Content Advanced Users + a Kindle and at least 5 Collections

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

What you folks are doing is actually COLLECTING books. You buy large numbers of books and then customize their metadata with Calibre. Then you store them on your eReaders and / or PC's. From those books you pick one to read and then leave it in your Library. You tend to build large collections of books and keep them all.

That is similar to the old days when folks had a Library Room in their house and purchased large numbers of books to fill those shelves. They had many methods of filing them one being the one used by Public Libraries known as the Dewey Decimal System - analogous to Calibre customization of metadata today.

They then chose one book to read and when finished placed it back on the appropriate shelf of the Library Room.

On the other hand, back in those days I would receive one book per month from the Book of the Month Club, read it and then discard it awaiting the book to be received the next month. I never accumulated a library of books.

Today, I only purchase one or two eBooks from Amazon and, when finished, I place them in a Collection of never to be accessed eBooks again. I keep a record of all eBooks to be purchased in an Excel Spreadsheet with their price and number of pages. I then sort that Spreadsheet by Pages / Dollar of Price and chose the highest number to read. I always choose one History eBook and one Biography eBook to read at one time.

Thus, eBooks I have read using Microsoft PC eReader from 1990 to about 2005 are lost forever to me. The same happened with Adobe eBooks I bought in those years.

In about 2005 I only purchased Sony eBooks with their eReaders and now they are lost to me as well.

Today I only buy eBooks from Amazon for reading - never collecting. After I read an eBook I will store it now in a Collection by Category - 7 Collections. I will never look at those eBooks again. However, I also store all my highlights and notes at a site setup by Amazon for reference if I need them. So far I have never needed them.

Thus, the big division in eBook usage is between Primary Collectors and Primary Readers. I class myself in the latter category.

On the other hand I have collected songs on wire recorders from as far back as 1930. I have a huge song collection now mostly converted to MP3 files. I do pick songs for playback by streaming them to my Grace Internet radios from my PC. I also store many of those songs on my Kindle Fire HDX 2013 and frequently play them from there.

I used to use MediaMonkey to manage the metadata of those songs in a similar way as many now use Calibre for eBooks. However, Amazon has made it so easy to buy songs now and so cheap (less than $ 1.29 per song), that I rely on them these days totally and have given up most of my uses of MediaMonkey. Amazon now fulfills those needs for me.

I tried to be polite but excuse me did I not state the topic for ADVANCED USERS? Once again you are inserting yourself into a conversation where you have no direct knowledge or any useful information to add. Tell me in all that you just typed at which part is the part where you are adding relevant information to the topic? I'm sorry but I do not care for what you classify as a reader or a collector, you adding a label does not in any way change what I am and what I use my device for. I think we have already proven in other posts that I outread you on a bad day. What is it you hope to accomplish with this info? Other than the fact you use Mediamonkey, my favorite music program btw and I will not mention how many tracks I have in that library, you have not said anything that is helpful. Can you please leave this conversation unless you can help in any way in the discussion??

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by 7hir7een

Well, when I had my PW1, I used Ixtab's Collection Manager and a calibre plugboard for Series #XX - Title.

Now that Paperwhite is being gifted to my sister. I set her collections up in the same manner, but as she is not knowledgeable about Kindle hacks, she will have to maintain additional book collections manually.

On my PW2, I've just used the plugboards. Collection management is a hot mess after 5.4.2. It keeps nagging me about my side loaded books. Collections I made before show up on the "device" tab when all the books in that collection are only in the cloud. It was extremely frustrating, so I deleted all of them, I gave up on organizing via collections.

Hopefully something gets fixed or hacked to make it usable for me.

I used it and loved it when I had my k2 and touch, back then it was created and maintained by Meme. After I got my pw, I just imported my collections and I never saw the need to jailbreak my pw1.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'll write you some instructions tomorrow. I'm away from my PC at the moment.

Harry write up some good instructions, I am thinking of tweaking my collections to add more information, they way they are now they sometimes run over and I can't tell what my title is.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by Stingo

I think that you misconstrue as collecting on the Kindle a completely different motivation. I have several hundred books on my Kindle. Generally they are either books that I want to read or books that I want to keep available as a reference. For example references, are, bible, koran, dhamapada, certain science texts, certain historical texts, certain complete collections(Shakespeare) or poetry books (Complete Ginsberg, Complete Creeley). Once I read a book or decide that I am no longer interested, it comes off the Kindle. If I run across a book that I am interested in reading I add it in even if I don't intend to read it immediately.

I have about 14 collections "Currently Reading (never more than 3), Spanish books, History, Biography, SF, non-fiction, fiction, fiction Asia, poetry...etc... A book may appear in more than one collection. I recently set up and put out of my mind the plug board for naming collections. I devote very little time to tinkering with books on Calibre except at the point that I add a book to the library.

Prior to the cloud collections, that is about how many I had on my device, all the rest was in k4pc. Now they are all on there because you can no longer import from k4pc and I don't like having them all sitting on the home page.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Thus, the big division in eBook usage is between Primary Collectors and Primary Readers. I class myself in the latter category.

