Why store your ebook collection on your ereader?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

Whyever would you not store your whole collection on your reader? SD cards are cheap as chips and where's the drawback in having all your books to hand, rather than just some of them?

I agree. While I don't personally store everything on my reader, I like the idea. I like having my whole music collection on my media player, and if I could fit my whole movie collection on my tablet, I would. (Holographic crystal memory, where art thou?)

Why should one need a companion system or ancillary attachments of any kind if the ereader can integrate everything from buying to storing to searching to reading?

I don't recall Ford Prefect ever having to plug the HHGTTG into any other system to load towel-wielding instructions or Gargle Blaster recipes.

ApK

[DiapDealer]

Why is a duck?

[Mivo]

Originally Posted by Istvan diVega

Whyever would you not store your whole collection on your reader? SD cards are cheap as chips and where's the drawback in having all your books to hand, rather than just some of them?

The drawback is the suckiness of the average e-reader software. Now that I use shelves on my Glo, and have Calibre create series-specific shelves, it's nicer to have more books on the device, but if you have hundreds or thousands of books, browsing or finding something can be a bit of a pain.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I agree that if it is advertised it should work and work well. It is not that an ereader has to process all the books you have on the device every time you open a collection and it makes me a bit uneasy wondering just why they do that. A book is a file and even a rudimentary file system should be able to process hundreds of books in a collection o if they have some obscure reason for doing it. The fact that some much older readers do it with 5000 seems evidence enough that it can be done.

Helen

Not quite true on all readers
My ADE(mrsdk) PEz uses a simple file-folder name bookshelf

I file series in a top level folder (also avoids FAT16 limits).
The display only shows 8 items (file and or folders : buttons 1-8 select 9+0 navigate). Every time when I arrive on the screen with 'Series_S' (contains 10 screens worth of <series name> folders), I have to wait while it scans (WAG) all 8 displayed items and does housekeeping (removes unused bookmark, reading restore point for any book touched.)
There does not appear to be any maintained DB other than a matching file based one, so it does this every time I land on that screen (I hate to think what it would be if I had not presorted by letter and I just dropped the 1K+ of series-name folders in one place

So there could be a good reason NOT to keep lots of books even if we do have room
(I do really need a better device, but I am touch challenged and still want Page flip and basic navigation buttons)

Originally Posted by samhy

Kobo has introduced this kind of feature earlier this year. Now there is an "archive" option. Maybe Sony has introduced it in the new firmware. Or will do it in the next one

I didn't use this feature very much, since most of my books are sideloaded and the feature only works for books bought through Kobo (and as KePubs rather than ePubs).

[glos]

I keep 10% of my library only, around 350 books.
They're my favorite and my TBR list (90 or so).
I think it's faster and easier for me, works well, I do what I need with calibre, it's not like I read 90 books in a week

Originally Posted by samy2

I have 2900 Ebooks on my Sony Reader PRS T1.

Well, I've only had a T1 for a week. I'm coming off of a Kobo, where a tonne of books makes it difficult to navigate since it involved page after page of scrolling (or remembering keywords to search for). Even categories could only do so much.

Maybe Sony does it better. Then again, I rooted it and installed CoolReader within 2 days of buying it. (So I can use a directory structure to organize things, but I'd have to export something reasonable from calibre. Since I only have 93 books on my computer, it doesn't feel like it's worth the effort.)

[Asawi]

I rarely keep more than 20 or so books on my device. I prefer keeping the "library" elsewhere, and load up a relatively small (but varied) selection to the device.
I do understand why other people want to store their library on the device, but presonally I don't want too much choice when picking up the reader. I know myself well enough to know that instead of reading I will waste a lot of time just browsing through the library. Don't know why, but I do!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Asawi

I do understand why other people want to store their library on the device, but presonally I don't want too much choice when picking up the reader. I know myself well enough to know that instead of reading I will waste a lot of time just browsing through the library. Don't know why, but I do!

I'm the same way. With hundreds of books (yes, my ebook library has not cracked four digits yet) on my device, I would definitely do more library petting than actual book reading. "A man's got to know his limitations."

[ApK]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

library petting

Never mind. I don't think I want to know.

[BearMountainBooks]

I'd like an SD card too...

I keep between 100 and 200 on there. Before the days of megafreebies, I'd keep it to about 100. I don't like tons of books on there. I load up to the higher amounts if I will be traveling. I spend more time than I'd like cleaning it off, but it's my own fault for downloading so many freebies that I then look at or sample. I have cut myself off from downloading most freebies because it cuts into my reading time. I have to be more efficient about downloading things I really want to read. Of course, sometimes those are bombs too and I waste my reading time, but yanno. Gotta draw the line somewhere!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ApK

Never mind. I don't think I want to know.

Nevermind. I don't think I want to know why you think it's something you don't want to know. You know?

But I'm going to tell you anyway--even though I don't think its meaning was all that difficult to glean (nor remotely disgusting in any way).

Library Petting: to love, or gaze lovingly at; to virtually "stroke" the spines of all your ebooks with near reverence; to lose oneself in the vast array of artwork; to become consumed with the organization and general curation of your collection; to "wander" the virtual stacks while trailing your hand along the virtual shelves.

NOTE: that's not at all what I'm saying everybody who has their entire collection on their reader is doing (nor that there's anything wrong with it if they do. I do it myself--just not on my reader). I'm only saying that's what I would wind up doing instead of actually reading books (which is the purpose for which I purchased the device). "Look at my library!! IS IT NOT GLORIOUS?!"

[Joykins]

I like to keep on my e-reader books I want to read again and books I haven't read yet, because I never know what book I'm going to want to read next. This has grown to be quite large, in fact, too large.

[bookmole]

Originally Posted by jersysman

I am also in the minority. I keep only about 10% of my library on the reader at any one time. The rest are in Calibre on my PC. I do keep my entire library backed up on an external drive, on Copy.com and on an microSD card. I just haven't felt the need to put anymore on the reader.

I keep about the same percentage on my kindle. But as I have over 12,000 books, that is a lot of books!

[K. Molen]

Duplicate.