Using two custom columns to manage books I'm reading/have read/want to read.

[LisaAlissa]

Thought I'd share my "home-grown" management system.

I've created two custom columns which I use to keep track of books I want to read soon, books I have on a device to read, and books I've read or discarded and my opinion of them.

1st column, I call "R'ding" and the potential values are:
blank
iPad-M
iPad-S
iPhone
Laptop
next

The values between the bolded ones are based on my current reading devices & apps on those devices I'm using for reading. For example, I use both Marvin & Stanza on my iPad, as there are formats Stanza still handles better than Marvin. If I find I'm putting a book on more than one device, I create a category that shows both devices.

2nd column, I call "Read" and the potential values are:
blank
Read
Discarded

When I'm importing books, I mark the first column w/ "next" on those books I want to load onto a reader soon. When I have categories or reading to do (for instance, personal & professional), I've had more than one version of a "next" category.

When I'm ready to load a reader, I click on the "R'ding" column in the tag browser and then click on the "next" value to see books that I want to load. When I load a book, I change the value to reflect the device I've loaded the book onto.

That's helpful when I'm wondering where I've put the book that I'm in the middle of reading...I can check that value to find the copy that will show where I am in the book.

Or when I'm ready to delete books off a device, I can use the tag browser to bring up the list of books on that device. Then I change that value to "blank" for the books I'm deleting (or change it to a single device, if I had a value for it that showed more than one device location) and make an entry in the "Read" column, either "read" or "discarded."

I like the "discarded" option, as it lets me keep track of books that, for one reason or another I discarded instead of finishing. I haven't "read" them...but I don't want to list them as "unread" (blank value in my 2nd column), because I don't want to waste time with them again! Sometimes the blurb-writer for a book is a better writer than the author, and knowing that an author has written a book that I discarded makes it less likely that I'll bother buying another of their books... For books I've discarded, I'll usually add a red-text (font color) comment to the top of the description in the book details panel, to make a note of why I discarded (for example, stilted writing, bad plot, poor editing) and any redeeming characteristics ("good plot, with a good editor would be worth checking again" is an example of a note on a self-published book that was just too painful to read).

After I've changed the value in the 2nd column (to "read" or "discarded") I mark my view of the book, by assigning a rating...if it had one before, I change it to reflect my view! I know a rating in Calibre is mine if the Read column has a value in it. By the way, Marvin (the reader app) makes keeping track of the rating I want to assign easier, as it allows you to mark books w/ a rating in Marvin.

There are probably better ways to manage these things, but thought others who, like me, are relatively basic users of Calibre might find this helpful!

(further suggestions/enhancements happily received.)

Lisa

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by LisaAlissa

There are probably better ways to manage these things, but thought others who, like me, are relatively basic users of Calibre might find this helpful!

No doubt there are other ways to manage these things, but you've obviously put considerable thought into your scheme so for now at least, its the best scheme for you.

My only suggestion might be to put any notes about why you liked/disliked a book into your own comments like column. Should you ever do a metadata download for a book you've already critiqued you could lose your notes. Furthermore, a custom comments column can be edited directly from the book list by pressing F2. I put a note-like icon on such columns if they are not empty.

Thanks for sharing your solution.

BR

[LisaAlissa]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

No doubt there are other ways to manage these things, but you've obviously put considerable thought into your scheme so for now at least, its the best scheme for you.

[…]

Thanks for sharing your solution.

Hi BR!

Thank you for your reply and your kind words—and you’re welcome!

Originally Posted by BetterRed

My only suggestion might be to put any notes about why you liked/disliked a book into your own comments like column. Should you ever do a metadata download for a book you've already critiqued you could lose your notes. Furthermore, a custom comments column can be edited directly from the book list by pressing F2. I put a note-like icon on such columns if they are not empty.

I hadn’t seriously considered using a custom comment column because of the screen space issues—I know I could stick the column off to the right, but then I wouldn’t easily see the comment. So my “solution” (maybe “work-around” is a better description), is to put any comments in red (from the book details panel) on the clipboard before I download additional metadata so I can reload the comments (they’re in red so I’ll notice them). I’ve always downloaded metadata one book at a time—if I ever figure out how to pull metadata on more than one book at a time, this work-around won’t really work anymore.

However you now have me curious. What’s a “note-like icon” and how do you use it?

Thanks,

Lisa

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by LisaAlissa

if I ever figure out how to pull metadata on more than one book at a time, this work-around won’t really work anymore.

@LisaAlissa - This works for me - select several books, press ctrl/d, download is not as fine-grained as the single book download, but if you configure the sources 'sensibly' then more often than not its not too far of the mark

Originally Posted by LisaAlissa

However you now have me curious. What’s a “note-like icon” and how do you use it?

Firstly, you can show a custom comments column in the book details panel (the one on the right) by including it in the list in Preferences->Look and Feel->Book Details Tab.

Secondly you can attach icons to a column via the Preferences->Look and Feel->Book Details tab.

For a custom comments column (Notes) you'd probably have a rule like "Set the icon with no text of Notes to note.png if the Notes column is set [has a non blank value]". The rules can use all the features of calibre's template language, hence they can be quite elaborate.

You have to supply the icon (128x128). Courtesy of chaley, here's a good place to start Browse Icon Packs - FindIcons.com

This post Custom Column Recommendations shows some icons I use. When I F2 on the MyNotes icon (white squarish thing) a free standing Comments Editor window pops up.

BR