How to keep track of book lists a book is in, along with its index in that list?

fivestones · 10-05-2021, 08:51 AM

There are lots of lists, such as PBS Great American Read or a a friend's list of his top 10 books of all time. Sometimes I will get a book because they are on one of these kinds of lists and add it to my library, but I'd like to be able to keep track of why I got the book (e.g., because it was number one on my friend's top 10 list). I could just put all this info in the comments field, but it'd be nice to be able to just see all the books I have that are on a given list, and in the order they are listed on that list (e.g., PBS Great American Read sorted by their rank on that list from 1 to 100).

I can make a new column with the type "Text column for keeping series-like information" and this works great for both the name of the list of books a given book is in, and its index on that list, but the problem is if a certain book is on more than one list. Lots of lists like "100 books everyone should read in their lifetime" or "50 Books you should read before you turn 50" have some of the same books on them. So it's not unusual for a book to end up in more than one list.

What I really would like is a new column type that combines the series-like information (with an index) and the tag-like column which is comma separated. E.g., in my column for a given book it might say "PBS Great American Read [14], Jim's Top 10 ever books [2]".
Is something like this possible? Is there a different way to do this?

(P.s.: I tried putting all of this info into hierarchical tags, e.g., "PBS Great American Read.14, Jim's Top 10 ever books.02" but there's no way to sort the books and have them come out in order of their index that I can see if I go this route.)

Thanks!

kovidgoyal · 10-05-2021, 11:10 AM

Decide how many maximum lists you want to allow a book to be simultaneously tracked in, and create that many custom columns. You can group them for searching purposes in Preferences->Searching

fivestones · 10-05-2021, 02:25 PM

Oh, wow. I had considered making multiple columns, but the group search feature is something I didn't know about, and that makes it perfect. Especially with ability to have the group search term show up as a user category in the tag browser.

Thanks Kovid! I'm not sure how you have time to keep up with all of this plus people's questions, but I'm grateful.

davidfor · 10-05-2021, 09:49 PM

Have you looked at the Reading List plugin? It is intended for this. You create a reading list for each list and put the books in them. The list maintains the order of the books in them. The list can also set a column value as the book is added or removed. That could be a tag-like column with the list name for searching. You won't see the order in the list in the library, but, you also don't need a multitude of extra columns to account for the number of lists you want.

fivestones · 10-06-2021, 02:55 AM

Oh, nice. I hadn't seen this plugin. I'll check it out. Sounds great! Thanks!

10-05-2021, 08:51 AM	#1
fivestones Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iPhone	How to keep track of book lists a book is in, along with its index in that list? There are lots of lists, such as PBS Great American Read or a a friend's list of his top 10 books of all time. Sometimes I will get a book because they are on one of these kinds of lists and add it to my library, but I'd like to be able to keep track of why I got the book (e.g., because it was number one on my friend's top 10 list). I could just put all this info in the comments field, but it'd be nice to be able to just see all the books I have that are on a given list, and in the order they are listed on that list (e.g., PBS Great American Read sorted by their rank on that list from 1 to 100). I can make a new column with the type "Text column for keeping series-like information" and this works great for both the name of the list of books a given book is in, and its index on that list, but the problem is if a certain book is on more than one list. Lots of lists like "100 books everyone should read in their lifetime" or "50 Books you should read before you turn 50" have some of the same books on them. So it's not unusual for a book to end up in more than one list. What I really would like is a new column type that combines the series-like information (with an index) and the tag-like column which is comma separated. E.g., in my column for a given book it might say "PBS Great American Read [14], Jim's Top 10 ever books [2]". Is something like this possible? Is there a different way to do this? (P.s.: I tried putting all of this info into hierarchical tags, e.g., "PBS Great American Read.14, Jim's Top 10 ever books.02" but there's no way to sort the books and have them come out in order of their index that I can see if I go this route.) Thanks!

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10-05-2021, 11:10 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 44,525 Karma: 24495948 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Decide how many maximum lists you want to allow a book to be simultaneously tracked in, and create that many custom columns. You can group them for searching purposes in Preferences->Searching

10-05-2021, 02:25 PM	#3
fivestones Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iPhone	Oh, wow. I had considered making multiple columns, but the group search feature is something I didn't know about, and that makes it perfect. Especially with ability to have the group search term show up as a user category in the tag browser. Thanks Kovid! I'm not sure how you have time to keep up with all of this plus people's questions, but I'm grateful.

10-05-2021, 09:49 PM	#4
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,905 Karma: 47303822 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Have you looked at the Reading List plugin? It is intended for this. You create a reading list for each list and put the books in them. The list maintains the order of the books in them. The list can also set a column value as the book is added or removed. That could be a tag-like column with the list name for searching. You won't see the order in the list in the library, but, you also don't need a multitude of extra columns to account for the number of lists you want.

10-06-2021, 02:55 AM	#5
fivestones Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2017 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iPhone	Oh, nice. I hadn't seen this plugin. I'll check it out. Sounds great! Thanks!