Thought I'd share my "home-grown" management system.
I've created two custom columns which I use to keep track of books I want to read soon, books I have on a device to read, and books I've read or discarded and my opinion of them.
1st column, I call "
R'ding" and the potential values are:
blank
iPad-M
iPad-S
iPhone
Laptop
next
The values between the bolded ones are based on my current reading devices & apps on those devices I'm using for reading. For example, I use both Marvin & Stanza on my iPad, as there are formats Stanza still handles better than Marvin. If I find I'm putting a book on more than one device, I create a category that shows both devices.
2nd column, I call "
Read" and the potential values are:
blank
Read
Discarded
When I'm importing books, I mark the first column w/ "next" on those books I want to load onto a reader soon. When I have categories or reading to do (for instance, personal & professional), I've had more than one version of a "next" category.
When I'm ready to load a reader, I click on the "R'ding" column in the tag browser and then click on the "next" value to see books that I want to load. When I load a book, I change the value to reflect the device I've loaded the book onto.
That's helpful when I'm wondering where I've put the book that I'm in the middle of reading...I can check that value to find the copy that will show where I am in the book.
Or when I'm ready to delete books off a device, I can use the tag browser to bring up the list of books on that device. Then I change that value to "blank" for the books I'm deleting (or change it to a single device, if I had a value for it that showed more than one device location) and make an entry in the "Read" column, either "read" or "discarded."
I like the "discarded" option, as it lets me keep track of books that, for one reason or another I discarded instead of finishing. I haven't "read" them...but I don't want to list them as "unread" (blank value in my 2nd column), because I don't want to waste time with them again! Sometimes the blurb-writer for a book is a better writer than the author, and knowing that an author has written a book that I discarded makes it less likely that I'll bother buying another of their books... For books I've discarded, I'll usually add a red-text (font color) comment to the top of the description in the book details panel, to make a note of why I discarded (for example, stilted writing, bad plot, poor editing) and any redeeming characteristics ("good plot, with a good editor would be worth checking again" is an example of a note on a self-published book that was just too painful to read).
After I've changed the value in the 2nd column (to "read" or "discarded") I mark my view of the book, by assigning a rating...if it had one before, I change it to reflect my view! I know a rating in Calibre is mine if the Read column has a value in it. By the way, Marvin (the reader app) makes keeping track of the rating I want to assign easier, as it allows you to mark books w/ a rating in Marvin.
There are probably better ways to manage these things, but thought others who, like me, are relatively basic users of Calibre might find this helpful!
(further suggestions/enhancements happily received.
)
Lisa