Categorizing books (Adventure, Drama, Thriller, etc.)

haertig · 10-17-2017, 10:15 PM

I'm reorganizing my books in Calibre/Nook Shelves/Kindle Collections. I found that most categories I've come up with break down into a reasonable number of books. Except my "Adventure" category. Over 2/3 my books fall into that one. Does anyone have any suggestions for other categories I could use to subdivide this large one up a bit? I tried using "Action" and "Adventure", but I found that I could not reliably distinguish between these two. it was hit of miss where the assignment ended up. "Thriller" is another broad category that overlaps Action and Adventure. Once I've read a book, I can choose between these close categories pretty well. But where I really need the classifications is for books that I haven't read yet, so I can easily search for what I want to read next.

Most of my stuff I tend to classify as one of Action, Adventure, Thriller, Post-apocalypse, Future-dystopia, Fantasy, Crime, and Sci-Fi, trying NOT to assign to more than one category if I can help it.

Pretty much, one author tends to end up in one category. So I toyed with just grouping by author. But once I get away from the big authors that everyone recognizes, or haven't thought about a book for a while, I can't remember what type of book, say, "Warran Fahy" wrote (he's got one in my collection). So grouping by author only works for the highly recognizable names for me. You mention Clive Cussler, or James Rollins, and I know exactly what type of book to expect. But not necessarily "Andy Weir".

Any suggestions on how other folks tag things for best organization? I'm talking about an approximate 300 book collection at present.

Cinisajoy · 10-18-2017, 12:16 AM

Not really.
Unless you want to do genre-author.

So now where would you file Paula Deen? Celebrity/restaurant/or southern?

haertig · 10-18-2017, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

So now where would you file Paula Deen

I am too unsophisticated to know who that is. So I'd probably put it under "Mistakenly purchased".

MikeB1972 · 10-18-2017, 05:20 AM

Gave up on anything like that when I found a few authors that write across multiple categories Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy/Fantasy etc.

Pretty much just use "Read" / "Not Read" and the authors name as a filling system now. If a different author finishes a series, it gets filled with the original author.

crossi · 10-18-2017, 06:10 AM

Unless you have mostly single author books I would go with Adventure: Author for those with several books to cut down the size of the Adventure pool then leave the rest in Adventure. Or you could add Adventure: A-F, Adventure: G-L, Adventure: M-R, Adventure: S-Z. Not Ideal but I do try to limit my collections to 1 or 2 pages. It would be better if Collections were alphabetized. They aren't on my Kindle keyboard unfortunately.

issybird · 10-18-2017, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Not really.
Unless you want to do genre-author.

So now where would you file Paula Deen? Celebrity/restaurant/or southern?

Bigots.

HarryT · 10-18-2017, 07:49 AM

I think your goal is unrealistic. If you're going to categorise books (and personally that's something I've never felt any urge to do), then many books do fit into more than one category. Eg Asimov's "Caves of Steel" has to be categorised as both "Crime" and "SF". Andy Weir's "The Martian" has to be "SF", "Mystery" (it's basically about solving puzzles) and Thriller" (it's certainly thrilling!).

Categories such as "SF" and "Crime" are orthogonal, not mutually exclusive.

I'd either accept that, or give up on your categorisation.

jhowell · 10-18-2017, 08:11 AM

I categorize by three things:

Genre (SF, Fantasy, Adventure, Detective, etc.) and put a book into as many as it fits.

Read/Unread (I tend not to re-read books, except for top favorites with a decade or so in-between)

Rating (This reflects my excitement about reading it for unread books and my actual enjoyment for books I have finished.)

I then use calibre to search for books to make up the top of by TBR list and pre-load those on my reading devices. That plus library books, which for new and popular on hold, come whenever they come.

Added: One advantage to using calibre as my book list is that it contains entries that allow me to track books that I do not own. This includes book I have read on paper or library loans as well as books that I want to read and will purchase or borrow when I am ready to do so.

Catlady · 10-18-2017, 10:39 AM

I don't know about Adventure, as that's not a category I read, but for Thriller, I would break it down by Political Thriller, Historical Thriller, Spy Thriller, Legal Thriller, Domestic Thriller, etc.

Deskisamess · 10-18-2017, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Not really.
Unless you want to do genre-author.

