Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by Jo69

What exactly is the TBR list?
Is it a wish list you've created on amazon or somewhere?
Or a column of the books in your Calibre Library that yes you will read one day?
As opposed to many that you won't?

You can create multiple libraries. I have a TBR library (books bought and not yet read) and a FREE library (where I keep those free books until read). After I've read a book, on it goes into the PERSONAL library. This is because I share my library with other family members. I separate out the free books because of the tendency for them to be poor quality books. However, some are backlists of authors whose names aren't familiar to me YET.

[Jo69]

Originally Posted by Tarana

You can create multiple libraries. I have a TBR library (books bought and not yet read) and a FREE library (where I keep those free books until read). After I've read a book, on it goes into the PERSONAL library. This is because I share my library with other family members. I separate out the free books because of the tendency for them to be poor quality books. However, some are backlists of authors whose names aren't familiar to me YET.

Thanks for replying.
I have 1.500 books now and still got lots and lots of them to read.
Basically I just want to mark some books TBR to distinguish them from books in calibre that I may never read.

So is the TBR a column created in calibre or a separate calibre program?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Jo69

Thanks for replying.
I have 1.500 books now and still got lots and lots of them to read.
Basically I just want to mark some books TBR to distinguish them from books in calibre that I may never read.

So is the TBR a column created in calibre or a separate calibre program?

I just added a Yes/No custom column "Read". Others have created a multiple option column. If you use calibre, a custom column is the way to go. Experiment a bit, and see what suits you.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Tarana

You can create multiple libraries. I have a TBR library (books bought and not yet read) and a FREE library (where I keep those free books until read). After I've read a book, on it goes into the PERSONAL library. This is because I share my library with other family members. I separate out the free books because of the tendency for them to be poor quality books. However, some are backlists of authors whose names aren't familiar to me YET.

This is what I do too. Creating separate libraries makes my TBR manageable. Placing my 6000 free books in their own library keeps them out of sight. It's like I don't have them.

[PurpleStar]

I've bought about 25 ebooks the last month. Most were on sale for $2.99 or less, so it wasn't too bad on the bank account. (A lot were bought with Christmas gift cards.) But WOW that's a lot of books and it would take almost a year to read. Must stop buying no matter what's on sale.

[Jo69]

Originally Posted by Fbone

This is what I do too. Creating separate libraries makes my TBR manageable. Placing my 6000 free books in their own library keeps them out of sight. It's like I don't have them.

Are we talking 2 or 3 separate calibre programs here then?
I have a lot of books saved in my calibre library that I may never want to read. But need to see what I have as occasionally I have bought a book twice.

Is the TBR list that everyone's mentioning on the boards just a yes/no column?
Or something different?

[DrNefario]

My own TBR is just a google sheet of every book I own that I haven't yet read. Some of those I don't want to read and will never read, so calling it a TBR is not strictly correct (and there are books I do want to read which I don't own), but the thing I am interested in tracking is my unread books. Whenever I try to filter out the things I don't think I'm likely to read, I quickly run into edge-cases where I'm not sure, and it becomes a bit of a futile exercise.

Or, in other words, you can manage and track your To-Be-Read list however you like. It only really matters to you.

Regarding Calibre, I believe you can split your collection into many separate named libraries and switch between them at will. And you can add custom columns to the list of books for whatever extra information you like. Personally, I haven't customised calibre and I only use it for my non-kindle ebooks, so it's only a small part of my overall collection.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by Jo69

Is the TBR list that everyone's mentioning on the boards just a yes/no column?
Or something different?

Yes, it is a simple yes/no column. You can sort by it as well.

I'm currently being tempted by some severe markdowns on some audio books at Audible. I'm trying to hold out until the sale is done.

[wandalynn]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I'm currently being tempted by some severe markdowns on some audio books at Audible. I'm trying to hold out until the sale is done.

You know your post is like bringing donuts to a weight watcher's meeting, don't you?

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Jo69

Are we talking 2 or 3 separate calibre programs here then?
I have a lot of books saved in my calibre library that I may never want to read. But need to see what I have as occasionally I have bought a book twice.

