Thanks DaltonST. Yes that works. Also, it looks like you can assign a shortcut to hide/show the Tag Browser, so that makes it pretty easy. Looks like the default shortcut is Alt+Shift+T. It can be changed via Calibre Prefs > Advanced > Shortcuts > Miscellaneous > Toggle Tag Browser.
EDIT: Here's a shot of my setup. Calibre let's to set criteria for showing icons in the list too, so I put matching icons based on which category the book has.
I think the Windows 10 style icons work well for this purpose. They are freebies I got from here
https://ko.icons8.com/ if anyone is curious.