Complete Library Why?

[JSWolf]

Some Readers such as Sony Readers are a pain in the ass to try to keep a lot of EBook on because of the way it scans the eBooks.

Kobos and Kindles are not good if you load too many eBooks at once because ball it takes is one eBook with errors to cause a problem.

I don't know how good other brands are at loading a lot of eBooks in one go or managing a lot of eBooks.

Why keep already read eBooks on your Reader? There's really no need. just create a yes/no column in your Calibre library and you can mark what you've already read. And you can also keep track with Goodreads.

I know for some it's done to be able to say you have your entire eBook library with you. For others it's so you can read what you want because it's already loaded. And some don't want to have to connect to the computer just to load the next eBook to read.

For those who do have a rather large amount of eBooks on your Reader, what would you do if you had a Reader such as a Sony where it's very impractical to have all your eBooks with you?

For reading on my iPhone/iPad, I keep some eBooks on Dropbox and get them as I need/want. That keeps the internal storage for other things.

How do you handle a Reader that doesn't have a memory card slot and only so much memory when you get full and have to remove eBooks to add new ones or you just cannot fit your entire library?

I keep enough eBooks on my Reader to be easily manageable. I know there are times when I've finished a book and have decided I want to read a book not on my Reader. But, it also gives me a chance to pick a book that's been on my Reader for some time. I can get to the other book after.

It's not going to make you look cool or more interesting if the only reason you have your entire library with you is to show off that you did it.

I like the idea of a limited amount of books with me so it helps me read older books that might be overlooked.

The only time I leave books I've read on my Reader is if I might want to refer back to it or to correct errors when I'm at the computer.

Which current Readers are lousy for handling a large amount of eBooks?

[Fbone]

Not enough memory on device to hold complete library.

[library addict]

I have just over 2000 books on my Sony and it doesn't have a slow response time. Or not that I've noticed.

I have more on my tablet as I include many of the books in my "Vault" library (whereas the Sony only has everything in my main Calibre library).

As AnemicOak said, Calibre Companion makes having lots of books on my tablet easy to sort and use.

As for why I keep books I've already read on my reader, why not? You may not think there is a need, but I often reread or want to look up something and it's convenient.

And I like having my whole TBR as I can go "shopping" for something to read on my device.

[DiapDealer]

Calibre is my library. My reader is my book-bag. A book-bag with a magic wormhole connection to my library.

I'm happy with this arrangement. I imagine most people are happy with their own arrangements.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Some Readers such as Sony Readers are a pain in the ass to try to keep a lot of EBook on because of the way it scans the eBooks.

I haven't had a Sony reader in a long time so a non-issue for me.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Kobos and Kindles are not good if you load too many eBooks at once because ball it takes is one eBook with errors to cause a problem.

For Kobo and epub format ebooks, use epubcheck and FlightCrew before ever sending the ebook to your Kobo. It was a bit surprising how many commercial epubs used to generate a ream of errors with either but that's become a lot less common. If nothing else, Sigil running both of those as plug-ins makes cleaning up a lot easier.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why keep already read eBooks on your Reader? There's really no need. just create a yes/no column in your Calibre library and you can mark what you've already read. And you can also keep track with Goodreads.

I read a lot of books that come in series and very often I go back and verify my memory against earlier books. Not to mention that when a new book in a series comes out, I will often binge read the previous books if the series is short enough to allow (say less than 10 books in the series).

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I know for some it's done to be able to say you have your entire eBook library with you. For others it's so you can read what you want because it's already loaded. And some don't want to have to connect to the computer just to load the next eBook to read.

And for some, just because we can.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For those who do have a rather large amount of eBooks on your Reader, what would you do if you had a Reader such as a Sony where it's very impractical to have all your eBooks with you?

