10,000 Books on a Kindle 2?

Kindle Addict · 02-10-2010, 03:54 AM

I've been enjoying the mobileread forums since my co-worker won a Kindle 2. I received one as a gift shortly after that and have been disassembling it ever since!

I've heard of a few people with over 1,000 books on their Kindle, but I wanted to know just how many books the Kindle 2 could handle. I attempted to load 10,000 books and posted the results on my kindicted site. Turns out that 10,000 books is a bit too much for the Kindle 2!

Does anyone else have any experience with a large number of books? My goal was to convert and load journal articles for the last 10 years, but the search is useless with that many documents. It seems that the Kindle won't be handling a large number of books without a hardware refresh.

Kindicted

pdurrant · 02-10-2010, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kindle Addict

I've heard of a few people with over 1,000 books on their Kindle, but I wanted to know just how many books the Kindle 2 could handle. I attempted to load 10,000 books and posted the results on my kindicted site. Turns out that 10,000 books is a bit too much for the Kindle 2!

An interesting experiment. I'd like to know how the iPad will cope with a large number of books. After all, even the small model has 16GB memory, and the large one has 64GB!

I have just over 2000 ebooks at the moment, taking up just under 1.5GB. So in 16GB I should be able to fit 20,000 ebooks, and in 64GB about 80,000!

:-)

Jonas777 · 02-10-2010, 05:15 AM

Could it be the indexing that chokes on such an amount of books loaded at once? Maybe if you try to load a few 100's of books and then wait a day for the next batch you will be able to load more books in total?

rcuadro · 02-10-2010, 10:19 AM

How the heck do you find a book with so many on the reader! Ugh! I only keep about 100 on the K2 and the rest on the computer lol

pdurrant · 02-10-2010, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rcuadro

How the heck do you find a book with so many on the reader! Ugh! I only keep about 100 on the K2 and the rest on the computer lol

Ah - I don't have my entire collection on my K2. I would like to, but as you say, the organisation on the Kindle and speed of selection makes it impractical.

lilac_jive · 02-10-2010, 11:16 AM

How do you even have 10,000 books? That's quite a collection.

Kindle Addict · 02-10-2010, 12:11 PM

Thanks for the comments! As a general comment, 10,000 books is not unreasonable for a researcher on the go. If I wanted to call up all the journal articles on 'surface plasmon', I should be able to do so. I would think that medical, engineering, sales, etc. individuals would love to have a searchable reference library at their fingertips.

pdurrant: The number of books per GB is exactly my line of thinking - I thought Amazon's book limits per device were based on available memory, but it would appear that there are other software factors at play as well.

I'll repeat the experiment on my iPad (as soon as I have one). By the way, how does 2,000 books behave for you?

jonas777: On the detail of the process on my site, I kind of incrementally load the books (5,000 at a time), but each time you eject the Kindle it appears to have to re-index the entire lot, so 100 at a time is rather painful.

lilac_jive: I don't own 10,000 books, but as part of my job, I have a large collection of electronic journal articles, but they are in PDF format and won't fit in the 1.4GB of available memory. For the test, I used a bash script (available on my site) to create 10,000 copies of a one-character book I wrote, since I was really testing if the Kindle could even handle that many 'books'.

Kindict

pdurrant · 02-10-2010, 01:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kindle Addict

I'll repeat the experiment on my iPad (as soon as I have one). By the way, how does 2,000 books behave for you?

I only have around 400 on my Kindle. It seems to handle that number well.

I did used to have 1800 or so on my CyBook Gen3 - that wasn't do good, as this was with the old firmware, and navigating 1800 books at 20 per page wasn't practical. (& it made start-up times much too long.)

I would like my next reader to be able to manage a large collection. If I include the various PD books I've actually downloaded and oragnised, I have just over 2400 books in my collection.

It will be interesting to see how the iPad handles large numbers of ebooks.

desertgrandma · 02-10-2010, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kindle Addict

I've been enjoying the mobileread forums since my co-worker won a Kindle 2. I received one as a gift shortly after that and have been disassembling it ever since!

I've heard of a few people with over 1,000 books on their Kindle, but I wanted to know just how many books the Kindle 2 could handle. I attempted to load 10,000 books and posted the results on my kindicted site. Turns out that 10,000 books is a bit too much for the Kindle 2!

