Share your best library management tips, ideas, or resources!

[Far_Pen_6884]

I'm curious to hear about the most interesting library management tips, ideas, or resources that users have found while using Calibre. So far, the ones I've found most intriguing are column coloring based on reading status and using a tag-like field to track reread dates. I'm also looking for solutions to a few specific challenges I've noted in the TODO section of this gist, which includes links to a few useful ideas and resources I've come across. If you have any tips or tricks that have made your library management more efficient or enjoyable, please share them!

Here are a copy of the resources in case the gist is down in the future:

• FanFicFare wiki
• MobileRead FanFicFare Thread
• MobileRead Fanfiction Metadata Management Thread
• Setting up Calibre and FanFicFare for Downloading from AO3
• Calibre & FanFicFare Tutorial
• Calibre Fanficfare tips & tricks - FAQ
• A Complete Guide to 'Limited HTML' on AO3
• defaults.ini
• Calibre Manual Template Reference
• Calibre Manual Template Language

[Far_Pen_6884]

Color coding based on reading status

https://imgur.com/a/039AdPE

Preferences > Look & Feel > Column Coloring > Add Rule:

• #abb2bf, if reading_status is Not Read
• #98c379, if reading_status is Read
• #61afef, if reading_status is Want To Read
• #e5c07b, if reading_status is Currently Reading
• #e06c75, if reading_status is Did Not Finish

[Far_Pen_6884]

Keeping track of multiple (re)read dates?

- The original poster (Groupie) wants to track multiple re-read dates for books. They currently have a column showing percentage read (#kobopourcent) and last read date (#kobodernièrelecture) from Kobo data, but want a way to append multiple 100% read dates into a "re-read dates" column, separated by commas or semicolons, adding each new date without overwriting previous ones.

- A key contribution is from ownedbycats who shared an "Action Chain" plugin approach:
- When marking a book as read, the chain:

1. Sets #last_read (datetime) to current datetime.
2. Sets #percent_read (integer) to 100.
3. Increments #times_read (integer) by one.
4. Prompts to set #rating (rating).
5. Copies the date from #last_read to #read_dates (taglike)

- This approach allows automated appending of multiple re-read dates to a taglike field in Calibre.
- Users report some errors with the Refresh View action in the chain, which can be fixed by removing that step.
- The date format can be customized.
- Users are encouraged to change column names to match their Kobo plugin column names.

As I often re-read books, I like to store all my completion dates in a taglike column (e.g. 2021-03-13, 2022-04-21, 2023-04-17, 2024-05-29). I use this composite column to group them by month in the tag browser:

source

program:

	new_dates = '';

	for dates in '#dates_read':
		converted = format_date(dates, 'yyyy.MM (MMMM)');
		new_dates = list_union(new_dates, converted, ',')
	rof

Then you set it to hierarchical in the `Look & Feel > Tag Browser` settings.

[Rellwood]

Get all your Goodreads re-read dates and book genres -

https://github.com/PaulKlinger/Enhance-GoodReads-Export

Download this little .exe file and point it to a recent Goodreads Library Export .csv,

when it's done going through the whole export you will see that it has appended a genres column and a read dates column. You will need to do some editing in Excell to format it, but once it's formatted, you can easily add it to Calibre and fill some extra date and genre columns.

[Sirtel]

Heh. I'm boring. I don't keep track of my read dates or reread dates at all. I did once, 20 years ago when I still read paper books, but I lost interest. It's not important to me when I read or reread something. I just mark the book as read in calibre and that's it (I do use column coloring for the books that have been read).

Maybe because I'm more interested in ensuring that my books are formatted exactly as I like and I spend most of my calibre time on editing the formatting, not on constant fiddling with various metadata. YMMV.

[Far_Pen_6884]

### Estimate reading time

Reading time calculation tutorial

In Calibre, it is possible to create an estimated reading time column by using a custom column combined with the Count Pages plugin for word count, and then calculating reading time based on your reading speed (words per minute).

Here is the typical method to do this:

1. Use the Count Pages plugin to get the word count for each book, and store that in a custom integer column (e.g., named "word_count").
2. Create a second custom column #reading_time, setting its type to "Column built from other columns".
3. In this calculated column, use a template program or formula to divide the word count by your reading speed (e.g., 250 words per minute) to get the reading time in minutes.
4. Optionally, format this time to show hours and minutes.

For example, on Reddit and MobileRead forums, users have shared a sample Calibre template program for the reading time column:

program:
wordsperminute=250;
words=raw_field('#word_count');  # Replace '#word_count' with your actual word count column's lookup name
minutestoread=divide(words, wordsperminute);
hourstoread=divide(minutestoread, 60);
hours = floor(hourstoread);
minutes = format_number(mod(minutestoread,60), '{:02d}');
reading_time=strcat(hours, ':', minutes);

This calculates the reading time as "hours:minutes" based on the word count divided by an average reading speed you set (e.g., 250 wpm).