Why this concern about Sony? They've been out of the ereader business for years. I'm more concerned with my Kobo Aura One where the lack of expandable storage has caused me to keep most of my cookbook collection on my H2O. In my collection, the average size of a cookbook with illustrations is 62MB so about 15GB needed.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For reading on my iPhone/iPad, I keep some eBooks on Dropbox and get them as I need/want. That keeps the internal storage for other things.

I keep very few non-work related ebooks on my tablet collection and if I do want one, I can access it easily enough if a WiFi access point is within connection range. Most of the work related ebooks are manuals in PDF format so the tablet is a better device for reading them.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How do you handle a Reader that doesn't have a memory card slot and only so much memory when you get full and have to remove eBooks to add new ones or you just cannot fit your entire library?

At this point, I have about 3000 ebooks on my KA1 which are duplicated in a separate Calibre library. I do tend to cause myself more issues requiring a factory reset so I find this the easier way to restore the library -- doesn't everyone want their Kobo to act as a frontend to a Raspberry PI weather station? I don't use collections -- search works quite well for me.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's not going to make you look cool or more interesting if the only reason you have your entire library with you is to show off that you did it.

Huh? I can't remember having told any of my friends in real life about the number of ebooks I've had on an ereader. Most would not be interested and even more would not care.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I like the idea of a limited amount of books with me so it helps me read older books that might be overlooked.

How do those older books get on your ereader to be overlooked?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The only time I leave books I've read on my Reader is if I might want to refer back to it or to correct errors when I'm at the computer.

Correcting errors, yes. That's about the only use I make of bookmarks and annotations. That tends to happen rather rapidly once I've finished the book though at times I have gone into an error correcting frenzy in the midst of reading a book. The last time I did that was an author who had issues with homophones such as rein/reign, sale/sail, weather/whether and your/you're. After some correspondence, it turned out that arthritis was an issue so the book had been dictated to the computer.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Which current Readers are lousy for handling a large amount of eBooks?

In your opinion, it would appear the answer is Sony.

[Alohamora]

In the old days, aka 2 years ago, I didn't have cellular data, or very limited, so I wanted everything on my phone.
Now that I have cellular data, I keep somewhere between 2 and 20 books on my phone. Any thing else I suddenly want to read is accessible from Amazon's cloud, or Overdrive.

[Dopedangel]

I have about a 1000 ebook collection out of which I have already read 750. Even at 1mb a book 1000 books would be less than 1gb. Which is less than 20% of my bookreader builtin space. It does not slow down my reader in anyway and just allows me to have another backup of my collection.
Btw adding and deleting books is more likely to wear down your reader flash drive as the first part of disk will be used only. So unless your reader chokes on having to many books no reason not to keep all your books on the device.

Sent from the mobile client - Forum Talker

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I keep everything in the cloud so it's accessible. I don't use a computer often. No need to when I have a tablet that does the basics.

This assumes that your reader is always able to access the cloud, and that your reader is able to access all the clouds where you've got books stored. I've been buying ebooks since the mid 2000s, from at least a half-dozen retailers which are now defunct so their read any time clouds are also now defunct. I normally read from an eInk reader and not a tablet, which means my reader only talks to one of the three retailers I mostly buy from now. Therefore, for maximal choice,especially when I'm away from home, it's better to have a device with expandable memory and have everything loaded it. If I discover I want to read something that I'm currently not reading, it's still available to me.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

This assumes that your reader is always able to access the cloud, and that your reader is able to access all the clouds where you've got books stored. I've been buying ebooks since the mid 2000s, from at least a half-dozen retailers which are now defunct so their read any time clouds are also now defunct. I normally read from an eInk reader and not a tablet, which means my reader only talks to one of the three retailers I mostly buy from now. Therefore, for maximal choice,especially when I'm away from home, it's better to have a device with expandable memory and have everything loaded it. If I discover I want to read something that I'm currently not reading, it's still available to me.

So have I. Most of us here have been buying from various retailers since mid 2000. I am always able to access the cloud. All eReaders should be able to do that if it has WiFi and a browser. I use Dropbox which has my entire Calibre library on it.

