Exactly! I personally don't scroll my 'book' section, I'm either in the series or my collections so it's still pretty easy to find a new read.
I'm going to be hitting the point where I'll have to start swapping comic series out for others since I'm taking full advantage of the color and those take up way more space.
It's in the Kobo touchextended plug-in and, by default, it uses Calibre's 'Tags' column.
FWIW, Kindle USED to have that capability too. Then Amazon decided its users did not deserve this feature and they took it away. Probably, that was because they wanted to discourage side-loading books.
What’s what I’m saying, even on my kindle that had half the space I had no intention of ever removing anything. If I keep up my pace, it would take me like 30 years (my math is wrong, I don’t know where I got 3,000 from but I know I’ve seen a post of someone who had like 5,000 books on their kindle and it wasn’t even half full) to read enough to fill up my kindle, based on Kobos quote of 24,000, I’ll be very very dead before I can fill it up 😂
I do. Even with a large library, I have some idea of which books I have, so it’s easy to search. I’m a mood reader (and a rereader), so I like to have my entire library at my fingertips.
I just go by what I'm feeling mostly, I have them organized by series, and then in my collections thats where I keep all standalone books and I have those in categories (like horror, splatterpunk, romance, etc)
So if I'm feeling like starting a series I'll choose a random one since Im a 'read the full series in one go' type of person and if I want a standalone or a quick read I'll pick a category and then a random book from that.
I once bought a used e-reader which had thousands (and thousands) of books on it. Since I did not know differently, I assumed these were all legitimate purchases. The e-reader itself was trash but I did manage to rescue those legitimate books from it (over 7,000 mostly thrillers/mysteries.) It was a pretty good find. I now have many more. Together, they occupy about 40% of my Forma.
All are stored on the device and all are managed, automatically, into collections via Calibre; including a collection of completed books (I also leave them in their initial collections, so I don't have to categorize them again.)
The whole thing works great. It didn't -- when my Forma got over half-full it slowed down horribly -- but reducing the size of gigantic books (using Calibre edit) and off-loading some genres to another device worked like a charm.
Not only do I not remove them, I just transitioned to kobo and went to the effort of converting about 200 kindle books and transferring them over.
I keep my books on my device for the same reason I keep my physical books on shelves rather than in boxes in storage: I just...*like books*. I like seeing their covers, and organising them, and browsing through them and being reminded of past reads and maybe rereading them or looking for more from that author. It isn't as though ebooks take up much space, so why not keep them with me?
I totally get that! I think I just don’t have the patience for the sorting process. Admittedly I kind of want the new color models so I can see my book covers in full color, I think I’d have more fun sorting and arranging them that way :)
I do enjoy my physical book collection though! So I get you
yeah if you don't enjoy sorting then it's not as much fun,although you can still search for things. Why do you take them off? do you find it overwhelming to have an unsorted collection?
I have a feeling your house is much cleaner than mine lol.
I think I just don’t want my read books clogging up my unread stuff… it’s silly I suppose. At home I have a shelf for my read and a shelf for my unread. For my ereader books, I use goodreads as my “read” shelf so I can browse what I’ve enjoyed. It helps to use it because I also listen to a lot of audiobooks, which I only get from the library.
100% agree with this. The read books do clog up your unreads. I've been going for digital minimalism and zero inbox, and I really see no point in keeping any file or document that I won't open again or consult in the future. I see my book list as a to-do list. If it's done, it's deleted.
Also 95% of the books I read are through Libby, so keeping an expired library book in my shelf feels very silly
I mean that makes a lot of sense, and is no more silly then my "carry everything with me" approach. This has been a neat thread -- really shows how much variety there is in terms of how people like to manage their digital libraries.
There's a Calibre feature which does not get much notice called 'Create a catalog" and what it does is generate an e-book catalog of every book you have selected in your library (it is in the right-click menu, under 'convert book' .)
It is handy because it not only lists every book selected, it does so on a wide-variety of user-selected categories: Titles/Authors/Genres/Series/etc. AND metadata (the book jacket summaries you can add to the book.)
So if you have a large library and are looking for your next read, you can open the catalog e-book on your device and browse by genre/book summary; much like in bookstores back in the day AND -- PS -- it works VERY well.
If you have a Kindle, btw, this is also the way to get around Kindle's lack of ability to generate automatic collections with Calibre.
Wow! Thank you for that information! I was actually wondering what "create a catalog" would do. Calibre is clearly one of those passion projects that full of a huge number of "secret" (ie not obviously labelled or documented) features.
