Complete Library Why?

[Bilbo1967]

Virgin certainly did not charge us any roaming fees when we holidayed in Italy earlier this month.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Because I want to.


Not at all, at least I don't find it so. With Calibre Companion I have the benefit of looking for books basically the same I can in Calibre. On my Kobo the search function works quite well to find anything I'm looking for among thousands of books (and search on the Kindle works quite well too from what I remember).


Glad that works for you. It's worked okay for me in the past too, but having everything there works better.



Seriously though haven't you gotten enough answers to this question from other times you've asked it or the threads other people have asked in? It all boils down to different things are preferred by different people and there is no right or wrong answer.

Same here. I've always kept my entire collection on my ereader, first with on a Sony PRS-500, then PRS-505. It could be slow the first time after copying a lot of books on, but after the first time, I didn't have an speed issue.

Now, I have Calibe companion on my iPad and use that to keep all my ebooks (a bit over 3000 now), copying only my current reading list over to Marvin. It works well for me.

Calibre Companion really works well for managing my library.

I like having all my books available because I tend to read based on my mood, especially during the quiet time when no so many big sellers are coming out.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why is it that a lot of people feel the need to have their complete collection of eBooks on their Reader? It just seems a bit unwieldy to me. I have somewhere around 100 eBooks on my H2O and if I find I want to read something that's not on there, I'll add it when I'm next at my computer.

With regard to books, I tend to agree. I only have around 10-12 books (2-3 series, and some short story collections) on my e-reader. I don't read fast enough to need to choose extremely frequently.

With regard to music however, I dislike the fact that my library is becoming so large that I can't fit it onto my music player. (Thanks to ripping all my classical music CD boxes... hundreds of CD's. Often, the boxes are cheaper than a single recording, especially if the recording is a bit older already.) The maximum capacity is 2x 128 GB, and my library has already exceeded that because I use FLAC for my audio computer, and future-proofness. I've been thinking of creating a second library, with 256 kbit VBR0 MP3's especially for the music player.

(I don't use FLAC because I think I can hear a difference between it and a 256 kbit MP3; I can't. I use it because it's lossless, and thus provides future-proof conversions to any other format.)

[tubemonkey]

I keep around a dozen books on my Kindle. If I'm reading a series, I load the entire series in case I wish to reference a previous event.

For audiobooks, I load around 30 or so on my phones and Sansa Clips.

[HarryT]

I keep a significant, but far from complete, subset of my library on my device. I currently have approximately 12,000 books in my Calibre library, about 2,000 of which are on my Voyage.

[Katsunami]

2,000 books is a subset of your library...?

You can get help for that, you know

I can't even imagine being able to read 12,000 books. Even when reading a book a day (which is quite impossible for most people because of work or other commitments, let alone reading speed), it would take you 32 years to read every book.

My library now contains 971 books, of which somewhere around 60 Delphi Classics, and it already contains everything I ever wanted, possibly wanted, maybe wanted, or very remotely wanted. I only add some books now and then on recommendation. Even with 'only' 971 books, I don't expect to read them during my life time, except if I can still use these EPUB's after my retirement, which will take another 32-33 years (with current rules and regulations).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

2,000 books is a subset of your library...?

You can get help for that, you know

I can't even imagine being able to read 12,000 books. Even when reading a book a day (which is quite impossible for most people because of work or other commitments, let alone reading speed), it would take you 32 years to read every book.

It's about variety, not being able to read every book. You're right: I can't possibly hope to read every book in my library in any realistic forecast of my remaining lifetime, but that's not the point. I've been buying ebooks for 20 or so years now, and constantly buy things that are on offer - not because I want to read them now, but simply because they may interest me in years to come.

I've always believed in the idea of buying now, because what you want to buy may not be available in the future. A good illustration of that is a book called "The Regiment: A Trilogy" by John Dalmas, which I bought from Baen in May 2004. After sitting in my library for close to 10 years I've just read it, but it's no longer sold by Baen, and doesn't seem to be available from any other publisher, either. I've got it, though, because I bought it when it was available.

