What collections do you have?

[guspasho]

I'm wondering if there are more efficient and useful ways to sort books in to collections than what I thought of alone, and I'm curious what everyone else has come up with. Of course your collections are going to be specific to your library, but maybe your system has some particular insight.

I realize that collections are tags and try to take advantage of that, but some of my collections can have a few dozen books in them, especially if the category is broad enough.

Here's my system, though it needs work (hense the topic):

Chuck Palahniuk (12)
Classic Literature (31)
Conan (4)
Cthulhu Mythos (9)
David Eddings (15)
Dune (6)
Fantasy (90)
Humor (9)
J.K. Rowling (8)
The Malazan Book of the Fallen (9)
Middle-earth (6)
Modern Literature (18)
Moorcock (8)
Non-fiction (55)
Pulp Fiction (30)
Science (33)
Science Fiction (21)
The Wheel of Time (13)

I divide classical and modern lit somewhere in the 1950s. Hemingway is classical, Arthur Miller is modern. Pulp fiction encompasses stuff like Sherlock Holmes, the Cthulhu mythos books, Conan books, King Solomon's Mines, that sort of stuff, which I don't consider literature. I don't think literature and fiction are synonymous. Literature is important, the rest of fiction is just fun. (I'm not looking for an argument, I'm just saying that's how I do it.) Some collections are just sub-collections of Fantasy. And similarly, everything in science is also in non-fiction.

The whole setup seems kind of ramshackle to me. Have you put a lot of thought in to your collections? And what sorts of systems and rules did you come up with? I'd love to know. Thanks!

[Rakgi]

I usually put my books in broad genre collections with only a few exceptions like my Malory Towers Collection that have books from that series only. The more collections I have the more difficult it comes to manage for me hence I only have 10 collections on my Kindle.


Fantasy
Malory Towers
Sherlock Holmes/Arsène Lupin
Fantasy - Urban
Science Fiction
General
Samples
Fanfiction
Young Adult
Manga

Fantasy has everything fantasy that is not urban/paranormal or the basic swords and magic type of books, Arsène Lupin goes with Sherlock Holmes since to me they're mystery/detective books. General is everything that doesn't belong anywhere else, like the users guide. Other collections are straighforward and don't need explanations.

[tubemonkey]

I don't organize my books into collections. The standard author search is more than adequate for me.

[nonobjective]

I struggle with collections... a lot. My whole system is in flux and I wish I could think of a better way of doing things. I don't keep all my ebooks on my Kindle - just what I'm likely to start reading in the next month or two. I do keep all completed ebooks in a collection though. I'm also one of those individuals that will be in the middle of 5 books at any given time, as long as they are different genres.


Reading
Finished
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Literature
Classics
Shorts
Science/Tech

[HarryT]

I no longer use collections. I used to, for series, but now I use Calibre's "plugboard" facility to attach the series name and number to my book titles. For me, this works far better.

[nynaevelan]

I use both Calibre's plugboard and collections, I keep about 350 books on my kindle. The collections keeps them manageable in small groups and the plugboard helps keep my series together within the collections. I use my tags, which is a group of 13 different collections and of course my to be read list along with my list of books I wish to one day re-read.

If the Touch ever gets its collections importing working consistently and easily, I plan to up my list of books on my KT to about 750.

[Synamon]

I have the same sort of mishmash of collections as you. If I have more than 5 or 10 books by an author they probably end up in a collection by author name, or by series name. Otherwise they end up in broad genre categories like Mystery or Non-fiction or Bestsellers. I've also got Booker and Pulitzer prize collections. I have a collection named Current that I put books I plan to read soonish in and there is a Finished collection for those I've read, but not yet marked read in calibre or deleted from my Kindle.

[mewmartigan]

I use collections...mostly just to keep series together. Although I don't keep all my books on my Kindle. I usually don't have more than 20 or 30 books on it at a time.

Some of my collections include:

Honor Harrington
Star Wars
Harry Potter
Sanderson (Brandon Sanderson books)
Wheel of Time


If I am reading a series I will usually keep the whole series on the Kindle.


The collections are nice because it helps keep the homescreen uncluttered. Otherwise, my entire first page of the homescreen says:

Star Wars: Legacy of the Forc......

repeated a bunch of times over due to the series, haha.

[DiapDealer]

There's never enough books on my Kindle to warrant the creation of collections. When my home page extends to a second page... that's a sign for me to "tidy up."

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

There's never enough books on my Kindle to warrant the creation of collections. When my home page extends to a second page... that's a sign for me to "tidy up."

Wow, if only I could condense down to this, my reading list alone is over 75 books and then there are the times (which are often) when I do not want to pick my reading book from the list but read something different, which is why I always keep a good reserve on the kindle.

Besides why have all that space and not use it???

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

Besides why have all that space and not use it???

A couple of audiobooks and some classical music eats that space up mighty fast.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

A couple of audiobooks and some classical music eats that space up mighty fast.

I have a gig of music as a backup if I have a problem with my portable player, but I use my portable player for audiobooks, it is more convenient to put in my pocket to use rather than the Touch. Also, with my player I can use several bookmarks for the same book, which is essential since 90% of my audiobooks are over 15 hours, most of which are closer to 25-40. Though once again my Touch can be a backup since my audible and amazon accounts are linked.

[RainingLemur]

I've only got a few collections. But, there's a crap-ton of books that AREN'T in collections yet. I imagine that I could probably make another 3-5 collections out of what's there.
To Read
Keepers
Reference
Zombies
Humor

[nonobjective]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

Wow, if only I could condense down to this, my reading list alone is over 75 books and then there are the times (which are often) when I do not want to pick my reading book from the list but read something different, which is why I always keep a good reserve on the kindle.

Besides why have all that space and not use it???

Just curious, but are those 75 books on your reading list actual full length (250 - 400 page) books? If my reading list contained 75 books I'd only have to sync my kindle once every 18 months!

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by nonobjective

Just curious, but are those 75 books on your reading list actual full length (250 - 400 page) books? If my reading list contained 75 books I'd only have to sync my kindle once every 18 months!

Yep, some longer, I have George R.R. Martin's Sword of Ice and Fire series on there, which of course I keep pushing back because I am too lazy to read it right now. Novellas and short stories usually don't make the reading list, they fall in the "let's read something different" category, which is why I have over 300 books on my kindle. Oh and I read an average of 2-3 books a week.