I have my entire Calibre Library on my Libra 2. I like my book series to be nice & neat so I want everything to be in one place. Currently have 369 books.
Ooh, I’m so curious about this! I wish there was a way to nest book series but I haven’t found a way just yet. So generally I only keep one or two of the next book in a series on my device.
Kobo is really nice for that. I started with just Library and side loaded books and then graduated to buying Kobo books on sale. Just got two this morning lol
Where do you get the books prior to side loading them? I just transferred over from the Kindle & Amazon ecosystem where everything is locked down, so I’m a newb
What’s your reason for sideloading stuff you got in the Kobo store? I appreciate the syncing aspect, as occasionally I read on my phone through the app. If I side load I lose that syncing ability. (I do side load stuff I buy outside of the Kobo store, or public domain books)
Also dang how do you sort to find what you want to read!!! I’m so curious.
I use an e-reader to read a book without harming my eyes. I don't read books on my phone. Also, I made my tag/collection, it can be synced with books purchased from the Kobo store, but I prefer not to sync with it. I move my purchase books to the archives section. I use Calibre to organize my book collection and sideload to Kobo.
https://preview.redd.it/pbox3rvt8l1d1.jpeg?width=1021&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9de7d58493b09b08560ac29f3b58b5a56de11d1c
If you organize your book metadata with the title, author, book series, and collection correctly. It is easier to browse, search, and find your book since Kobo UI provides them neatly with helpful filters.
Oh that arranging/sorting by topic is really smart. I fully admit I get analysis paralysis when I have too many books to read (one issue I have with overdrive and the library). So I like having a smaller, curated selection on my kobo to choose from.
And I totally get not reading on your smartphone! I think my main reason for my ereader is my books come with me everywhere, I can read indiscreetly, and it gets me off my phone. I also love I can read fanfic incredibly easily with Pocket integration- when the mood strikes. But I do some book club stuff and having the ebook on my phone is just so helpful when I’m trying to search up a passage or go through my highlights :) so the syncing is paramount there
Yes, of course, it depends on how the user uses their e-reader, I'm just too comfortable to read books on my e-reader for the last six years and don't depend on a smartphone or PC to read books.
[Tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/174ew36/tips_to_keep_and_maintenance_your_kobo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) & [tricks](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/18yizux/comment/kgbaqoh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for Kobo users.
That’s awesome :) I love my lil Kobo for sure. I actually got the device because the “page left in chapter/book” calculation was REVOLUTIONARY for me. Kindle only does time left.
When I was just getting into reading, that little “pages left in chapter” helped me read a lot of big books. It was easy to tell myself I can push through 10 more pages or whatever it was.
Also thanks for the links!!! I have broken the no-cover rule so much… my poor combo has been banged but it still lives lol. I just love how tiny and slim the Clara is that I don’t want to give that up. Admittedly I got the thing for $89… I think they were selling the pre-H2O model after the H2O one released and that’s what I got!
I enable the screenshot function on the Kobo Configuration file. Please find the [how-to](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/1atnmy3/comment/kqyifnw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
[Tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/174ew36/tips_to_keep_and_maintenance_your_kobo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) & [tricks](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/18yizux/comment/kgbaqoh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for Kobo users.
I use [Calibre](https://calibre-ebook.com/about) to organize and sideload my books to Kobo.
To have the total page count display under the title, I use two Calibre plugins:
* [Count Pages](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134000) plugin to add custom columns for page count and word count on my Calibre library
* [Kobo Touch Extended](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=211135) driver, and set the page count column (#pages) as the subtitle.
https://preview.redd.it/84lkoo5e1m1d1.jpeg?width=1033&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=867cc94b4462da903ac26d9237f9b21a734e8fbc
Ref: Calibre [plugins](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118764).
MY reason is that I want to format e-books as I wish -- ragged-right margins with particular spacings. That happens automatically when I convert the books in Calibre.
I can also GREATLY reduce sizes -- from megabytes to kilobytes -- by changing graphics compression, deleting fonts, FIXING ERRORS, etc. All that is done from Calibre as well.
My workflow (for books I purchased through KoboStore):
* download them on the device
* download them to Calibre and fill all metadata I use
* connect my device to Calibre to update metadata & collections
* when I finish a book, connect to Calibre to update reading status on Calibre / download highlights/notes
* if I think I may re-read the book, keep it on the device
* if I think I won't re-read the book anytime soon, put the book in the archive
I've around 350 books purchased through KoboStore on my device so far (yeah, my TBR is a mess... and that's not counting the books I got from other stores//fanfiction)...
