Defining a large list according to subjective negative criteria

[J Milford]

I wish to define a large subset of books according to subjective criteria and a subtractive process. Specifically, I would like to share, say, 90% of a large (and largely Gutenberg) library with my mother. This would seem to be a job for tagging, except that there are quite a few books, so tagging (say) 9000 of them is a pain, involving selecting thousands of books to edit the metadata in bulk, or doing the same thing in smaller batches to avoid the risk of accidentally un-selecting everything, etc. The converse, subtractive process would involve first tagging everything as acceptable, and then laboriously selecting 1000 books to untag. Given the bulk metadata interface, this too is a royal pain.

The ideal solution would seem to be a virtual library. Simply add everything to the virtual library, and then remove those books that are unwanted. However, as far as I can tell, virtual libraries are essentially just saved searches, and unlike real libraries (or playlists, which they seem similar to), do not allow the manual addition and subtraction of books except via the laborious tagging method or other algorithmic procedures. And based on the comments here -- https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+...6?comments=all -- for reasons of difficulty or principle, the designers seem disinclined to add this functionality.

So I guess my question is, is there an easier method for building up or subtracting down a subjective subset of books than using the laborious bulk metadata edit approach? All I really want to do is quickly go through my books and delete all the ones that seem inappropriate. For some reason, that doesn't seem to be easily possible, but I've often overlooked some hidden functionality or clever solution in Calibre, so I was hoping there was an alternative here.

[BetterRed]

@J Milford - maybe you could use this ==>> [GUI Plugin] Reading List to create arbitrary lists

BR

[chaley]

I can think of four ways to do this in addition to BetterRed's reading list suggestion.

1. Using a Yes/No custom column per grouping. If doing additive selection, when you find a book to add to the group then click in the yes/no column, press F2, Y, Enter to set the column to Yes. If doing subtractive selection, use bulk edit to set all books to Yes then when you find a book to remove then press F2, N, Enter to set the column to No.
   
2. Using a tag (or tags-like custom column, which I think is better) to indicate presence (when doing additive) or absence (with doing subtractive) from a grouping. Define a value that indicates that a book is (is not) in a group. When you find a book that should be (should not be) in a group, drag that book and drop it on the appropriate tag to apply that tag to a book.
   
3. Using a composite column (column built from other columns) with the template {id}. This will show the book's internal calibre id in the column. Create a user category called in_group (or not_in_group). When you find a book that should be in (should not be in) the group, click in the identifiers custom cell then drag it to the appropriate user category. You end up with a user category containing a list of books in (not in) a group. This method is best when doing exceptions, as I am not sure whether the performance of a user category that contains thousands of items would be acceptable.
   
4. Using temp marks. Doing either additive or subtractive grouping: when scanning books apply a Temp Mark to the book to indicate that it is to be processed later. For me the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+M. Before quitting calibre (because temp marks are valid only for a session), search for marked:true, select all, and use bulk edit to set a tag or something else you prefer.

Note that solution 4 can be used with reading list or any of solutions 1 - 3.

[J Milford]

Originally Posted by chaley

I can think of four ways to do this in addition to BetterRed's reading list suggestion.

Wow, thanks so much to you both -- great solutions, and quick.

I'll probably go with #2 -- I didn't realize you could just drag books onto tags, which makes the whole process much quicker. Now that I've figured out how to define a virtual library via the absence of a tag, I just start with everything in that library and drag the ones I don't want onto the "notformom" tag, which effectively deletes them from that virtual library. Slightly round-about, but quite quick.

Thanks again for the help. I knew there would be a quick way to do it -- I just didn't realize how many ways!

[BetterRed]

@J Milford - FWIW - I would have put all the books into a <scratch> reading list, which I would configure to add the 'notformom' tag to books I removed from the list. To make removal easy I'd set the Reading List->Remove from the <scratch> list keyboard shortcut to something like ctrl/numpad-del.

I should add, I try to avoid using the mouse , I find them tiresome, slow and inaccurate.

BR