot of books. So far, though, I put all of my books on all three of my readers, using calibre exclusively. When I add a book to calibre, I replace all of the tags with my own tags -- I have 10 or 11, I think -- and make sure that the series is correct. That takes care of the Sony because it manages collections based on my tags and series.

For the Kindle, every time I add a book to it (using calibre), I open it on the Kindle and add it to one of my 10 collections on there. If you view by Collection, you don't have any "stray" books showing as long as they belong to as least one collection. That makes my home page very tidy.

On the Jetbook, I usually just put the SD card in my computer and send the books to "file" using calibre. For a while I had a more complicated folder stucture set up on there, but decided I didn't want that.

I agree that I wouldn't want all of my books on my reader without any organization, but most devices now support some sort of organization, and I like making full use of it. For instance, if I didn't keep an "unread" category and a "reading now" category, I think I'd spend half my time poking around in there trying to remember what I was doing last!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

As for a "netflix" kind of thing with the monthly rentals and such, I have always been an avid consumer of the library services. I don't pay for those services.

As a tax payer, I certainly pay for my local library service. How is yours funded?

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As a tax payer, I certainly pay for my local library service. How is yours funded?

Yes, we pay for our libraries that way, too, but we're paying that whether we use it or not!

With a Netflix sort of deal I would have a choice whether to pay for it or not, and since I'm paying for the library anyway, why not use it?

GraceKrispy, am I channeling you?

[queentess]

Originally Posted by eric11210

Well the Sony PRS 600 and up does offer tags (I think the 300 does as well, but it doesn't have expansion and so it can't support a large library) and I think the Kindle does as well, however I speak from experience when I say that the Sony is a poor choice if you continually add to your collection. Once you have your collection set and you don't plan to make changes often, you can just charge it with a wall charger and it's fine, but if you plug it into the USB port to charge (or if you add more books or simply shut it off completely rather than put it in standby mode) it can take over an hour to restart because it scans the SD card each time it starts up or is unplugged from USB.

The PRS-300 does indeed have Collections. I rather liked it on the Sony, and find the Collections on Kindle to be a much bigger PITA. The Sony does allow for assigning multiple tags (not just folders), and it's fully compatible with Calibre, which is how I accidentally stumbled upon the Sony capability... I transferred books from Calibre to the Sony, and lo and behold, they were already organized!

Originally Posted by HarryT

Simply because of the difficult in setting it up. On a device with "real" folders, such as, for example, the Pocketbook 360 or the CyBook Gen3, you can simply hook up the device via USB to your PC, create whatever folder tree you want to use via Windows Explorer, and then drag and drop files into it. On the Kindle, you have to copy the files to the Kindle, and then on the Kindle itself assign books one at a time to the appropriate collections. Unless there's a short-cut method that I've overlooked?

I don't know a short-cut method for it, though I haven't tried it with Calibre yet. Perhaps it works with Calibre the same way the Sony does? Personally, I don't like the idea of folders; I definitely prefer tags so I can search for my books multiple ways. It's especially helpful when labeling series and then also labeling them with the genre and the read status.

[HamsterRage]

I'd really appreciate it if my Kobo reader could recognize the tags from Calibre and allowed books to be browsed by tag. I'd easily have multiple TBR lists created from the tags.

I'd also like to be able to see the books by series. Everybody seems to agree that this is a major PIA with most readers, and they fiddle the book titles so that it's obvious what order the books come in the series. Something that's mostly impossible otherwise.

[bjones6416]

And speaking of short-cuts managing collections with the Kindle, I really don't like pulling up each individual book and then putting it into my collections -- it's time-consuming, even with a smallish library like mine. I do it by sorting by collections, choosing a particular collection, then clicking the 5-way button to the right to see the collection options. Choose Add/Remove items, then you can sort your library by title and just click thru them to add (or remove) them from the collection, without opening each title. It's a lot faster doing it this way than it is opening the options on each book and deciding how to place it. I admit, though, it would still be pretty daunting with 1000 books.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

And speaking of short-cuts managing collections with the Kindle, I really don't like pulling up each individual book and then putting it into my collections -- it's time-consuming, even with a smallish library like mine.

You can select the collection and then add all the books by just selecting them, you don't have to pull up each book.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

You can select the collection and then add all the books by just selecting them, you don't have to pull up each book.

Right, that's what I am trying to say. Apparently not very well.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by HamsterRage

I'd also like to be able to see the books by series. Everybody seems to agree that this is a major PIA with most readers, and they fiddle the book titles so that it's obvious what order the books come in the series. Something that's mostly impossible otherwise.

I only had the PRS-300 a couple weeks before I gave it to my brother, but I did really love the way it handled Collections and series.

I used Calibre to load all the books, and I already had them tagged in Calibre (because I do that will all my incoming books and Calibre is my preferred method of organizing -- thanks Kovid! I donated!). I had them listed in the correct series and series order as well, and that carried over to the PRS-300 by way of Collections, and when you drill down on the Collection for a particular series, it seemed to always be in order... though since I only did one mass upload to the PRS-300, I don't know if this was happenstance or if the Sony is smart enough to pick up the number in the series that Calibre uses.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I do it by sorting by collections, choosing a particular collection, then clicking the 5-way button to the right to see the collection options. Choose Add/Remove items, then you can sort your library by title and just click thru them to add (or remove) them from the collection, without opening each title.

Thank you, that's a useful tip; I didn't know you could do that.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thank you, that's a useful tip; I didn't know you could do that.

You're welcome -- I got that tip from somebody else a couple of months ago, so just passing the love forward!

[GhostHawk]

All books, no, over 4,000 yes
SD cards and USB to SD adapters are a wonderful thing.

[Marcy]

I want a combination of Sony's collection model which allows one book to have multiple tags, and therefore have a single copy of that book to be in several places, and the simple and naked folder support of my PB360.

I love the speed of my PB360 and the ability to sort my books how I like, but I would love to be able to have it sort under multiple tags. Currently to do this, I would have to put multiple copies of the same book on the reader. While this isn't a problem for storage, it can become an organizational nightmare.

My PRS-600 really shined in organizing my books. Depending on what view I chose, I could see my books listed alphabetically by author, alpha by title, by date added, or grouped into collections which are generated from series and tag data.

A program that would run on the PB360 or other readers to give Calibre-like functionality would be really super.

-Marcy