Users with both Kindle & Sony - Questions

[CWatkinsNash]

I've been using my K3 (KK) with calibre for over a year. I've got everything set up perfectly.

But now I have a Sony T1 on the way. It will be here tomorrow and I'm trying to prepare to save time when it gets here.

I'll still be using the K3, and it just occurred to me that I might have an issue. Kindle expects author as LN, FN - the opposite will cause it to display the name backwards.

Will this cause my authors to display incorrectly on the Sony?

Are there any other possible issues I should be aware of?

[theducks]

Why not use the plugboard?

{authors} vs {author_sort} depending on your (displayed) base

[KingOfMyWorld]

I opted to use two separate versions of the program, I use the install version for my Kindle and then a portable instance of it for my Sony.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by theducks

Why not use the plugboard?

{authors} vs {author_sort} depending on your (displayed) base

Why do I always forget about the plugboards?? Thank you!

[speakingtohe]

I have 3 Sony readers including the T1. I also use calibre (same version/installation) to sideload books to my mother's kindle 3(keyboard)

At present there do not seem to be any problems. As Theducks suggests I do use a plugboard for my Sony(s) and the K3, but not necessary. I can change/delete them and they only affect the reader they apply to.

I am sure you will be awed and amazed by the collection handling capabilities of the Sony when used in conjunction with calibre. All of my books are in author collections with series sorted and displayed clearly within these collections. And they stay sorted (books don't move, collections don't move in the respective screens). Still haven't completely figured out how to do this on the kindle but it must be possible?

As well having an additional reader or two is great, although I may have too many

Helen

[CWatkinsNash]

Thanks for the added info, Helen.

I've got a pretty detailed setup for my Kindle Collections (via the Kindle Collections plugin), so I'll probably use s/r to copy some of the metadata I currently use to a custom column or two just for the Sony Collections, in addition to my existing genre and series columns. (Yes, I'm a wee bit of a control freak when in comes to collections. )

It should be interesting (and fun!) to get used to a different way of doing things. It will be here tomorrow, and I want to use it stock for a bit before rooting it.

[speakingtohe]

Mildly curious as to why you would need custom columns for the Sony collections. Might learn something

And yes it should be both fun and interesting, (with a small bit of frustration and torture thrown in). What would life be without challenges. Keep us informed

Helen

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Mildly curious as to why you would need custom columns for the Sony collections. Might learn something

And yes it should be both fun and interesting, (with a small bit of frustration and torture thrown in). What would life be without challenges. Keep us informed

Helen

The Kindle Collections plugin allows me to specify exceptions for the collections created for any given column. For example, I use the Reading Lists plugin, which assigns a tag to my custom "lists" column when a book is added to a given list. Some of those lists I also want as collections, but some I don't, so I set the exceptions in the Collections plugin to ignore those I don't want.

Since the lists that DO get used for collections are pretty consistent, I can just copy those list tags to the Sony collections column. (It was a happy day when I realized that the "search and replace" tab does a lot more than just search and replace. )I generally process books in batches, and only update my reader every few weeks, so it only adds one fairly quick extra step (with a saved "search and replace") each time I want to add a batch to the reader.

[speakingtohe]

Interesting.

Something to possibly look into when I return to the frozen North in a month or so.

Basically I am happy with my simple way of having only author collections, but I have often thought that having a short story (one more book before bedtime), comedy, interesting, anthology, etc. Collections would be nice on occasion.

Helen

[CWatkinsNash]

I have more collections on my K3 than most people would probably think is sensible. In fact, I have more collections than some people have BOOKS on theirs. I have lots of genres (including genres just for short fiction), four or five favorite authors with their own collections, six or seven series collections, and the lists I mentioned. I think the total is more than 60.

It's just one of my quirks. The rest of my life can be total chaos, but my books are always well-organized (or over-organized, actually). It was the same with my paper books, so it just kind of translated over to the ebooks. And I gotta say, tagging in calibre is a lot easier than physically moving paper books around.

[speakingtohe]

I have 173 collections on my Sony, but only authors. At a guess I would add 12 genres,
80-100 series and maybe 1000 tags if I did try to utilize them all.

When I got my T1 I thought it would use the same calibre driver as the 600 - 350.

