Recommended Library System and File Type

[akmatov]

After collecting a variety of different ebooks with little attention to organization, I am now intending to organize the mess and use Calibre to bring some sanity and convenience to my pack rat's horde.

Two quick questions:
1) Is there a library organization system that is seen as especially useful for ebookers? I've looked at the Dewey Decimal system and one intended for book shops and neither really seems that useful. Currently I'm organizing using my own system, i.e. Fiction/Mystery/Historical/Medieval. Actually seems to make sense to me, but I'm sure there is a better more thought out system out there.

2) I have an Amazon Kindle now so I can read my ebooks in mobi and be portable and not chained to my computer. But so many seem to be using other file systems, like epub, that I wonder if there is any benefit in retaining the epub files as well as the converted mobi files. The pack rat surfaces again here.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

[eschwartz]

Not filesystems, file formats.

My preference is to always keep the original format, as the master -- to prevent lossiness in case I intend to later edit or anything.

Disk space is cheap, and ebooks are small.



Tags is a common classification method, you cannot go wrong there --- especially if it makes sense and works for you.
(Well, as much as anything is, I find title/author/series to be all I need and anything else just confuses me. I nuke tags from orbit. )

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by akmatov

[...] Actually seems to make sense to me, but I'm sure there is a better more thought out system out there. [...]

You answered your own question: the best system is the system which works for you.

Calibre is very capable to do just anything (and if it doesn't, just ask for or help to add a new feature )

Experiment with a dummy library. Might help.

Just my 2cts

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by akmatov

After collecting a variety of different ebooks with little attention to organization, I am now intending to organize the mess and use Calibre to bring some sanity and convenience to my pack rat's horde.

I started on a similar task 2 years ago and have not finished yet! Good luck.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by akmatov

2) I have an Amazon Kindle now so I can read my ebooks in mobi and be portable and not chained to my computer. But so many seem to be using other file systems, like epub, that I wonder if there is any benefit in retaining the epub files as well as the converted mobi files. The pack rat surfaces again here.

Would appreciate any suggestions.

Always keep the original file format.

Unless you have an old Kindle 1 or Kindle 2, convert to azw3 format, not mobi for Kindles. (azw3 is also known as KF8, and gives a much more faithful conversion from ePub than converting to mobi.)

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Always keep the original file format.

Unless you have an old Kindle 1 or Kindle 2, convert to azw3 format, not mobi for Kindles. (azw3 is also known as KF8, and gives a much more faithful conversion from ePub than converting to mobi.)

For completeness: or a Kindle DX or DXG. Those are K2 hardware and don't support AZW3 either.