[DiapDealer]

Another reason I don't keep my entire ebook library on my reader/tablet is because I don't yet own (typically) the next book I'm going to read. My library is comprised nearly entirely of books that I've already read. Having my entire (read) ebook library on my device would not help me with my decision on what to read next, nor its subsequent purchase.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've always believed in the idea of buying now, because what you want to buy may not be available in the future. A good illustration of that is a book called "The Regiment: A Trilogy" by John Dalmas, which I bought from Baen in May 2004. After sitting in my library for close to 10 years I've just read it, but it's no longer sold by Baen, and doesn't seem to be available from any other publisher, either. I've got it, though, because I bought it when it was available.

That one is true enough. It was 2011 when e-readers got touch screens, everything I wanted (to start out with) was available, calibre had matured, and DRM could be cracked.

That was when I restarted e-reading, and between 2011 and 2014, I bought hundreds and hundreds of books on a spree, with Kobo coupons, just so I'd have them. Kobo's main format is KEPUB, and even while it can be de-DRM-ed it's harder to use than EPUB, and Amazon is moving towards KFX, which can't be de-DRM-ed yet.

So yes, I bought everything as fast as I could, for fear of DRM not being removable.

(I haven't even counted the BAEN Free Library CD's and the thousands of Feedbooks PD books I have... at one time, Feedbooks had them stored in a nice predictable pattern on the server, and after I found out, I wrote a script to download them all, so I didn't have to download them separately. I don't know if this is still possible. I expect not. I wouldn't have downloaded a few thousand PD books one by one, to be honest.)

[Apache]

One reason I bought the Surface Pro 4 was the fact that it can handle my entire library and have Calibre on my tablet. I used to read a lot of hard cover books so the weight of the Surface does not bother me.
Apache

[theducks]

I started with a device that required a physical connection (USB or SD card) to load books. So more was better than lean-mean

With my current (WiFi enabled) devices, I just keep a bunch. Some are in progress*, some are TBR. I usuall remove them from the Device when done... Keeping ,a Library is what Calibre is for

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Blossom

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

I have a Kobo Glo HD upgraded with a 64 GB memory card, it's got about 16,000 books on it, using about 36GB. Once in a while it will report something has crashed, usually when I'm browsing the library, but I have only had to reboot it a couple times in the last year. The Kobo search is more limited than Calibre's of course, since it pretty much only searches by author, title, collection and series. Most of what I buy these days is from Kobo, so I let the reader download them from the cloud, and a couple times a month I download the rest from my Calibre library.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Virgin certainly did not charge us any roaming fees when we holidayed in Italy earlier this month.

That's because the EU banned roaming charges effective June 15, 2017. You might lose that when Brexit happens.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I keep a significant, but far from complete, subset of my library on my device. I currently have approximately 12,000 books in my Calibre library, about 2,000 of which are on my Voyage.

Ditto. I keep a bit over a thousand on my Voyage and about the same amount on the Oasis.

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's about variety, not being able to read every book. You're right: I can't possibly hope to read every book in my library in any realistic forecast of my remaining lifetime, but that's not the point. I've been buying ebooks for 20 or so years now, and constantly buy things that are on offer - not because I want to read them now, but simply because they may interest me in years to come.

I've always believed in the idea of buying now, because what you want to buy may not be available in the future. A good illustration of that is a book called "The Regiment: A Trilogy" by John Dalmas, which I bought from Baen in May 2004. After sitting in my library for close to 10 years I've just read it, but it's no longer sold by Baen, and doesn't seem to be available from any other publisher, either. I've got it, though, because I bought it when it was available.

This. Well, I have been buying ebooks for less than 10 years, but I buy a lot. And I buy new ebooks all the time.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I keep a significant, but far from complete, subset of my library on my device. I currently have approximately 12,000 books in my Calibre library, about 2,000 of which are on my Voyage.

I have about 400 on my Kindle4. Probably as many on my kobo, kindle fire. Different books. At last count I was over 10,000 ebooks.

As per your 2,000, that is roughly the size of my physical cookbook library.
Before anyone asks, yes I use them.