So now where would you file Paula Deen? Celebrity/restaurant/or southern?

Paula, and others like her, need their own category. Sunny Anderson, Rachel Ray, Michael Simons, are 3 who get their own. "Loud Open Mouth While Chewing Chefs"

Giada De Laurentiis is in the "Cleavage Big Teeth" section, under a sub-section of "Chefs who have had Affairs With Bobby Flay"

Cinisajoy · 10-18-2017, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haertig

I am too unsophisticated to know who that is. So I'd probably put it under "Mistakenly purchased".

I think you put too many letters in a word.
You are too sophisticated to know who she is.
She is a southern cook.

JSWolf · 10-18-2017, 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Not really.
Unless you want to do genre-author.

So now where would you file Paula Deen? Celebrity/restaurant/or southern?

Racist. That's where she would go.

Dazrin · 10-18-2017, 12:04 PM

If you are really trying to keep this to one category/genre per book, I think Catlady's suggestion is the best. You can find lists of genres (1, 2, 3) and cull them down to what works for you.

Personally, I do something more like jhowell and assign several categories/genres to each book. I used to try to use just one genre but there are way too many books that have elements from multiple genres.

Cinisajoy · 10-18-2017, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dazrin

If you are really trying to keep this to one category/genre per book, I think Catlady's suggestion is the best. You can find lists of genres (1, 2, 3) and cull them down to what works for you.

Personally, I do something more like jhowell and assign several categories/genres to each book. I used to try to use just one genre but there are way too many books that have elements from multiple genres.

For ebooks your system works great. For physical books, not so much.

Oh wait, he could do like some people and sort them by cover color.

Spoiler:

haertig · 10-18-2017, 12:09 PM

Thanks for all the tips. I think I might make use of Genre-Author for some specific cases.

I'll have "Adventure", and I'll have "Fantasy", and "Thriller", etc.

Then I'll also have subcategories, but only for the authors that I have a lot of books for: e.g., "Adventure-Rollins", "Adventure-Cussler", "Adventure-Reilly", "Fantasy-Brooks", "Thriller-Gross", "Thriller-Crichton", etc. Books that fall into these high volume author subcategories would be left out of the main category (e.g., left out of generic "Adventure").

And I'd end up with smaller category/sub lists this way, so it would become more attractive to puts book into multiple categories - something that I tried to avoid before because I didn't want to bloat the number of books in a category more than it already was.

All the "Adventure..." categories/subcategories should sort next to each other in the category list, making tagging like this very workable.

I'll give it a shot. Y'all are great for bouncing ideas around, and making good suggestions. Thanks!

10-17-2017, 10:15 PM	#1
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,939 Karma: 34855886 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Galaxy Tab A9+, Moto G7	Categorizing books (Adventure, Drama, Thriller, etc.) I'm reorganizing my books in Calibre/Nook Shelves/Kindle Collections. I found that most categories I've come up with break down into a reasonable number of books. Except my "Adventure" category. Over 2/3 my books fall into that one. Does anyone have any suggestions for other categories I could use to subdivide this large one up a bit? I tried using "Action" and "Adventure", but I found that I could not reliably distinguish between these two. it was hit of miss where the assignment ended up. "Thriller" is another broad category that overlaps Action and Adventure. Once I've read a book, I can choose between these close categories pretty well. But where I really need the classifications is for books that I haven't read yet, so I can easily search for what I want to read next. Most of my stuff I tend to classify as one of Action, Adventure, Thriller, Post-apocalypse, Future-dystopia, Fantasy, Crime, and Sci-Fi, trying NOT to assign to more than one category if I can help it. Pretty much, one author tends to end up in one category. So I toyed with just grouping by author. But once I get away from the big authors that everyone recognizes, or haven't thought about a book for a while, I can't remember what type of book, say, "Warran Fahy" wrote (he's got one in my collection). So grouping by author only works for the highly recognizable names for me. You mention Clive Cussler, or James Rollins, and I know exactly what type of book to expect. But not necessarily "Andy Weir". Any suggestions on how other folks tag things for best organization? I'm talking about an approximate 300 book collection at present.