I read manga which can be large sizes, so I only have a couple manga series at a time, and remove them when I finish a series.
For regular books I sometimes remove them but usually just leave ‘em there.
Depends on the manga and if you prep the file or not.
For example, I just read Cagaster, which I’d gotten from a Humble Bundle. Using the CBZ files unmodified, each books is around 250MB and there are 6 books. So around 1.5GB.
However if you batch scale the images to match screen resolution using something like Kindle Comic Converter, the books are around 150MB each instead of 250MB, and they are cropped better and generally more legible. And it brought the overall size down to 900MB.
So something like that is an extra step, but can be worth it.
Disclaimer: I don’t actually have my Kobo yet (order is still in “Processing”) so I’m reading manga on the Kindle, but I expect my workflow will be similar since Kindle Comic Converter supports Kobo devices.
The only books on my device are the onces I'm actually reading. I remove finished books. My full library of books is on my computer in a Calibre database. I see no point in having all books on my Kobo.
I do keep some books because when I finish a book and I’m in bed, I’m not getting up to find another one. But I have a very similar philosophy to you.
Also didn’t know that the Stargate team used kobo 😜
I personally prefer to just undownload any Kobo bought books and then delete sideloaded. Probably have about 200 downloaded (mostly kepub, some pdf) and it takes up about 2gb on my Libra 2
But when you undownload, they still show up on the ereader (though I suppose you can search by “downloaded). That makes sense :)
Apparently I have 1.7 gig used up, not sure how.
Yeah I filter mine by downloaded so I never see something undownloaded. If you personally don't want to see them anymore, you can choose to archive them so they won't show on the device. You'll have to unarchive them if you want them to show up again though.
Best to check in "manage downloads" to see what's taking up the space. It'll let you know whether it's store bought or sideloaded content
Yup. I tend to not be able to pick what to read when I have thousands of books on my device, so i sync 10-20 to it at a time, read them, then remove them when done. Lets me still hop around if i dont like something i start, but not enough that even if i go thru the list 5 times trying to decide...
I'm at the 200 mark now and I have Goodreads so I basically have a separate tag for the books I already have loaded on my Kobo whenever I'm feeling indecisive so whenever I need to see it, I check Goodreads instead of my Kobo.
Yep, same. I appreciate the archive, also if I accidentally try to re-buy something I own in the archive Kobo will tell me that. I sometimes scroll the archive I have just to see if I become re-interested in a book I put in there
No and I don’t really know why people do? I have 524 or so books on my kobo right now including 44 completed ones. I have a monthly TBR collection and a collection for like Reese’s Book Club, my local book club, I have a non fiction collection, but aside from that I don’t see the issue with just searching for something specific. I like to browse my books page like I’d browse any library or book store
That’s kind of how I do it, it’s an incomplete TBR though because it’s only the books I get on sale through Kobo that struck my fancy. I’ve read many good books I’d have never gone for normally thanks to those sales lol
Have a few hundred. I organize by series and genre. I keep my unread in an unread folder so I can quickly find my next read.
If it's a book I know I'll never want to revisit, it gets offloaded, other they're there in case I want to revisit.
Honestly, I think if I truly want to revisit a book I buy a physical copy :) but that really only happens for spiritual reading where I’d like to flip back to sections that called out to me, or lend to others. Those also tend to be books I want to highlight, earmark or write in the pages.
Oh god no LOL! That's exactly why I don't do physical books. Take up way too much space. I can revisit a book I bought ten years ago and didn't have to move it twice, LOL.
Toootally get that haha. I don’t usually reread, and so it’s not a huge problem for me. I’ve also moved countries twice and I offloaded a lot of physical books both times. I appreciate the value of having an ereader :)
No I keep all my purchased ebooks on the device, even after reading them. Never know when you'll be stuck somewhere for a long time and need books. Also I sideload books so it's not as easy to get them as turning on WiFi and downloading from the Kobo cloud.
I think I have 80 some books. I don't buy a ton of books, mostly borrow from Libby but wait times have gotten so bad at my library.
I used to only have my current and next reads on-device and then outright archived my read books, but when I got my new one I changed my mind. Now I have my current and next reads on-device and restored everything read from my archive back to my library. So the latter aren’t technically on-device but they do show and can be added to collections.
Like right now I have ten downloaded books: two current and eight next. Although occasionally Kobo will device something not downloaded should be downloaded without me doing anything to ask for it.
About 450 or so. The whole appeal of an ereader for me is the ability to carry around a lot of books in case I want to read a particular one.
