Soon to be new user request

[Flub]

I've got a 505 preordered at Waterstones to replace my Iliad. I've been reading about how the menu system works for selecting a book to read. I know that it doesn't have folders like my Iliad but I read that if you have more than 30 books it starts splitting the browsing up with alphabetical menus.

Would one of you nice kind gents be so good as to take a few screenshots/grabs/photos of how the menu system operates with a lot of books? Or point me in the direction of a handy url if screenshots already exist. I have folders on my Iliad separated by author so that's probably the way I'm going to browse most of the time.

I'm guessing I can provide enough metadata for each book via Calibre that the reader knows where everything is supposed to go.

TIA.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Flub

I've got a 505 preordered at Waterstones to replace my Iliad. I've been reading about how the menu system works for selecting a book to read. I know that it doesn't have folders like my Iliad but I read that if you have more than 30 books it starts splitting the browsing up with alphabetical menus.

Would one of you nice kind gents be so good as to take a few screenshots/grabs/photos of how the menu system operates with a lot of books? Or point me in the direction of a handy url if screenshots already exist. I have folders on my Iliad separated by author so that's probably the way I'm going to browse most of the time.

I'm guessing I can provide enough metadata for each book via Calibre that the reader knows where everything is supposed to go.

TIA.

If thats how you like to browse i suggest setting your 505 up like I have.
In calibre I give all of my Terry Pratchett books the same 'series/collection' name in this case "Pratchett, Terry" then when in my 505 i browse by collection and I can then see all of the authors listed in name order. even better if i then use calibre to number them e.g give the authors first book number 1 in that collection, the books are also then in order.

[Yarrow]

I'm updating my PRS500 with a pre-ordered PRS505 from Waterstones (due early September). You can set up folders (called collections) for books stored in the main memory and these are also automatically filed by title, author and date along with all books also on memory card. Works okay but would be good to be able to include books on memory card in collection. I have collections set up for such things as current reading, poetry, short stories, philosophy and SciFi.

Why are you changing from Iliad to PRS505?

[Flub]

Originally Posted by Yarrow

Why are you changing from Iliad to PRS505?

Lack of standby, battery life, size and the main reason. I'm a tech whore and want something new

Will the browse by author work if the book isn't in a collection (In Calibre that's the series field isn't it?)

[simond]

Browse by author lists all books sorted by author (this is going by a PRS-500, but I doubt that's changed).

I'm still tempted to upgrade to a 505 from Waterstones too, would mean selling my 500 first though

[Riocaz]

Originally Posted by Flub

Lack of standby, battery life, size and the main reason. I'm a tech whore and want something new

Will the browse by author work if the book isn't in a collection (In Calibre that's the series field isn't it?)

Series and comment.

I have several books which are in seperate series but also part of a larger theme. I've commented them there and they show up in both collections.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Flub

I've got a 505 preordered at Waterstones to replace my Iliad. I've been reading about how the menu system works for selecting a book to read. I know that it doesn't have folders like my Iliad but I read that if you have more than 30 books it starts splitting the browsing up with alphabetical menus.

As others have suggested, if you have a large number of books, the best way to go is to use collections to organise them.

The author/title lists are still one huge list of all the books, the letter shortcuts just jump you to a particular place in the list. The collections are the only way to actually filter the list to show you a small number of books.

I've got ~2500 books on a SD card, organised into collections by genre, author and series name, which gives ~250 collections.

So I first page through the collections to find the one I want, then select it and the reader shows just the books in that series by that author.

If you are going to have a large number of books, be prepared for a long wait whenever you unplug from USB. For the books I have, it took ~1h30 for the reader to scan them all and update the menus when first added, then ~55 minutes just removing and reinserting the card each time after that, and each of these takes a full 1/4 off the battery gauge.

You need to decide whether to keep your collection on the PC and only sync books as you need them, which takes a couple of minutes, or keep the lot on the Reader but only add new books very rarely. You'll also want to get a PSP charger, or a USB->PSP-power cable, so you can charge the reader without putting it into and out of USB mode, forcing a rescan.

[Flub]

By the sounds of it I'll be better off keeping a small number of books on the reader if the system for updating the reader is so primitive. It does make you wonder why they even bothered adding slots for memory cards.

I'm amazed though. All these clever people working for big companies and not a single one can actually manage to get it right. You'd think they'd just ask.

[sianon]

Flub, I have just changed from the Iliad to the old Sony 500. I really miss the folders of the Iliad which allowed me to organize my books very neatly. However using the collections does help with this. My changing was a forced change due to my putting my foot on the Illiad screen.

[Flub]

It's getting closer to release day now and I'm getting excited. How many books would people say is the limit before the database rebuilding gets to be a problem?

How long am I likely to be waiting if I kept 200-300 books on there and changed something?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Flub

It's getting closer to release day now and I'm getting excited. How many books would people say is the limit before the database rebuilding gets to be a problem?

How long am I likely to be waiting if I kept 200-300 books on there and changed something?

I can tell you this with continuing certainty:

I have about 345 books (mostly novels; only a few are short stories and/or novellas) and, with the current software update I simply connect my 505 to my computer. It then does a scan and then synchs the changes -- all this in a about 20-25 seconds. I have about 20 megs of used memory left.

I DID have problems with the synch when I had a 500 and the older software.

I do NOT use a CD card because with the number of books on my Reader, I personally have no need for that many different titles. I'm happy with what I have on my Reader.

Hope this helps.


Don

[Flub]

That's excellent. 345 is probably more than I'll ever have on there at any one time. 20-25 seconds for a resync is perfectly acceptable to me.

My plan is to have a couple of series selections. Stuff I reread quite often (Discworld novels, E.E.Doc Smith stuff, etc), a selection of classics from Manybooks.net (Sherlock Holmes, some Poe) and the rest will most likely be free stuff from elsewhere that I haven't gotten around to reading yet.

Thanks for the help everyone. Now for the agonisingly long wait for the UK launch.

[Dr. Drib]

This just occurred to me and I need to add this info, but I recently upgraded the RAM on my computer from 512-megs to 2-gigs. It's possible this, too, has improved the whole updating process with the Reader.

Another thing I want to mention: I'm someone who buys new titles on a semi-regular basis when the Sony store offers them. For example, I just purchased John Updike's collection of short stories. (Interestingly, I almost bought the hardcover first edition of this mammoth title - used - when I was in the U.S. about 2 weeks ago.) The one thing that always bothers me about books I purchase from the Sony site is that they alphabetize by first name and not last name. So, if I'm looking for Updike titles on my Reader (and if I can't recall the title), then I have to go to the "J" for "John" before I can easily locate it. That means I must also remember where I purchased a book, in order for me to locate it.

To my way of thinking, this strikes me - as we Southerners like to say - as one of the most back-ass-wards way of doing things that I can remember.

Truly, though, the 505 is a wonderful piece of technology and I find myself constantly amazed at its versatility. It gives me hours of enjoyment.

Don

[Flub]

I'm confused now. I thought the database updating took place on the reader itself. Are you saying it takes place on the PC?

[Dr. Drib]

I'm not sure if this answers your question...

...When you purchase a book from the Sony store, the book is automatically imported into your database on the computer, what's called the "Ebook Library." The problem that irks me is that Sony has embedded the metadata to alphabetize by the author's first name rather than by last name.

So....the Sony title is there in your Sony "Ebook Library" on your computer. Then you connect your Reader to your computer. If you have sync turned on, then the book is imported onto your Reader.

Basically, my one complaint about the whole process is that I want to alphabetize by the author's last name.

Don

Please let me know if you have more questions.