An Easy Way To Organize

[Readirect]

Since I got my first Kindle several years ago -- and *especially* when I got a nook with an SD Card -- I've been looking for an easy way to organize the books so that I could find what I need. Anyone who has used the Nook shelves or Kindle collections knows that these aren't anything but frustrating, cumbersome and ineffective.

There's actually a better way (IMHO) to keep your library organized and that's with an (apparently) often overlooked feature of Calibre called catalog.

Calibre will build a catalog of your library (as a separate ebook), which includes a list sorted by author and by title and by series and by genre, etc. What's even more helpful, you can include the description of each book, a thumbnail of it and any of your own comments (or other Calibre fields that you wish). It's quick and flexible and you can find it in Calibre on the right click menu (in the book listings) as the last entry under convert book. Just generate the catalog (in the appropriate epub or azw3 format) then copy it over to your device using Calibre.

The way that I've come to use it is to leave all my books unshelved (or uncollected on the Kindle) then use the catalog to identify what I want (browsing through the descriptions) and then use the device's search to find the particular book that I've identified. It works well on all devices (but especially those which have lots of storage like Kobo and the old Nooks) and doesn't require the ridiculous (battery draining) machinations of rooting the device nor the tedium of selecting books manually. Since I have a lot of books, I've created separate catalogs by genre (using Calibre's virtual library) then created one shelf/collection called catalog on the device to house them so that I can find them easily.

Try it, I think you'll like it. Not sure why this isn't more widely recognized as a solution to the cumbersome collections on the Kindle or the shelves on the Nook or Kobo but I wish that I'd found it earlier.

[dandelioncottage]

This sounds like a great solution, especially for keeping track of which book comes next in a series. I'm going to try it out. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Readirect

Try it, I think you'll like it. Not sure why this isn't more widely recognized as a solution to the cumbersome collections on the Kindle or the shelves on the Nook or Kobo but I wish that I'd found it earlier.

[Snow Sciles]

This is an interesting method, I'll try it. I find the Shelf/Collection concept very frustrating.

[spedinfargo]

Oh yes, the Calibre catalog - an EPUB of all of your EPUBs - is a great thing. It's a nice way to browse your collection.

Another tip is to do an EPUB to EPUB conversion on your books and embed metadata at the front of your book. That way when you open the book it's kind of like reading the back jacket and the review pages right away.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by spedinfargo

Another tip is to do an EPUB to EPUB conversion on your books and embed metadata at the front of your book. That way when you open the book it's kind of like reading the back jacket and the review pages right away.

Or use the Polish Book tool, which adds the metadata jacket without requiring a full conversion (these take longer and can introduce unwanted changes).

[kalwisti]

I know this thread is rather old, but I just wanted to say "Thank you!" to Readirect for pointing out this Calibre feature. I tried it and it works great -- especially for listing books in a series.