Imagine my dismay when I put on 300 books and had 2700+ collections.
And yes, I have a lot of books on my reader, but I NEED those books and more(big pouty
baby picture)

My mother doesn't need all of those books and excessive collections are confusing to her.
But she Has been known to call me in the middle of the night from the opposite coast where she lives and ask me to please get her another book as she is bored with the current ones on her reader. My mother is 87 so I don't make her do it herself although I have tried in the past Then she reads the ones I send her via Amazon (kindle is registered to my account/credit card) and happily goes back to the ones that were on there before and doesn't want to budge for a month or so.

Her biggest problem is finding books on the kindle, collections or not.

I really wish I could come up with a solution although the kindle is one of her most prized possessions along with its leather case. She resisted the idea when I bought them for her but now tells me she feels rich whenever she uses it which is every day.

Well meandering well off topic, but if you can find time and have any additional suggestions as to kindle usage, I would welcome them

Helen

[CWatkinsNash]

I can totally relate - I feel lost if I have less than 500 books on my Kindle. I used to keep three times that on there but things started getting out of hand so I imposed limits on myself. I've nearly 3000 total in my calibre library.

What I plan to do is keep all of my Kindle freebies on the K3, and most of the other stuff I want to read on the Sony. I read the freebies, but I accumulate them so quickly that they can easily get lost among the others and it's an effort to constantly re-prioritize everything. I think giving them all a home of their own will keep them from getting forgotten, and it will be easier to make a conscious effort to read them.

Since this will mean dealing with yet another subset of my total collection, I'm sure I'll be adjusting my Kindle collections to make this work better.

What kind of reader is your mom? Does she mostly read just a few genres, or does she like a variety? I'm very much a "mood reader". That's why I have 5 or 6 different romance genres - if I'm in the mood for historical romance, nothing else will do. I'd say just look at her reading style and how she's most likely to look for things, and how specific she's likely to be when looking for the next book to read.

The only way I can think of to do collections "long distance" is to download all the same books to Kindle for PC (or Mac), set up the collections there, sync it, then have her select the collections file from the archive on the Kindle. Then it will put the books into the same collections on the device.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I have more collections on my K3 than most people would probably think is sensible. In fact, I have more collections than some people have BOOKS on theirs. I have lots of genres (including genres just for short fiction), four or five favorite authors with their own collections, six or seven series collections, and the lists I mentioned. I think the total is more than 60.

I don't think flat collections would work for me. That's one reason I love my PRS-350 (with PRS+). I've got my books sorted into collections - for fanfiction by categories, for normal fiction by series and genre. Mind you, I've got separate readers for fanfics and regular fiction to keep collections "clean" . The nice thing about PRS+ is I can still navigate my ebooks hierarchically. That really helps with organization. The regular fiction are still in the hundreds so they're relatively easy to manage but my fanfic count is over 3,000. *sigh* When are we going to get a dedicated ebook reader with Calibre-level organization and filtering?

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

The rest of my life can be total chaos, but my books are always well-organized (or over-organized, actually).

This, I never got to do. My favorite dead tree books are organized on shelves but the rest are just in random boxes. Easy organization is one thing I really like having with ebooks.

[speakingtohe]

What kind of reader is your mom? Does she mostly read just a few genres, or does she like a variety? I'm very much a "mood reader". That's why I have 5 or 6 different romance genres - if I'm in the mood for historical romance, nothing else will do. I'd say just look at her reading style and how she's most likely to look for things, and how specific she's likely to be when looking for the next book to read.

Got me there. She loves Sci-fi especially Anne Mccafrey but gets bored there. She loves mysteries and tells me she abhors thrillers. But she loves James Patterson and Jack Higgins. She hates romance, but loves Jayne Castle Krentz.

I used to send her books she wanted and got quite a few complaints. Now I send her books at random that I have enjoyed and think might interest her and get very little snivelling. Mostly mystery, but some urban fantasy and even steampunk.

As to the collections I may just buy her a new ereader (over her dead body as she says) but she has been showing a suspicious interest in my 350 and actually asked me not to delete the book she started on it.

Anyway thanks for your suggestions, I do appreciate it

Helen

[CWatkinsNash]

You're welcome! Wish I had answers more applicable to your situation.

I'm so excited about my T1! I'll be stalking the front door waiting for UPS tomorrow.