How do you "organize" books?

[krista8794]

Hi!  New K2 owner here, for a couple of weeks, and I TOTALLY love it.  I did manage to scratch the cover in the first few days I had it - I took it on a trip and hadn't had time to buy a case yet - but I bought a nifty little case for it so that won't happen again, and the case has a light built in, so I think I love it even MORE now if that's possible

I did a little search for this and found some info about tagging but alot of folks made it seem like it was something they were waiting for a fix on so I was hoping there was something a little more permanent - how do y'all organize your books?  It seems like folders are too much to ask for based on what I found, but I'm sure someone must have something clever that I haven't figured out yet as a work around

Thanks for your help!!!

[Anju No. 469]

Hi Krista - Welcome to kindleboards where you will get an answer of some kind or another 

I have my books sorted by most recent first - but that does not do anything for me actually.  I have gotten where when I do read a book I delete it from the kindle since it is in my Media Library on Amazon and I don't need any more pages than I already have.  Someone else will give you another answer I am sure.

[Ann in Arlington]

Here's a discussion about an article that describes a user defined tagging system that many have had reasonable success with.  It utilizes the ability Kindle gives you to add notes to a book and to then search those notes as well as the books.

http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,14696.0.html

[Jason in OH]

I may be in the minority but I really don't have much of a need for folders. I simply don't keep books that I've already read on my device. I only have samples and books to-be-read listed, the rest just lives in my archives. Now I don't plan on going anywhere without Whispernet in the distant future, so for me if there is something I want I can always download it from my archive. This prevents me from having pages and pages of books, as well as a need for folders.

For me what would be more valuable than folders would be a much better tagging and key wording function. Something like Apple's iTunes. This has been discussed, but if the books were already tagged by genre, and had some keywords, and you could add your own as well, that would go a long way toward increasing the cataloging power of the Kindle. Then you could have something like a Smart Folder which could be automatically populated based on user-based criteria, similar to Gmail's Labels. All of this functionality could be easily built into the Kindle for PC application (and Mac soon hopefully ) so that the Kindle itself would remain relatively simple, and then sync with the PC app like iTunes.
 

[knowldgfrk]

i do what Anju does...read it and move it...i was very envious of my friends sony when she came to gloat that she got it..mine is still cooler but the folders/organization it has really ticked me off with envy.....but thus i read slow so im not too worried about getting all my duks in a row with a billion books on my K2...


off topic: Jason your avatar gave me the creepycreeps!...its thanks to the movie I am terrified of clowns...and yes its a real phobia i have to this day...Coulrophobia....my family still likes to tell me " we all float down here"...and "babababilly boy"...i hate them all

[krista8794]

Thanks y'all

I'd imagine that after a while this probably won't matter because I'll be moving things to the archive - but I went a little crazy when I first got my new toy so I have like 30 books on there right now, haha.

[PaulGuy]

Thanks y'all

I'd imagine that after a while this probably won't matter because I'll be moving things to the archive - but I went a little crazy when I first got my new toy so I have like 30 books on there right now, haha.

Is that all? 

[pawsplus]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to folders, but I just delete books I've read.  So I have a few samples and then maybe 20 books on Kate at a time.  Everything else is at Amazon.

[angelad]

Standard folders is definitely a must.  Mine are very disorganized currently.

[krista8794]

I am glad I am not the only one who named my Kindle. 

[Shawna]

I delete after I read and don't keep any samples on it.  I used to have tons of samples cluttering everything up - I would see a book I was interested in and immediately send a sample.  I've pretty much quit doing that. 

I use www.goodreads.com to organize my library now.  When I see a book I want to read I add it to my Goodreads list.  I have all the books I'm interested in reading organized there in categories (you can have as many categories as you want!) - I plan all my reading from there as well as rate books and move them to my "Kindle Read" folder when I'm finished.  So far this is working well for me.  Keep in mind, I have only about 50 books on my Kindle so, we're not talking 100's or anything.  I will use the sample function if I can't get to Goodreads right away so I remember to put it there but then I delete right away.


HTH!

[Anju No. 469]

30 books 50 books oh me oh my 

[mwb]

30 books 50 books oh me oh my  

Oh, those were the days my friend..

In lieu of folders or tags, I tend to take advantage of the most recently sort and keep the ones I'm most likely to want to read soon in the first couple of pages.

[telracs]

30 books 50 books oh me oh my 

I've over 200 items on the kindle, completely disorganized.  Kind of like my bookshelves at home.  When I want to find a book (I'm a big re-reader), I just do a search.

[Betsy the Quilter]

I have over 400 items on Eleanor the Kindle.  They're very well organized.  I can view them by most recent viewed, by author or by title.    The only real problem is when the author name is screwed up as sometimes happens. 

I can jump to the title or author by typing the first couple letters if I'm looking for a specific book.  Other times, I just browse like I do at the library.   

Now that I have KindleForPC, I'm going to do as someone else suggested and send my samples there, so I won't have samples cluttering up my home page.

Betsy

[Wheezie]

I read it then delete it off the K. I have also cut way back on the samples. I have also tried the online services LibraryThing, Shelfari and GoodReads, but I prefer a desktop application.
I really like  http://www.bruji.com/bookpedia/ ($18) , but YMMV of course. 

[Betsy the Quilter]

I read it then delete it off the K. I have also cut way back on the samples. I have also tried the online services LibraryThing, Shelfari and GoodReads, but I prefer a desktop application.
I really like  http://www.bruji.com/bookpedia/ ($18) , but YMMV of course. 

Looks like a nice piece of software for Mac users!

I do use Readerware to inventory my collection when I remember.  One thing I like about it is I can drag books from their Amazon (or other page) onto the software and it adds it.

Betsy

[Figment]

How do I "organize" book?  Serendipitously!   

Our Kindles are no more organized than are our book-shelves, thus opening up the possibility of any number of happy accidents.

I think I would hate to have "folders"...might make me feel obligated to get organized in this one part of my life where I need not be.

[luv4kitties]

I have about 200 books for my Kindle.  I keep them all organized on my computer, with Calibre (even the ones that I get from Amazon).  It's a free program that you can get online.  It lets me sort the books by author, publication date, date added, title, tags, etc. and, if a book has no DRM, you can convert it from one format to another.  You can also do things like add your own tags (such as "read") and delete spaces between paragraphs (which I haven't experimented with yet).   I really like the fact that you can change a book's metadata with the program.  This means that I can change the author's name so that it's always last name, first name (instead of having some that are first name then last name and some last, first, which causes problems when you sort by author on the Kindle).  Calibre also allows you to download images of covers and descriptions.  There are other things you can do with the program (like download newspapers) but I haven't experimented with these functions.  I keep a selection of about 30 unread books on my Kindle at a time and delete them as I read them.

I think it would be nice if we could do all this on the Kindle (maybe in the future), but, for now, I at least like having my books all organized on my computer.  I don't mind hooking the K up to my computer on occasion to download a few books.   

[4Katie]

I'd be happy to just be able to rename books on my K2 so I could keep books in a series in order.

[luv4kitties]

4Katie,
This is one of the main reasons I really like Calibre.  I just put the books on my computer, on Calibre, change the metadata (you could change the titles so your books would be in the proper order) and then plug in my Kindle and transfer the books.  The changes you make to the metadata of books while on Calibre will transfer to your Kindle and your books on K will be in the order you choose (depending on what changes you make to the metadata).