Multiple Copies/Versions of a Book

[tspear]

Ok, I am very likely over thinking this.
I have a number of books that hit one of these situations:
1. I bought a book that is part of a series. I then later bought an omnibus which included the book I already own.
2. I have an updated version of a book which was expanded.
3. The eBook includes as sample of another book at the end. I want to remove the sample from the version I use but keep the original ePub in case I want read the sample. (I am planning to use the ePub splitter plugin, unless someone has a better suggestion)

For some reason, I want to keep the meta-data in the first two cases. However, I want to effectively "hide" the book from my regular catalog, by somehow making it an alternate version of the Omnibus, or some sort of archive.

For the third case, I think those I can keep as additional ePub files, but I have not figured out how that works.

Any suggestions on some feature of Calibre and Kobo that I am overlooking or how to handle these use cases?

Tim

[theducks]

Virtual Libraries is a way to hide (not look at the full Library)

If you can create a Search that either Show or Hides , that can be used as the VL template.

I have
Read (this simply looks at my #DoneReading column
To Read ( Not Done or has a format. I use empty books as wish and to doc my paper lib)
Needs Edit (I touchup to my tastes, then mark)
None-Poor (place holder Empty books or lots of errors (lousy OCR...)

BTW books title (V2) sorts properly (the sort/search seems to ignore the (stuff) )

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by tspear

Ok, I am very likely over thinking this.
I have a number of books that hit one of these situations:
1. I bought a book that is part of a series. I then later bought an omnibus which included the book I already own.
2. I have an updated version of a book which was expanded.
3. The eBook includes as sample of another book at the end. I want to remove the sample from the version I use but keep the original ePub in case I want read the sample. (I am planning to use the ePub splitter plugin, unless someone has a better suggestion)

For some reason, I want to keep the meta-data in the first two cases. However, I want to effectively "hide" the book from my regular catalog, by somehow making it an alternate version of the Omnibus, or some sort of archive.

For the third case, I think those I can keep as additional ePub files, but I have not figured out how that works.

Any suggestions on some feature of Calibre and Kobo that I am overlooking or how to handle these use cases?

Tim

A recently added feature allows the storage of additional files for books. I'm not aware of any formal doco, but it's simple enough:

Add the the Open Book folder tool to a toolbar, select the Open book data folder option, if it doesn't exist already, a sub folder with the name 'data' will be created in the book folder, the 'data' folder will be opened:



You can add, edit, and delete files in the folder without any calibre imposed restriction on names, file types or number of files. All calibre is providing is a place to store files. Sub-folders are supported.

BTW: there is nothing to prevent a library having two or more records with identical title and author; calibre uses the internal 'id' column to identify the book metadata entry in the database and to differentiate the book folder (that's the '(1)' in the screenshot).

BR

[tspear]

@theducks

I like the idea of VL. i will have to read up on it.

@BetterRead

That would work very well for the third case where I split off sample books. I might end up combining the two solutions... Or I could be overthinking this.

Thanks,

Tim

[theducks]

Originally Posted by tspear

@theducks

I like the idea of VL. i will have to read up on it.

@BetterRead

That would work very well for the third case where I split off sample books. I might end up combining the two solutions... Or I could be overthinking this.

Thanks,

Tim

I ditch the body (the chapter) of the sample.
1) I have tricked myself in the past looking at books: "I have read this", when in fact I had only read the sample in the back of some book.

2) If I have the actual book, why would I need a 'sample'

I also leave the samples header notice: Coming Soon xyz ..., More ...

I do have a tag: 'samp removed' when I do this

[tspear]

Originally Posted by theducks

I ditch the body (the chapter) of the sample.
1) I have tricked myself in the past looking at books: "I have read this", when in fact I had only read the sample in the back of some book.

2) If I have the actual book, why would I need a 'sample'

I also leave the samples header notice: Coming Soon xyz ..., More ...

I do have a tag: 'samp removed' when I do this

Having done the same, I used to have an Excel sheet where I tracked three lists. A couple years ago, I started using the Kobo whishlist function, and have found it lacking. But I lacked the energy to try and solve that problem.
Here were the categories I had in my old Excel file:
One, books someone recommended it, or received an email blast from an author I like...
Two, books where the sample was good and I want the book.
Three, books were the sample was not good enough and I should not buy the book.

I have not yet considered how I am going to implement this in Calibre. I think I will end up combining the ability to create an empty book and tags. But that is farther down the line.

Tim

[Sirtel]

I delete all excerpts, samples and other ads from my books with the editor. Can't stand them. I'm perfectly capable of finding the books I want to read myself, without any filler material in other books.

[dunhill]

I have a custom column for this purpose.
The column has to be text type, but with a fixed set of default values
And in the value field
Add the data to be taken into account separated by a comma
Example:
Featured book by the author, recommended book (in x place), Complete saga, Complete trilogy, Complete series

[tspear]

Mod questions:

1. when I first posted this I did not have my glasses on, as you can see by the icon I selected. Which looks like a thumbs down. I thought it was a blurry question mark.... Curious, is there a way for me to fix it?

2. Is there a way to mark thanks on answers or what was taken/used for the solution?

Tim

[theducks]

Originally Posted by tspear

Mod questions:

1. when I first posted this I did not have my glasses on, as you can see by the icon I selected. Which looks like a thumbs down. I thought it was a blurry question mark.... Curious, is there a way for me to fix it?

2. Is there a way to mark thanks on answers or what was taken/used for the solution?

Tim

What would you like it to be. I can change it

[tspear]

Originally Posted by theducks

What would you like it to be. I can change it

No icon.
Only because there is no question mark.

Tim

[theducks]

Done
Actually, there was a ? , so I set it