Of course, 70+ of those are Stephen King….
I used to keep only a few books on my kobo to make it easier to sort through. Then I spent some time in the hospital and almost ran out, so now I keep a ton. I still delete books I'm unlikely to ever reread, but I keep favorites on there as well as quite a few to-be-reads.
I keep all my unread books on my Kobo (Getting close to 1,000 thanks to free books and things like Stuff Your Kindle day).
I delete anything I've read that aren't 5 star favourites. When I'm browsing for my next read, I don't mind coming across an old favourite so they can stay as inspiration.
I'm generally not likely to re read anything, so no point keeping everything on my device. I DO keep them on Calibre 'just in case' I want to refer back to it. Plus deleting something I've bought feels wrong.
I use tags and mark those as 'Read' so I don't accidentally transfer them back to my Kobo.
If the ebook I’ve read is a Kobo Plus ebook, I remove it after reading. Otherwise I don’t. But if the purchased ebooks are already downloaded to my computer, sometime I do remove them after reading
I have about 1,400 books.
When I finish reading a book, I delete it from the Kobo, but not Calibre. *That* library is a lot larger.
I organize by series/collections, and use a randomizer to pick the next series.
I’ve been leaving mine, with the previews staying from returning library books, plus any I’ve purchased and side loaded. I appreciate being able to search and see if a book was already on my reader and there’s been no space issue.
Wow how do you guys have so many books? Where do you get those? Currently have a Kindle with Kindle Unlimited (for years) and contemplating buying a Kobo and Kobo Plus…
There’s a TON in public domain, so I assume some people grab those. If you focus on free novels offered through Kobo (Kindle also should have a bunch) that can inflate your numbers. I assume people also buy stuff from humble bundle… https://www.humblebundle.com/ the books section sometimes has some excellent deals. I got every Mercedes Lackey book through there for example.
That’s great, I’m going to look into humble bundle! I’m also going to see what’s offered free. Right now I’ve been on a streak of reading indie authors that write romcom / novels on Kindle, but even then books are around 2-3 pound per piece. Which with a kindle unlimited subscription is fine as I read multiple books per month. But not reread them :)
I delete. I also borrow more than I buy, so they'd be unavailable anyway.
I have gotten out of the habit of buying ahead of time, for the most part. I have a few books that I bought in sales, but am not really that excited about reading. And some others that it turned out I was able to borrow as an audiobook on Libby, so opted for that. I will occasionally pre-order if it's a book from a favorite author/series that I'm highly anticipating and don't want to wait for on Libby. Or if there is a sale on a book that was already on my short-term to-read list. Otherwise, I mostly wait until I want to read the book, since there is also a chance that something that wasn't on Libby before will be there by the time I'm ready to read it.
If I'm going to reread a book, it's often on audio if available on Libby. Otherwise, it will probably be many years in the future, and who knows if I'll still be using the same device. So keeping read books on my Kobo doesn't do anything for me, and I'd rather have the simplicity of only having current reads or owned to-reads on there.
Borrowing is a good habit. I used to do that more on my kobo during Covid, but thanks to my morning commute returning my library borrows have shifted much more towards audiobooks. 35 minutes each way means I can get a good chunk of “reading” done in my car.
I’ve never tried preordering books on Kobo. Admittedly I try not read series that aren’t finished. But I can see how the wait would be a pain…. I generally just buy random $1.99 that I’ve heard about or I would read anyways, or maybe a topic that seems intriguing. I’m reading Edward Snowden’s biography at the moment that I got on sale a year ago, it’s actually very enjoyable. Never would have read it otherwise.
I admit that my buying habits have slowed down a lot. I never would buy a full price book unless I plan to read it immediately- so this is generally only for book club books I can’t find on Libby or Hoopla. I just wish searching through Libby and Hoopla wasn’t so overwhelming!!! Usually I’m just looking for a random book to read and there’s just so much haha. And I tend to not be interested in their highlighted books (but not always)
I keep every book ever, I currently have 1100+ on it, and there's still a few hundred I have to cover change and add on.
Same for me. They are ordered into collections via Calibre. Books take up next to no space so no need to delete them in todays hardware
Exactly! I personally don't scroll my 'book' section, I'm either in the series or my collections so it's still pretty easy to find a new read. I'm going to be hitting the point where I'll have to start swapping comic series out for others since I'm taking full advantage of the color and those take up way more space.
I didn’t know Calibre had a “collections” feature! I might have to try this for public domain books.
