Restraining oneself

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by Lyndl

But..but.. but.... they might !!

And then there was the whole agency fiasco, and they did I had a Douglas Adams collection I had been coveting and kept figuring I would wait until I got my TBR pile down a little. Then the agency model kicked in and now the book is not available anymore...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I prefer a simple structure. In my case that is

[format]/[author]/[series]/[nr - book title]

or

[format]/[author]/[book title]

Calibre just doesn't do what I want. First of all, I want to sort author by last name. Calibre refuses to do that simply because I have [Lastname, Firstname] in my metadata. The second author gets a new line.

About multiple authors: I put them in a folder of the primary author. Which is most often the author I know best


My current formats are [source], epub, mobi and pdf. Where source is the unzipped version of epub.

ISBN's I couldn't care about, and neither genre. I only care about the author and within that the series.

Actually, calibre does sort by author last name. It will list the name first name, last name but the sort is now by last name. If you are referring to when you first mass load your e-books, someone on the forum can help you come up with a recipe that will allow calibre to read your filename structure correctly. I haven't worried about that because I load my "ebooks" (scanned p-books) into calibre as I create them and create the meta data (tags) required from the ISBN (which is the main reason I care about them) which I copy and paste from the filename from within calibre. It generally takes only a few seconds, including checking to see if there is a better looking cover than the often beaten up looking cover I scanned.

[astra]

I have a very simple structure.
I have 26 folders A-Z. Books are placed in folders of the respective authors by last name.

Books/Abercrombie, Joe/The First Law/01The Blade Itself/[ebook itself, any formats/all formats, Misc folder with book covers, maps, LastFile from Book Designer]
Books/Abercrombie, Joe/The First Law/02Before They Are Hanged/[ebook itself, any formats/all formats, Misc folder with book covers, maps, LastFile from Book Designer]
Books/Abercrombie, Joe/The First Law/03Last Argument of Kings/[ebook itself, any formats/all formats, Misc folder with book covers, maps, LastFile from Book Designer]

So, browsing the Books folder is just like browsing bookshelves in a bookshop or library.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

If it works for you, cool. It didn't for me.

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by DMB

As a newbie, I have to ask this question:

So you get your shiny new device. How do you stop yourself from going nuts and buying far too many ebooks?

Everybody has a different way they handle this. Or fail to handle this as the case may be.

In my case, I have a Kindle. I know I can switch on the 3G anytime I like and buy that book that I want. So I think of the books at Amazon (or Baen or Manybooks) as being in some sense "mine already" and these other entities are just storing them for me to keep them out of my way until I want them.

When I want to read them, I "pay the fee" (if necessary) and the appropriate entity retrieves them from storage and turns them over. I don't see any point in paying the fee earlier than necessary.

[dsvick]

Originally Posted by dreams

My problem, just after I was given my Reader, was that I would go crazy downloading all the freebies. Then, I wanted to purchase books from every new author who came on MR.

Me too. I pretty quickly got up over 100 in my to read list. I've cut back a bit since then and have only downloaded a few and purchased even less in the last few months, so that now my list is just under 80 - I think I'm good through the end of the year now.

[alecE]

Originally Posted by DMB

As a newbie, I have to ask this question:

So you get your shiny new device. How do you stop yourself from going nuts and buying far too many ebooks?

I realised about 3 months into owning my ereader that either I disciplined myself or my bank balance was going to do a nosedive. Now I permit myself a monthly browse through Waterstones, Feedbooks, PG and a few selected publishers and purchase enough for the next few weeks. There's also my shameful habit of sneaking off to 2nd-hand bookshops and buying up old pbooks for conversion. The ultimate limiting factor is that damned day job - they won't let me read when I'm there, the spoilsports!

[sakura-panda]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Get calibre and let it manage your books for you.

Calibre doesn't help with managing backups or libraries on multiple devices.

It's just the idea that I have to do something with my files, especially when I get a new computer or a new reading device. I can't just download a book and be all set -- I have to decide where to save it, put it into the formats I need and make sure I have multiple updated backups to make it easier to move between computers and for protection in case my hard drive fails. The bigger the library, the more I have to "manage", the longer the process becomes.

I even have a couple of tags in calibre for books I didn't like -- so that I don't try to download and read them again! And those are books and tags that I have to work around even when managing my library within calibre.

It doesn't have to be as complicated as I have it, but I need to have it that way.

[jashsu]

Originally Posted by DMB

As a newbie, I have to ask this question:

So you get your shiny new device. How do you stop yourself from going nuts and buying far too many ebooks?

I don't buy at all. Between feedbooks and Overdrive-powered digital libraries, there's little I can't find that I want to read. Borrowing* from your local library's digital collection is not only free for you, it also encourages the library to continue adding to the collection, thus expanding the availability of digital books and books in general for the greater public. A win-win situation.

*:technically as libraries are funded by taxes, you could consider the library loans rentals.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by DMB

As a newbie, I have to ask this question:

So you get your shiny new device. How do you stop yourself from going nuts and buying far too many ebooks?

You head over to the Baen free library and go nuts downloading *free* ebooks. Then you poke around Gutenberg.org for a while, and Feedbooks.com, and the collections here in the Mobileread forums.

Get used to the shiny new endless content with freebies. There are *lots* of terrific free ebooks. Go for paid books when you want that book specifically; when you're looking for "something new and fun to read," ask for help finding free books until you're comfortable searching bookstores for best prices/good customer service, and you know what filetypes, DRM and shopping cart software you can deal with.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

In my case, I have a Kindle. I know I can switch on the 3G anytime I like and buy that book that I want. So I think of the books at Amazon (or Baen or Manybooks) as being in some sense "mine already" and these other entities are just storing them for me to keep them out of my way until I want them.

When I want to read them, I "pay the fee" (if necessary) and the appropriate entity retrieves them from storage and turns them over. I don't see any point in paying the fee earlier than necessary.

Yup. With 3G on Kindle and iPad, I figure any book I want is available to me 24/7, from almost anywhere. So no need to pay early and lock in my choices early. There's the rare book that might be pulled from stock, but that possibility is insignificant to me, with so many books to choose from.

I used to buy print books in multiples, because I didn't have 24/7 access to new books. Now, I don't bother.

[Sydney's Mom]

I used to not be able to get out of a book store for under $50. Solution: Don't go in. I used to not be able to get out of a yarn store for under $100. Same solution. Now, I throw most catalogs away as soon as they land in my mail box. I avoid going to the kindle store, unless I plan to buy something. Since I am rapidly approaching 2000 books in Calibre (about 400 read), I don't need to go to the kindle store.

[phenomshel]

Restraint? What's that?

[m42]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Restraint? What's that?

I blew through a $100 gift card in 20 minutes. Books then food!

[Hellmark]

For me, I just kept to the free book sites. Much easier on the pocketbook going hog wild and getting your fix going through the book section here (which has literally thousands of good books), Project Gutenberg, etc than buying them through a store. That way, the excitement wears off, and you can calmly buy the books you want, but still have a ton of good books to read.