Organizing books by Reader? (Person, not e-reader)

Catalytic · 12-18-2010, 04:21 PM

Gah, I'm running out of time LOL.

Santa is bringing 6 Nooks to my house for Christmas. 4 are normal, 1 is 3G, and 1 is Color.

I have about 100 books I've converted with Calibre, and now I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to organize them to put on the Nooks.

For example:

Child 1, Child 2, Child 3

Book A, Book B, Book C

I want to put books A&C on Child 1's Nook. I want books B&C on Child 2's Nook, and I want all three books on Child 3's Nook.

I don't seem to get the option within Calibre to send the books to the Nooks, or I could perhaps tag each book with a name and then send to the appropriate Nook. I've been testing to make sure I'm doing it right by copying books from the Calibre library into the "My Documents" folder on the Nook. Unfortunately, it's hard to figure out which books go to which kid by author, since I have so many to go through.

Is there a way Calibre could do a master library and then sub-libraries, where I could go onto my hard drive and just copy the sub-library to that particular Nook? I realize that would give me multiple copies of some books on my hard drive, but that's fine with me.

Any help is much appreciated, I need to wrap the Nooks tomorrow to go under the tree, eek!

ficbot · 12-18-2010, 05:01 PM

I think tags would be your friend here. Each book could have more than one tag, but the file would not need to be copied multiple times. This is what my sister does, I think. She imports all the books in Calibre and then tags them both by genre and by person who would read it. So a book may have only her name, only her daughter's name or both. When she wants to load only books for the kid, she just searches for the name and voila, there they all are.

ETA: I read again and see that you are talking about copying files directly. What you want to do is tag the books as I described, do a search for the tag so you are only seeing the books for, say, Child A, and then copy those books to a directory. Highlight your search results, right-click, and you'll see options to save a single format into a single directory. Then you should be able to copy files from that directory into the Nook.

theducks · 12-18-2010, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catalytic

Gah, I'm running out of time LOL.

Santa is bringing 6 Nooks to my house for Christmas. 4 are normal, 1 is 3G, and 1 is Color.

I have about 100 books I've converted with Calibre, and now I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to organize them to put on the Nooks.

For example:

Child 1, Child 2, Child 3

Book A, Book B, Book C

I want to put books A&C on Child 1's Nook. I want books B&C on Child 2's Nook, and I want all three books on Child 3's Nook.

I don't seem to get the option within Calibre to send the books to the Nooks, or I could perhaps tag each book with a name and then send to the appropriate Nook. I've been testing to make sure I'm doing it right by copying books from the Calibre library into the "My Documents" folder on the Nook. Unfortunately, it's hard to figure out which books go to which kid by author, since I have so many to go through.

Is there a way Calibre could do a master library and then sub-libraries, where I could go onto my hard drive and just copy the sub-library to that particular Nook? I realize that would give me multiple copies of some books on my hard drive, but that's fine with me.

Any help is much appreciated, I need to wrap the Nooks tomorrow to go under the tree, eek!

Ficbot has the right idea.

I would create a CUSTOM Column: tag field, so as NOT to mix the reader-persons in with the normal tags.

Catalytic · 12-18-2010, 06:16 PM

Thank you SO MUCH ficbot and Theducks! You have completely solved my "problem", I MUCH appreciate your help!

Manichean · 12-19-2010, 07:29 AM

You can also set up saved searches for every person, that way, selecting the books for someone becomes as easy as picking their name out of a dropdown field.

ficbot · 12-19-2010, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manichean

You can also set up saved searches for every person, that way, selecting the books for someone becomes as easy as picking their name out of a dropdown field.

Yes, this. I didn't mention it because it's a bit advanced and I wasn't sure you were there yet, but you can. I have separate saved searches for PDF-only iPad books, my main collection, only the cookbooks, only the unread books and so on. Very handy.

Catalytic · 12-19-2010, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ficbot

Yes, this. I didn't mention it because it's a bit advanced and I wasn't sure you were there yet, but you can. I have separate saved searches for PDF-only iPad books, my main collection, only the cookbooks, only the unread books and so on. Very handy.

That is probably over my head right now. As I get more familiar with the software, I'll probably have tons more questions.

chaley · 12-19-2010, 04:18 PM

@catalytic: when you get around to looking at more advanced ways to deal with this, take a look at restrictions. They are intended to help make sublibraries based on saved searches. For example, I use them to partition my library into what my wife is reading and what I am reading.

Make a saved search that shows you one 'complete' set, then choose that saved search in the restriction box on the left hand side. The library view will show only those books. You can search, send to device, and what-have-you within that view, seeing only those books.

12-18-2010, 04:21 PM	#1
Catalytic Member Posts: 10 Karma: 20 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: NookColor, Nook	Organizing books by Reader? (Person, not e-reader) Gah, I'm running out of time LOL. Santa is bringing 6 Nooks to my house for Christmas. 4 are normal, 1 is 3G, and 1 is Color. I have about 100 books I've converted with Calibre, and now I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to organize them to put on the Nooks. For example: Child 1, Child 2, Child 3 Book A, Book B, Book C I want to put books A&C on Child 1's Nook. I want books B&C on Child 2's Nook, and I want all three books on Child 3's Nook. I don't seem to get the option within Calibre to send the books to the Nooks, or I could perhaps tag each book with a name and then send to the appropriate Nook. I've been testing to make sure I'm doing it right by copying books from the Calibre library into the "My Documents" folder on the Nook. Unfortunately, it's hard to figure out which books go to which kid by author, since I have so many to go through. Is there a way Calibre could do a master library and then sub-libraries, where I could go onto my hard drive and just copy the sub-library to that particular Nook? I realize that would give me multiple copies of some books on my hard drive, but that's fine with me. Any help is much appreciated, I need to wrap the Nooks tomorrow to go under the tree, eek!

12-18-2010, 05:01 PM	#2
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	I think tags would be your friend here. Each book could have more than one tag, but the file would not need to be copied multiple times. This is what my sister does, I think. She imports all the books in Calibre and then tags them both by genre and by person who would read it. So a book may have only her name, only her daughter's name or both. When she wants to load only books for the kid, she just searches for the name and voila, there they all are. ETA: I read again and see that you are talking about copying files directly. What you want to do is tag the books as I described, do a search for the tag so you are only seeing the books for, say, Child A, and then copy those books to a directory. Highlight your search results, right-click, and you'll see options to save a single format into a single directory. Then you should be able to copy files from that directory into the Nook. Last edited by ficbot; 12-18-2010 at 05:04 PM.

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12-18-2010, 06:16 PM	#4
Catalytic Member Posts: 10 Karma: 20 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: NookColor, Nook	Thank you SO MUCH ficbot and Theducks! You have completely solved my "problem", I MUCH appreciate your help!

12-19-2010, 07:29 AM	#5
Manichean Wizard Posts: 3,130 Karma: 91256 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Germany Device: Cybook Gen3	You can also set up saved searches for every person, that way, selecting the books for someone becomes as easy as picking their name out of a dropdown field.

12-19-2010, 04:18 PM	#8
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,364 Karma: 8012652 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	@catalytic: when you get around to looking at more advanced ways to deal with this, take a look at restrictions. They are intended to help make sublibraries based on saved searches. For example, I use them to partition my library into what my wife is reading and what I am reading. Make a saved search that shows you one 'complete' set, then choose that saved search in the restriction box on the left hand side. The library view will show only those books. You can search, send to device, and what-have-you within that view, seeing only those books.