Kobo/Koreader - best way to organise 1000s of books

[queenofthenorth]

I recently switched from Kindle to Kobo (sage) because of the easier book management systems. I have 2,000+ books and am aiming to have them organised by genre for ease of navigation. I've been organising them into genres and sub-genres in Calibre (genre. subgenre), but the original firmware only supports one folder, so I'd initially used the tags. I just installed Koreader and prefer the folder management - is there any way to create sub-collections/ folders? The default seems to be by author. If this is doable - any way a book can sit in two folders?

If none of this is possible, how do you manage your collections?

Any help is much appreciated!

[jkrzok]

Have you tried the Calibre metadata search found in Koreader? From there you can browse tags, titles, series and authors. You can also modify screen taps or gestures to bring up calbre search easily, rather than go through the menu system.

[queenofthenorth]

I have - I was hoping to be able to navigate from the home menu (or access sub folders). Searching the metadata pulls the same categories/folders that I set up in the original firmware.

[Aleron Ives]

If I'm not mistaken, you can use Calibre to create collections based on tags (e.g. one collection per genre), and then you can have Calibre create those collections for you on the Kobo. This only works on Nickel; KOReader just uses a file browser, although a browser that uses book metadata is in development.

[Quoth]

You don't need KOReader on a Sage. It's only advantage is CSS over-rides. The Sage My Books section is superior. They are working on a meta-data based library interface of KOReader.

I prefer to fix ebooks in Calibre and use the native interface. I do have KOReader on an Android eink and did have it on the Elipsa (for PDFs, but now Sage/Elipsa crop PDFs per book).

I only use Folder management on PC and Android outside of Calibre for subject related structure that's a mix of PDF., Djvu, png, jpg, tiff. It's crazy for ebooks. A Library interface like Kobo's My Books that utilises real title, author, collection, series and unread/reading/finished and can sort by date added too is hugely superior.
The default "file manager" interface of KOReader is a 1970s thing for documents with no sensible metadata.

[maddz]

I have 6000+ books on my Forma, and I organise by shelves which are managed from within Calibre. There’s an instruction set in the Calibre forum here, or plenty of details via a Google search ‘shelf management on kobo using calibre’. The main thing is that you can’t see tags on the Kobo itself even when they are in the metadata, so you need to make shelves based on tags.

I find it best to keep shelves fairly high-level, otherwise it means paging through pages of shelves to get to the one you want. So all my non-fiction is in a single shelf, apart from work-related books. Science Fiction has a number of shelves - Alternate History, Cyberpunk, Military SF, Sword & Planet, and so on, along with a general Science Fiction shelf. I tend to break things down once I get to 50+ titles, again to do with multiple pages on the Kobo.

[Hyphen-ated]

is there any way to create sub-collections/ folders?

yes, in KOReader you can definitely have subfolders and nest them as deeply as you want. so for example if you wanted a layout like genre/author/title.epub, you could do that.

i'm not sure about having a book appear in multiple places though.

Originally Posted by Quoth

You don't need KOReader on a Sage. It's only advantage is CSS over-rides.

given how much faster KOReader turns pages on a Forma than Nickel does, i'd expect it to also be noticeably faster on a Sage. (although the cpu on a sage is quite a bit better, so maybe not)

the behavior of the ui in KOReader is also much more customizable, like defining tap zones of whatever size you want, anywhere on the screen, to take whatever action you want

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Hyphen-ated

yes, in KOReader you can definitely have subfolders and nest them as deeply as you want. so for example if you wanted a layout like genre/author/title.epub, you could do that.

And impossibly slow to browse.
It's a file browser, which only suits things with no metadata.

Originally Posted by Hyphen-ated

i'm not sure about having a book appear in multiple places though.

Only by having multiple copies

Originally Posted by Hyphen-ated

given how much faster KOReader turns pages on a Forma than Nickel does, i'd expect it to also be noticeably faster on a Sage. (although the cpu on a sage is quite a bit better, so maybe not)

Even page turn on Touch Version C and Original H2O is fast enough for epubs.

Originally Posted by Hyphen-ated

the behavior of the ui in KOReader is also much more customizable, like defining tap zones of whatever size you want, anywhere on the screen, to take whatever action you want

But the default My Books, + search + Built-in reader is sufficiently customisable. Really all the KOReader "features" are only needed for poor PDFs (which need a big screen) or bad epubs. It's really hard to remember where a setting is on KOReader. So I only use it on eInk Android now and only for epub. The eink Android's native PDF is easier to use. On regular Android I use Xodo for PDFs and images, mostly technical material. I use PocketBook for TTS and Lithium otherwise on Android, though I also use Borrowbox, GooglePlaybooks, Libby etc on eink and regular Android.

I'll only consider re-installing KOReader on any Kobo if it can have a UI as good as Kobo's to browse/find an ebook. I've tried KOReader's Calibre Metadata search and it doesn't mitigate the clunky File browser default.

[HLS]

What is neat about KOBO that kindle does not do is it automatically groups books by Author

[dedeca]

It looks like the KOReader developers are working on a metadata-based file browser. I tested it and I really liked it. But I don't know if it will be approved, I hope so.
Here: https://github.com/koreader/koreader...ent-1552934881

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by HLS

What is neat about KOBO that kindle does not do is it automatically groups books by Author

Much as I think the Kindle is very inferior to the Kobo, it does sort by Author, Title, Recent or Collection. It also has a filter.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by HLS

What is neat about KOBO that kindle does not do is it automatically groups books by Author

My K4nt can. Up on the 5-way to the grouping, then sideways for choice.
(I suspect a Touch model works similar)
What is klunky is SERIES. I have to put the name into Collections, and I use the metadata plugboard to prefix the title with the Index.
Even then
What shows in the list is sad
123-title
and
series_name

123-title
456-another

[ownedbycats]

I'm not familiar at all with Koreader, so no advice around that.

For stock Kobo, making collections is a pretty good organization method (though it does have its glitches, occasionally stalling up the sync process). The KoboTouch(Extended) drivers in Calibre allow you to map that to a custom column, which is far easier than trying to do it on the device.

[II2II]

Create columns for genre and subgenre in Calibre.

You will find a place to configure the path to save files to under Calibre's device configuration, use something like "Books/{#genre}/{#subgenre}".

At least that's how I would do it. Apparently there is a better (albeit more complex) way to configure it which is documented here: https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sub_groups.html

Either way, once you transfer your books to your device they will be stored in a nice directory hierarchy that is easy to access via KOReader.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by II2II

Either way, once you transfer your books to your device they will be stored in a nice directory hierarchy that is easy to access via KOReader.

Not with 1000s of books. Totally slow and painful compared to native library interface using metadata on Kindle, Kobo or Sony.
It's a system only needed for random things that are not ebooks.
Also no item can be in two places.

Also painful to find a book by part of title, author or series or collection. The current KOReader Calibre database search is awkward.

No doubt eventually KOReader will have a Library interface. Then the books that you didn't assign to genres or collections will be browsable.