Quote:
Originally Posted by fidvo
If you manage your library in a non-standard way, don't be surprised when Calibre doesn't support your methods. If you can deal with whatever problems pop up, great. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending a lot of time designing workarounds that would be easy if you were willing to adjust your thinking slightly.
For example, you mentioned 3 libraries. Your "To Read" library, your "Working" library, and your "Finished Reading" library (or whatever names you've given them).
If I understand you correctly, books begin in your To Read library. Then when you put them on your ebook, you move them to your Working library. Once you've finished reading them, you move them to your "Finished Reading" library. If you've just moved a file to your Working library, now you have to switch to this new library to see it, which makes all the books in your To Read library unavailable until you switch back. If you want to view books from multiple libraries, you have to start the Content Server, and then you only get read-only access.
Now compare these steps to what you would have to do if you use virtual libraries to track your books.
A book begins in your To Read virtual library. Then when you put it on your ebook, you change the value of a field to Working. (Easier than moving a book to a new library) You can then move to your Working library by clicking on a tab. (Easier than switching to a new library) For all intents and purposes, you are now in your Working library, and your To Read and Finished Reading books might as well not even exist as far as Calibre is concerned, as long as you have the Working tab active. Finally, when you finish reading a book, you change the value of a field to Finished Reading. (Easier than moving the book to a third library) And if you want to compare books from all three libraries, you click on the "All Books" tab. (Easier than starting the content server)
I see a lot of benefits to doing it this way and zero drawbacks. Granted, there may be issues in the details (e.g. different custom fields for different libraries, or you're already using virtual libraries for other purposes in each library) but it seems like it would be a lot less effort to train yourself so that it's a lot less "awkward for your brain," than to spend all the trouble jumping through hoops to deal with the less efficient workflow.
As for the title field, I suggest you create a column built from other columns to store your series + title. Do your editing in the individual series and title fields but feel free to sort or filter on the combined field to look up books.
That said, if your system works for you and you're willing to put up with the hassle, then go ahead and stick with it. I just think you could save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you're willing to adjust your thinking a little.
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Another advantage of using virtual libraries is that by default there's an "All Books" option (tab), this makes is easy to find for example
all books by a particular author irrespective of which virtual libraries they're in. Much easier than searching across multiple libraries.
I would suggest using a custom column that has a
fixed set of values - eg "To Read", "Working", and "Finished Reading - to determine which VL a book should be in. This ensures that a book can only be in one VL.
BR