Does anyone else have any experience with a large number of books? My goal was to convert and load journal articles for the last 10 years, but the search is useless with that many documents. It seems that the Kindle won't be handling a large number of books without a hardware refresh.

Kindicted

Unlike the Kindle1, you are limited to the space Amazon decided you should have.

The K1 had an SD card slot.......so i can have as many books as I want by either changing out cards, or using a larger one.

Right now I only have just over 800 books loaded......by author. The only thing I've noticed, is that it takes a little longer to come out of its 'sleep' mode.

According to the Kindle page on Amazon, you can

Carry Your Library: Holds up to 1,500 books

The Kindle DX can hold up to 3500 books.

Kindle Addict · 02-10-2010, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Unlike the Kindle1, you are limited to the space Amazon decided you should have.

The K1 had an SD card slot.......so i can have as many books as I want by either changing out cards, or using a larger one.

Right now I only have just over 800 books loaded......by author. The only thing I've noticed, is that it takes a little longer to come out of its 'sleep' mode.

According to the Kindle page on Amazon, you can

Carry Your Library: Holds up to 1,500 books

The Kindle DX can hold up to 3500 books.

I assumed that Amazon's specs were limited by available memory based on an average size book. If a Kindle 2 can do 1,500, and a Kindle DX 3,500, then why not more with more memory? The processors are the same (Freescale 532 MHz, ARM-11), so it's not a question a processing ability. Maybe Amazon will provide a PC-based index function to speed this process up?

I also have a guide to expanding the Kindle 2's memory on my site, but specialized tools (and skills) are required.

HarryT · 02-12-2010, 02:56 AM

For devices that have a hierarchical folder system and a memory card slot, it's no problem at all to have 10,000 books. Assuming a typical 300k for an eBook (and that's probably an over-estimate), it would only require 3GB of storage space. The limiting factor on a Kindle at present is the "flat" library structure, I think, rather than the storage space.

bwaldron · 02-12-2010, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

The limiting factor on a Kindle at present is the "flat" library structure, I think, rather than the storage space.

The indexing of all Kindle content also is a factor.

fugazied · 02-13-2010, 04:51 PM

Is it the processor which is lacking when trying to search so many documents? Or does it get to the point where you use so much Kindle space that there isn't enough left to store the search index?

I like the idea of storing a huge amount of journals or something. Storing every national geographic or Time on a Kindle would also be cool!

Kindle Addict · 02-14-2010, 05:47 AM

I don't think it's a space issue; the 10,000 files only took up 27.3MB (as detailed here). The processor is a bit pokey, but it shouldn't be that slow. My gut feeling is that the indexing system is written in Java, which is interpreted and can be slow, and it is more than likely sub-optimized for indexing a large number of books. Maybe subsequent updates will help. I'm certainly going to re-create this test on the iPad to see how it fares.

I saw the DVD set for every National Georgraphic at Costco for something like $69.00. It would be pretty cool to have all of that searchable. Although for now, PDFs are only searchable one at a time. See my latest article on Kindle search here.

fugazied · 02-14-2010, 04:51 PM

As far as the actual search functionality the iPad will be incredible. Because the system is OS X based, they have spotlight search throughout the device (like the iPhone does). When I search on my iPhone for a phrase, it checks the meta data/titles of names/locations in address book, application names, music, movies, pdfs, docs. So it indexes pretty much everything.

On my mac I search for the word 'test' for example and have every PDF that contains the word, every file/mp3 with the word in it's meta data, tag or title pop up in 1-2 seconds. Microsoft finally copied spotlight in Windows 7 and it's nearly as good (similar functionality, just slower).

02-10-2010, 03:54 AM	#1
Kindle Addict kindict Posts: 64 Karma: 208 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle 2, Kobo, iPad, Nook	10,000 Books on a Kindle 2? I've been enjoying the mobileread forums since my co-worker won a Kindle 2. I received one as a gift shortly after that and have been disassembling it ever since! I've heard of a few people with over 1,000 books on their Kindle, but I wanted to know just how many books the Kindle 2 could handle. I attempted to load 10,000 books and posted the results on my kindicted site. Turns out that 10,000 books is a bit too much for the Kindle 2! Does anyone else have any experience with a large number of books? My goal was to convert and load journal articles for the last 10 years, but the search is useless with that many documents. It seems that the Kindle won't be handling a large number of books without a hardware refresh. Kindicted

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02-10-2010, 05:15 AM	#3
Jonas777 Groupie Posts: 153 Karma: 364 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Sweden Device: Amazon Kindle 2 Intl	Could it be the indexing that chokes on such an amount of books loaded at once? Maybe if you try to load a few 100's of books and then wait a day for the next batch you will be able to load more books in total?