BTW, how do you classify yourself as a Primary Reader when you've read less than 100 books in your lifetime?? Just from my Calibre database I have 1195 read books, and that is not counting any repeats or those that I read prior to 1995. And if you want to get technical, that is @369,642 pages.

I think it is save to say that I am a reader, thus I purchase books to read. But it doesn't matter what label you use, because I am not defined or limited to a label.

[sirmaru]

Wasn't your topic: Advanced Users, Kindle plus at least 5 Collections?

I own a Kindle and have 9 Collections. "Advanced" is a subjective word.

I've been reading books since 1930. That MUST be more books than you've ever even known about. However, I never saved any of them.

My first book was "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu in the original Chinese and purchased in the Manchuoku Book Shop. It came in handy when lying in mud soaked fields looking up at the sky.

I concentrate on history, biography and theology. Do you have any books in those categories?

I do admit you have more eBooks than me now since all my Microsoft eBooks, Adobe eBooks and Sony eBooks are gone forever. I have thought recently how, possibly, Calibre plus Apprentice Alf may have saved all those eBooks but never would have looked back anyway.

I believe my Collection of Bible Books and References is pretty large both in print books, eBooks and apps. I have a hunch my total numbers there probably exceed yours.

[eschwartz]

I am just grateful the KT doesn't didn't ruin collections.

I have 12 collections, a "2 B READ" which always shows up first, and does exactly what it sounds like, and collections for the bigger series' that are my favorites and for quick reference. Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett + Neil Gaiman (one collection arbitrarily named "Terry Pratchett"), Forgotten Realms, HHGTTG, Percy Jackson, etc. Usually they are the ones with at least 6 books in it. In addition, I use a title plugboard:

{title}{#subseries:| (|, }{#subseries_index:|Book |)}{series:| (|, }{series_index:|Book |)}

The #subseries is actually so I can have multiple-series series' sorted by the series-within-the-series, hence the name subseries. There are 396 books on my Kindle right now, but I add morewhenever they join my TBR and I take them off when I am done -- IF I don't anticipate reading them sometime in the next year or two.

---

For those who need help with plugboards, the following thread contains many plugboard ideas, looking at them may help you to understand what causes what a little better: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=100949

Basically, a plugboard is asking for four pieces of info: the book format we want to change, the devices we want to change it FOR, the template we wish to use, and the metadata we wish to overwrite. (see screenshot)

• So under book format I chose "any format"
• and under devices I chose "any device".

This means that all books, no matter what type or where they're sent, will be affected.

• Then I used a template, built from the guide located here: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/template_lang.html
  
  All types of metadata you have added to a book can be used with a template field, for example, {title} is the title of the book. template fields are enclosed in squiggly brackets.
  
  A simplified version of the template I used is

  {title}{series}{series_index}

  This means use the value of the book title ( {title} ) followed by the book series ( {series} ) followed by the series number ( {series_index} ). This would get me for example, Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsHarry Potter2. Whoops. As you see there are spaces missing. I could use:
  
  

  {title} ({series}, Book {series_index})

  Now I will get Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, Book 2). Unfortunately, I also get The Princess Bride (, Book ) since without the series info, there is extra stuff there. calibre ignores the metadata field if it is empty. But not the stuff that is outside a field.
  
  Instead, I use a ":" after the metadata name, followed by the text I need in between a couple of these: "|" This is the pipe, and it is right below the backspace key usually.
  
  This tells calibre to use the stuff inside there ONLY if the metadata exists. So:
  
  

  {title}{series:| (|, }{series_index:|Book |)}

  format ":|before|after"
  
  This says, use the title, followed by the series, and if series exists, precede it with " (" and use ", " after it, followed by the series number, and if it exists, precede it with "Book " and after it use ")".
  
  If series is empty, calibre sees just the "{title}".
  
• Finally, the metadata we wish to be overwritten. calibre takes the template we used, and translates it into text, in this case "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, Book 2)" and, since we have chosen "title" for the metadata, uses that instead of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" when it updates the metadata on the book and transfers it to your reader.

Useful links:

Manual and guide to template language -- http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/template_lang.html
Mobileread Wiki -- Kindle_and_Calibre_Plugboards
Example plugboards thread -- https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=100949

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Wasn't your topic: Advanced Users, Kindle plus at least 5 Collections?

I own a Kindle and have 9 Collections. "Advanced" is a subjective word.

I've been reading books since 1930. That MUST be more books than you've ever even known about. However, I never saved any of them.

My first book was "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu in the original Chinese and purchased in the Manchuoku Book Shop. It came in handy when lying in mud soaked fields looking up at the sky.

I concentrate on history, biography and theology. Do you have any books in those categories?

I do admit you have more eBooks than me now since all my Microsoft eBooks, Adobe eBooks and Sony eBooks are gone forever. I have thought recently how, possibly, Calibre plus Apprentice Alf may have saved all those eBooks but never would have looked back anyway.

I believe my Collection of Bible Books and References is pretty large both in print books, eBooks and apps. I have a hunch my total numbers there probably exceed yours.