10-18-2017, 07:49 AM	#7
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,560 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I think your goal is unrealistic. If you're going to categorise books (and personally that's something I've never felt any urge to do), then many books do fit into more than one category. Eg Asimov's "Caves of Steel" has to be categorised as both "Crime" and "SF". Andy Weir's "The Martian" has to be "SF", "Mystery" (it's basically about solving puzzles) and Thriller" (it's certainly thrilling!). Categories such as "SF" and "Crime" are orthogonal, not mutually exclusive. I'd either accept that, or give up on your categorisation. Last edited by HarryT; 10-18-2017 at 08:04 AM.

10-18-2017, 08:11 AM	#8
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,157 Karma: 92500001 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Charlottesville, VA Device: Kindles	I categorize by three things: Genre (SF, Fantasy, Adventure, Detective, etc.) and put a book into as many as it fits. Read/Unread (I tend not to re-read books, except for top favorites with a decade or so in-between) Rating (This reflects my excitement about reading it for unread books and my actual enjoyment for books I have finished.) I then use calibre to search for books to make up the top of by TBR list and pre-load those on my reading devices. That plus library books, which for new and popular on hold, come whenever they come. Added: One advantage to using calibre as my book list is that it contains entries that allow me to track books that I do not own. This includes book I have read on paper or library loans as well as books that I want to read and will purchase or borrow when I am ready to do so. Last edited by jhowell; 10-18-2017 at 08:16 AM.

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10-18-2017, 12:16 AM	#2
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	Not really. Unless you want to do genre-author. So now where would you file Paula Deen? Celebrity/restaurant/or southern?

10-18-2017, 05:20 AM	#4
MikeB1972 Gnu Posts: 1,222 Karma: 15625359 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: UK Device: BeBook,JetBook Lite,PRS-300-350-505-650,+ran out of space to type	Gave up on anything like that when I found a few authors that write across multiple categories Sci-Fi/Urban Fantasy/Fantasy etc. Pretty much just use "Read" / "Not Read" and the authors name as a filling system now. If a different author finishes a series, it gets filled with the original author.

10-18-2017, 06:10 AM	#5
crossi Guru Posts: 997 Karma: 12000001 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Seattle Wahington U.S. Device: kindle	Unless you have mostly single author books I would go with Adventure: Author for those with several books to cut down the size of the Adventure pool then leave the rest in Adventure. Or you could add Adventure: A-F, Adventure: G-L, Adventure: M-R, Adventure: S-Z. Not Ideal but I do try to limit my collections to 1 or 2 pages. It would be better if Collections were alphabetized. They aren't on my Kindle keyboard unfortunately.

10-18-2017, 10:39 AM	#9
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,423 Karma: 52734361 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	I don't know about Adventure, as that's not a category I read, but for Thriller, I would break it down by Political Thriller, Historical Thriller, Spy Thriller, Legal Thriller, Domestic Thriller, etc.

10-18-2017, 12:04 PM	#13
Dazrin Wizard Posts: 2,735 Karma: 75825105 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: PDXish Device: Kindle Voyage, various Android devices	If you are really trying to keep this to one category/genre per book, I think Catlady's suggestion is the best. You can find lists of genres (1, 2, 3) and cull them down to what works for you. Personally, I do something more like jhowell and assign several categories/genres to each book. I used to try to use just one genre but there are way too many books that have elements from multiple genres.

10-18-2017, 12:09 PM	#15
haertig Wizard Posts: 1,939 Karma: 34855886 Join Date: Sep 2017 Device: PW3, Galaxy Tab A9+, Moto G7	Thanks for all the tips. I think I might make use of Genre-Author for some specific cases. I'll have "Adventure", and I'll have "Fantasy", and "Thriller", etc. Then I'll also have subcategories, but only for the authors that I have a lot of books for: e.g., "Adventure-Rollins", "Adventure-Cussler", "Adventure-Reilly", "Fantasy-Brooks", "Thriller-Gross", "Thriller-Crichton", etc. Books that fall into these high volume author subcategories would be left out of the main category (e.g., left out of generic "Adventure"). And I'd end up with smaller category/sub lists this way, so it would become more attractive to puts book into multiple categories - something that I tried to avoid before because I didn't want to bloat the number of books in a category more than it already was. All the "Adventure..." categories/subcategories should sort next to each other in the category list, making tagging like this very workable. I'll give it a shot. Y'all are great for bouncing ideas around, and making good suggestions. Thanks!