02-10-2010, 10:19 AM	#4
rcuadro Wizard Posts: 1,686 Karma: 874275 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Virginia Beach, VA Device: Kindle DX	How the heck do you find a book with so many on the reader! Ugh! I only keep about 100 on the K2 and the rest on the computer lol

02-10-2010, 11:16 AM	#6
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	How do you even have 10,000 books? That's quite a collection.

02-10-2010, 12:11 PM	#7
Kindle Addict kindict Posts: 64 Karma: 208 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle 2, Kobo, iPad, Nook	Thanks for the comments! As a general comment, 10,000 books is not unreasonable for a researcher on the go. If I wanted to call up all the journal articles on 'surface plasmon', I should be able to do so. I would think that medical, engineering, sales, etc. individuals would love to have a searchable reference library at their fingertips. pdurrant: The number of books per GB is exactly my line of thinking - I thought Amazon's book limits per device were based on available memory, but it would appear that there are other software factors at play as well. I'll repeat the experiment on my iPad (as soon as I have one). By the way, how does 2,000 books behave for you? jonas777: On the detail of the process on my site, I kind of incrementally load the books (5,000 at a time), but each time you eject the Kindle it appears to have to re-index the entire lot, so 100 at a time is rather painful. lilac_jive: I don't own 10,000 books, but as part of my job, I have a large collection of electronic journal articles, but they are in PDF format and won't fit in the 1.4GB of available memory. For the test, I used a bash script (available on my site) to create 10,000 copies of a one-character book I wrote, since I was really testing if the Kindle could even handle that many 'books'. Kindict

02-12-2010, 02:56 AM	#11
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	For devices that have a hierarchical folder system and a memory card slot, it's no problem at all to have 10,000 books. Assuming a typical 300k for an eBook (and that's probably an over-estimate), it would only require 3GB of storage space. The limiting factor on a Kindle at present is the "flat" library structure, I think, rather than the storage space.

02-13-2010, 04:51 PM	#13
fugazied Wizard Posts: 1,305 Karma: 1958 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: iPod Touch	Is it the processor which is lacking when trying to search so many documents? Or does it get to the point where you use so much Kindle space that there isn't enough left to store the search index? I like the idea of storing a huge amount of journals or something. Storing every national geographic or Time on a Kindle would also be cool!

02-14-2010, 05:47 AM	#14
Kindle Addict kindict Posts: 64 Karma: 208 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: Kindle 2, Kobo, iPad, Nook	I don't think it's a space issue; the 10,000 files only took up 27.3MB (as detailed here). The processor is a bit pokey, but it shouldn't be that slow. My gut feeling is that the indexing system is written in Java, which is interpreted and can be slow, and it is more than likely sub-optimized for indexing a large number of books. Maybe subsequent updates will help. I'm certainly going to re-create this test on the iPad to see how it fares. I saw the DVD set for every National Georgraphic at Costco for something like $69.00. It would be pretty cool to have all of that searchable. Although for now, PDFs are only searchable one at a time. See my latest article on Kindle search here.

02-14-2010, 04:51 PM	#15
fugazied Wizard Posts: 1,305 Karma: 1958 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: iPod Touch	As far as the actual search functionality the iPad will be incredible. Because the system is OS X based, they have spotlight search throughout the device (like the iPhone does). When I search on my iPhone for a phrase, it checks the meta data/titles of names/locations in address book, application names, music, movies, pdfs, docs. So it indexes pretty much everything. On my mac I search for the word 'test' for example and have every PDF that contains the word, every file/mp3 with the word in it's meta data, tag or title pop up in 1-2 seconds. Microsoft finally copied spotlight in Windows 7 and it's nearly as good (similar functionality, just slower).

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