Is the TBR list that everyone's mentioning on the boards just a yes/no column?
Or something different?

Mine are separate libraries in one Calibre program. I also separate out books I've read into another library since I post them in Goodreads. This leaves about 90 titles TBR.

[CRussel]

FWIW, I do this with Virtual Libraries in Calibre, based on a custom column. Keeps all my books where I can see them if I want to, but separates them out into more manageable virtual libraries for normal use.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

My own TBR is just a google sheet of every book I own that I haven't yet read. Some of those I don't want to read and will never read, so calling it a TBR is not strictly correct (and there are books I do want to read which I don't own), but the thing I am interested in tracking is my unread books. Whenever I try to filter out the things I don't think I'm likely to read, I quickly run into edge-cases where I'm not sure, and it becomes a bit of a futile exercise.

Or, in other words, you can manage and track your To-Be-Read list however you like. It only really matters to you.

Why not just put all of your eBooks into Calibre and create a column for Read/Not-read/Don't want to read?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Jo69

Are we talking 2 or 3 separate calibre programs here then?
I have a lot of books saved in my calibre library that I may never want to read. But need to see what I have as occasionally I have bought a book twice.

Is the TBR list that everyone's mentioning on the boards just a yes/no column?
Or something different?

For my use, I've added multiple libraries to one calibre instance. Click on the Library icon in the toolbar and then Switch/Create Library. For new ebooks, there is a temp library where the books are imported into calibre. The first step after the import is to run the books though Sigil or calibre's editor -- for epub2 files, I prefer Sigil to run FlightCrew and epubcheck, for epub3 files either Sigil or the calibre editor to run epubcheck. After any errors are corrected, covers and metadata are edited, series information added as needed, etc. Once these steps are done the book is moved to the appropriate library (cooking, computer, spouse or the main library). There are other special purpose libraries as well -- my KA1 has it's own library since it lacks the storage to hold a copy of all my ebooks so when I send a book to the KA1, it is also copied to the KA1 library.

I use the Duplicate Books plugin to check for duplicates either in a library or between two libraries as they have crept in a couple of times. On a somewhat regular basis, I export CSV catalogs of the various libraries (why this function lives under Convert Books is a question to which I'm not sure I want the answer ) and then merge them in Excel. Before a purchase, I search the combined catalog which takes just a second or two.

My TBR list is generated from a column listing the book as unread, read, unfinished or junk (a book which was started but will never be finished). Sadly, my TBR is pretty minuscule unless I get into re-reading a long series when it may grow to 20-30 books.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why not just put all of your eBooks into Calibre and create a column for Read/Not-read/Don't want to read?

I have a Paul inspired spreadsheet for my audiobooks, that I created last year for TBR. All it has is title, author, year purchased and where the audiobook is located. Even with something this basic, it took me a week to gather data and type it up. I have around 400 audiobooks in the list. Putting it all into Calibre would take a lot longer, taking away from my precious reading and needlework time. Currently, I put completed titles in my PERSONAL library with either the matching Whispersync or Guttenberg mobi file, or a blank book, filled in with the metadata and a location of the audiobook (yes, sometimes it's the mobi file from the library, but I digress).

Yes, I agree that dumping everything into Calibre and using its features is preferable, however sometimes the learning curve to use some of these features is difficult. Paul gave us a step-by-step on how to do that yes/no column a little while back, which eliminated my need for more libraries, but I still can't figure out how to use the virtual library. In addition, I don't know how well the virtual library will come out after a crash. I had a crash recently, and not only had to manually add back my libraries, but also had to reinstall all my plugins. If there were a virtual library, would it have been lost? I don't know.

Ok to keep this addict related, I have done really well and bought a single audiobook by a now favorite author. I originally had 8 audio books in my cart. I just have to get through today and the sale will be over! As mentioned before, my biggest problem is sales and the fear that I won't be able to get the book later. This actually happened, again, but this time with the Murder She Wrote series. All but the most recent were removed from sale. So aggravating.

[PurpleStar]

It's been a week since I've bought an ebook. Yay me!