So I've finished reading my book

[tilia]

Look under Column colouring in Look and Feel in Preferences. Click on Add new rule. Then you can set which column you want coloured, and under what conditions.

I have 'read' and 'started' in my #read column, so I use a different colour in the title field for each. To do this, you can set two rules, or use the advanced option.

[toddos]

Originally Posted by Skydog

I do the same. Additionally, I have assigned a color to it that applies to the entire row, making a "have read" book easy to identify.

Coloring rows is an expensive operation for calibre, so if you have a very large library you probably don't want to do that. What would be better is to keep your "Read" column up to date, and then create a saved search that looks for something like "read:no" (my syntax is almost certainly wrong). That way when you want to filter out stuff that's not been read, you just use that search and depending on your search settings it will either highlight the matched rows (as if you had colored them, but only on demand when you run the search) or filter out all the non-matches and just show you unread stuff.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by toddos

Coloring rows is an expensive operation for calibre, so if you have a very large library you probably don't want to do that.

What would be considered a "very large library?" I have ~1,700 ebooks in mine.

[Latinandgreek]

I leave it on the page that I ended on, but I always feel a little weird doing so, to be honest! I used to delete books as soon as I read them (unless they were part of a series), but now that I have an ebook reader with a larger memory I keep the books on for a while after they have been read.

[brandon7s]

I leave the ebook at the page I last read and then put it in my "Completed" or "Gave Up On", depending on whether or not I've finished it or stopped before the end. I only actually complete about 35% of the books I start.

[QuantumIguana]

I used to keep all my books on my Kindle, I really didn't like deleting them. But then I had to reset my Kindle to factory settings, and I didn't feel like putting everything back on the device, so I've gotten more comfortable deleting books when I've finished reading them. I do think that the longer people have e-books, the greater will be the need to have better ways of organizing cloud storage.

[Sweetpea]

I keep all my books on all my devices. On what page, that depends... Sometimes I go back to the first page, sometimes I'll stay in the last one, sometimes I'll go back to a part I want to check again and leave it there.

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I used to keep all my books on my Kindle, I really didn't like deleting them. But then I had to reset my Kindle to factory settings, and I didn't feel like putting everything back on the device, so I've gotten more comfortable deleting books when I've finished reading them. I do think that the longer people have e-books, the greater will be the need to have better ways of organizing cloud storage.

I have all my books on external storage and those won't be reset. On my tablet I use the Calibre Companion so that'll be kept updated at all times (at least, as soon as I turn on Calibre and make the connection).

[toddos]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

What would be considered a "very large library?" I have ~1,700 ebooks in mine.

There are people with 10,000+ books, but I'd personally consider 1,700 to be "very large". That said, if you don't notice any performance issues (especially around first startup), then don't worry about it. It's only a problem if you notice it. If you don't, then it's not a problem.

[Sydney's Mom]

Remove t from your ereader (or move it to already read books) and update Calibre

[piperclassique]

Copy it to the "read" collection on Kindle, then when I update collections in calibre it shows up as read all by itself in a custom column. Thanks to the dev team, collections manager on the PW.
Other devices I don't have many books on, so basically the same operation but manual. I have to put a tick in the column. I usually only delete through calibre.

[Geralt]

I have a kindle3.
When I finish a book, I exit the book and put it a collection called 'Read' and take it off from the collection it has been in. (All my books are in collections on kindle).
I don't go back to cover or first page.

[treadlightly]

I queue up my reading list on Goodreads. I have access to the internet while at work but I can't read, so I make the best use of my time. When I'm done a book I mark it as read on Goodreads and check the next book on the list. On my ereader I go directly to the menu and select the next book. Once or twice a month I connect to Calibre, make sure the next ten items are on the ereader, delete the read items and charge it.

[Rime]

I recently looked at the number of books I was acquiring (the kind of largish number that means my tbr stack will keep me reading for the next 2 years or so even if I never buy another book). After some thought, I've decided that the best approach would be to acquire 2 ereaders : one with a card slot for keepers and one for the tbr stack.

However, to make this work, I'm going to have to decide on which ereader for the keepers ( probably Kobo Glo ) and spend some quality time with Calibre and Apprentice Alf's toys. But hey, after I finish with taxes I'll have the money and the time...

[Katsunami]

An ereader has quite some advantages over books, but it doesn't result in a nice bookcase for your living room. Therefore I've started to just shelve my ebooks: ereader, case and all, like real ones. Works a treat.

Before that, I just deleted the book using Calibre, and add the tag Read.Year (like, Read.2012) to it.