You are contradicting yourself, which is the truth, what you stated today or what you stated in a previous post? Let me refresh your memory:

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Others, like me, are Readers and only have a small number of eBooks. In my entire life I have only read 93 books per Goodreads and am only reading 2 books as of now. I have 60 books in my "Want to Read" shelf on Goodreads which I am sure I will never complete in the entire rest of my life. I have split my eBooks into 8 Collections and one more for Active Content (I own 2). I have set up no Collections for my Apps since I only own 32. I only own 35 eBooks which I purchased from Amazon.

Prior to 1990 I must have read a total of FOUR books in the previous 70 years. I only started really reading books when Microsoft started publishing eBooks for PC's in 1990.

And I never said all my books were ebooks, which they are not, my books range in all formats including paperback, hardback, audio and ebook.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

You are contradicting yourself, which is the truth, what you stated today or what you stated in a previous post? Let me refresh your memory:

And I never said all my books were ebooks, which they are not, my books range in all formats including paperback, hardback, audio and ebook.

Goodreads did not exist in 1930. Thus, they don't have my books listed especially since from 1930 to 1955 almost all my books were in Chinese, Japanese and German. I believe Goodreads only has books in English.

The only books I have listed in Goodreads are what I remember from my Sony eBooks and my Amazon eBooks. None of my Bible Resource books are listed their either. Bible apps are also not listed in Goodreads.

That statement of "four books in my life" was obviously an exaggeration on the down side. From 1955 to 1990 I used to get 12 books per year from Book of the Month Club. I discarded all of them when I finished reading them. They did help me learn English.

I am curious, do you have any books in the categories: history, biography and theology?

Our reading may well be in different worlds.

Right now I have 94 read books in Goodreads. My Excel spreadsheet has 166 eBooks scheduled for reading in the future although only 63 of them are listed by me in Goodreads It was too much work to list the rest there. Prior to 2005 there are NO books listed anywhere and most of my Bible Resource eBooks are only listed on the Logos site.

[ProfCrash]

I posted a wise ass comment or two in a Kindle App Update thread once. The posters were annoyed. I left the topic and decided that posts that are contradictory to the OP intent just to be contradictory were not worth it. I have no idea why this thought has yet to cross your mind.

Use your Kindle how you want and let others use theirs how they want. Do you think it is fun to honk people off?

[ProfCrash]

Ummm eschwartz: that looks scary. Something to play with I suppose

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Ummm eschwartz: that looks scary. Something to play with I suppose

If you take a look at the stuff I filled in in the picture -- the first field, the tags row is just to clear the tags I use for tracking edit needs and stuff -- you will get "title (series, Book #)" it's pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

[VictoriaP]

I have currently some 600 books in 40 collections on my PW2. About 100 of these are yet to be read; the rest are a mix of books I have read in digital form only or are digital copies of paper books that I read and reread prior to going digital several years ago.

The first fifteen or so collections are numbered, and are mostly sorted by genre, plus a TBR collection, a currently reading one, and an "up next" group that are books I've pushed to the top of my reading list. The remaining collections are either author specific or series specific, and fall in alphabetical order after the numbered ones. All sorting was done directly on the Kindle (starting with my K2). Non Amazon purchases or freebies are added via the Send to Kindle function--there are perhaps 20 or so of those. At this point, all my books still fit on my device, and they're all in Collections.

The entire library is backed up onto hard drives; that's really all I use Calibre for. I don't use it for sorting. I'm a Calibre lightweight at best.

As to the accusation of being a so-called collector as opposed to a reader, I typically read 5-8 books a week, all on the Kindle. Some are new, others are rereads. (I also read a large number of RSS feeds daily related to my interests, via Feedly/Newsify on iOS. Let's face it--rabid readers will read a cereal box if that's all that's available!)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by l_macd

If you get the time to write some, I'd appreciate this too. It's something I'd like to try but exactly like ProfCrash, although I've got things set up nicely in Calibre, I've tried to look at how plugboards work but just feel a bit lost....

OK, here we go.

Run Calibre, click the "Preferences" button on the toolbar, and click the "Metadata Plugboards" button in the "Import/Export" section of the page.

On the "Add new plugboard" line, fill it in as follows:

Format: Any format
Device: Any device
Source template: {series:|| }{series_index:0>2s|| - }{title}
Destination field: title

now click "Save plugboard" and you're done.

Once you have this plugboard in place, any book which has its series information filled in in its metadata will have the series name and number prefixed to the title in the format:

Series name XX - Original title

where "XX" is a 2-digit series number, with a leading zero if necessary.

Eg, "Miss Marple 01 - Murder at the Vicarage".

If the book is not part of a series, the original title will not be altered.

Note that the plugboard is only applied when you do a "Send to Device", so in order to see its effect you'll need to delete the relevant books from the Kindle, and re-send them.

Note also that plugboards DON'T work for "dual" Mobi/KF8 books, only for single-format Mobi or AZW3 books.

Hope this helps.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by VictoriaP

Let's face it--rabid readers will read a cereal box if that's all that's available!)

I like that and I totally agree!!