As DD said. My e-reader is my book bag which has a magic wormhole to my entire library.

I recently discovered Calibre Box for Android and oh that made me ecstatic to be able visual search and see my Calibre library from Dropbox.

My current Calibre library is close to 20GB. Try putting that on a device without problems.

Sent from my XT1528

[maddz]

As others have said, keeping all my library (~1600 titles) on the reader is the way to go for these reasons:

1. Most books I have read at least once; especially earlier works in a series when the next comes out. Besides, if a book is worth reading in the first place, then it's worth reading more than once (sententious Victorian authors aside.) Very few of my purchased books end up in the cloud - it has to be truly dire for that to happen, and I'm usually quite good at spotting stinkers before purchase.
2. Greek beaches tend not to have free wi-fi. Wi-fi in the accommodation isn't much better unless you're in a large hotel. (Besides taking the iMac will use up my baggage allowance.) Virgin mobile roaming charges are extortionate (they're being challenged, but that won't be resolved before my holiday), which means I will be relying on wi-fi not mobile data while I am away. In any case, not everywhere has a good signal and my phone is still under guarantee so I can't use a disposable SIM.
3. The Kindle & Kobo apps on the iPad & iPhone contain less than half my purchased content, and the thought of sending all the rest to personal documents makes me blench. (I've been acquiring e-books since the Palm m500 days).
4. I'd prefer not to read on tablets on the beach - the Icarus will work better in bright sunlight.
5. I can read a standard mass-market paperback in less than 2 hours. A fantasy doorstop will take a bit longer. A 10-day holiday will mean I need a minimum of 100 books to include in air time and hanging around airports. (Pre-ereader days, at least 50% of my baggage allowance was books (plus the couple of titles being read in-air) - and I'd routinely run out of reading material during the holiday. Book swaps in the resorts (if there were any) tended to summer blockbusters not genre fiction.)

For me, keeping my library on the Icarus is the way to go, especially as it is the consolidated source for all my books (apart from omnibuses I've run through epub split, PDFs and graphic-heavy titles.)

Ah well, in 3 weeks I hope to have made a substantial dent in my to-be-read pile (most of the titles from Humblebundle & StoryBundle); I'm finding trying to read on the commute to be a bit of a chore - too many interruptions plus I have to keep an eye on where I am - so I now mostly read short story collections.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by library addict

I have just over 2000 books on my Sony and it doesn't have a slow response time. Or not that I've noticed.

Restart your Sony or add another eBook to it and watch while the arrows spin for a long time.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

Virgin mobile roaming charges are extortionate (they're being challenged, but that won't be resolved before my holiday), which means I will be relying on wi-fi not mobile data while I am away.

You really should switch to EE instead of Virgin Mobile.

* EE Europe Zone

From 15th June 2017 all plans include roaming in Austria, Azores, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Canary Islands, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guyana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madeira, Malta, Martinique, Mayotte, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Reunion Islands, Romania, San Marino, Saint Martin (French), Saint Barthelemy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Vatican City (Italy).

New Max Plans from the 10th May 2017 include the above plus Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and USA.

Note: Turkey (you may connect to a Turkish network in Northern Cyprus) and Andorra are not included in the EE Europe Zone.

With EE you can use your cell phone plan in Greece and not have to worry about extra charges.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You really should switch to EE instead of Virgin Mobile.

With EE you can use your cell phone plan in Greece and not have to worry about extra charges.

The data deal is better with Virgin than anywhere else as I'm with them for my home package.

[HarryT]

maddz, are you sure you'll still pay roaming charges? They were abolished in the EU on 15th June this year. No carrier should still be charging for roaming in EU countries.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

The data deal is better with Virgin than anywhere else as I'm with them for my home package.

The 20GB data plan with Virgin is more expensive than the 20GB data plan with EE.