[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I don't do much personally. Just make sure all of my authors are in the same format (instead of some lastname, firstname and others firstname, lastname) and adding series info (series name, order number) and having consistently named genres. Makes it easier to find things once a library starts getting big.

Same here.

I use Calibre - and Alf's plug-ins - because I buy from various shops. Mostly Amazon these days as Amazon has lots of good deals (if I pretend to visit some other country), but occasionally Kobo, but in 2011, before deciding that country-hopping is something I don't feel much guilt over, I bought more from BooksOnBoard and Kobo than Amazon, as they were consistently much cheaper for me (compared to Amazon's $2 surcharge + 15% VAT on every book + surcharge).

So Calibre + Alf are needed to keep my library organised (I can keep track of genres and unread/read status of books via tags) and to convert from one format to another, for reading everything on my Kindle. I also prefer to have series information added and to have all author names in the same way (firstname lastname, sorted lastname, firstname), and I add/change covers for books that don't come with a cover/come with a generic cover/come with a really ugly cover.

Thanks to Alf, DRM gets removed the moment I add a book to Calibre, with zero extra effort on my side, and I'll have a book I can easily and instantly convert to read on my current reader of choice and back up for my own safekeeping.

If I read fewer books and bought them only from Amazon, I might not bother with all that (even though I've been burned before, years ago, when a handful of my Amazon-bought DRM-d .lit format books (I think they were .lit anyway) became unusable and by now no sign of them ever existing can be found on my Amazon account), but Amazon's Manage My Kindle area is all but useless for organising books when you have a few hundred or more, so that means Calibre anyway - and if I already use Calibre, having Alf liberate my books while I add them seems like the most reasonable thing to do.

Also, I had a Sony reader before my first Kindle, and I may well get a non-Amazon reader again in the future.

I should add that I also have some Estonian ebooks, which all use social DRM, i.e. watermarking, and while they also get added to Calibre, the DRM is not removed. I don't have any particular issue with that kind of DRM - it doesn't prevent back-ups or converting to any other preferred format, so it doesn't bother me (although I understand and respect the objections others have).