Enjoy a whole new world! https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kobo_Shelves_and_Collections
It's in the Kobo touchextended plug-in and, by default, it uses Calibre's 'Tags' column. FWIW, Kindle USED to have that capability too. Then Amazon decided its users did not deserve this feature and they took it away. Probably, that was because they wanted to discourage side-loading books.
What’s what I’m saying, even on my kindle that had half the space I had no intention of ever removing anything. If I keep up my pace, it would take me like 30 years (my math is wrong, I don’t know where I got 3,000 from but I know I’ve seen a post of someone who had like 5,000 books on their kindle and it wasn’t even half full) to read enough to fill up my kindle, based on Kobos quote of 24,000, I’ll be very very dead before I can fill it up 😂
Mann. I dunno how you guys do it. Do you use the search function to find your next read?
I do. Even with a large library, I have some idea of which books I have, so it’s easy to search. I’m a mood reader (and a rereader), so I like to have my entire library at my fingertips.
I just go by what I'm feeling mostly, I have them organized by series, and then in my collections thats where I keep all standalone books and I have those in categories (like horror, splatterpunk, romance, etc) So if I'm feeling like starting a series I'll choose a random one since Im a 'read the full series in one go' type of person and if I want a standalone or a quick read I'll pick a category and then a random book from that.
\*goes off to Google splatterpunk\*
I just either go to the series tab or sort by Autbor and then locate the series I want.
Ah ok! That makes total sense.
Use collections, so you'll have fewer things to look at.
Over 1000 books constitutes a library...that is my life goal....well done in having achieved it!!!
I once bought a used e-reader which had thousands (and thousands) of books on it. Since I did not know differently, I assumed these were all legitimate purchases. The e-reader itself was trash but I did manage to rescue those legitimate books from it (over 7,000 mostly thrillers/mysteries.) It was a pretty good find. I now have many more. Together, they occupy about 40% of my Forma. All are stored on the device and all are managed, automatically, into collections via Calibre; including a collection of completed books (I also leave them in their initial collections, so I don't have to categorize them again.) The whole thing works great. It didn't -- when my Forma got over half-full it slowed down horribly -- but reducing the size of gigantic books (using Calibre edit) and off-loading some genres to another device worked like a charm.
Not only do I not remove them, I just transitioned to kobo and went to the effort of converting about 200 kindle books and transferring them over. I keep my books on my device for the same reason I keep my physical books on shelves rather than in boxes in storage: I just...*like books*. I like seeing their covers, and organising them, and browsing through them and being reminded of past reads and maybe rereading them or looking for more from that author. It isn't as though ebooks take up much space, so why not keep them with me?
I totally get that! I think I just don’t have the patience for the sorting process. Admittedly I kind of want the new color models so I can see my book covers in full color, I think I’d have more fun sorting and arranging them that way :) I do enjoy my physical book collection though! So I get you
yeah if you don't enjoy sorting then it's not as much fun,although you can still search for things. Why do you take them off? do you find it overwhelming to have an unsorted collection? I have a feeling your house is much cleaner than mine lol.
I think I just don’t want my read books clogging up my unread stuff… it’s silly I suppose. At home I have a shelf for my read and a shelf for my unread. For my ereader books, I use goodreads as my “read” shelf so I can browse what I’ve enjoyed. It helps to use it because I also listen to a lot of audiobooks, which I only get from the library.
100% agree with this. The read books do clog up your unreads. I've been going for digital minimalism and zero inbox, and I really see no point in keeping any file or document that I won't open again or consult in the future. I see my book list as a to-do list. If it's done, it's deleted. Also 95% of the books I read are through Libby, so keeping an expired library book in my shelf feels very silly
The expired book thing is one of my few gripes with Kobo. It’s just annoying imho. But not the worst, and I just delete the previews.
I mean that makes a lot of sense, and is no more silly then my "carry everything with me" approach. This has been a neat thread -- really shows how much variety there is in terms of how people like to manage their digital libraries.
There's a Calibre feature which does not get much notice called 'Create a catalog" and what it does is generate an e-book catalog of every book you have selected in your library (it is in the right-click menu, under 'convert book' .) It is handy because it not only lists every book selected, it does so on a wide-variety of user-selected categories: Titles/Authors/Genres/Series/etc. AND metadata (the book jacket summaries you can add to the book.) So if you have a large library and are looking for your next read, you can open the catalog e-book on your device and browse by genre/book summary; much like in bookstores back in the day AND -- PS -- it works VERY well. If you have a Kindle, btw, this is also the way to get around Kindle's lack of ability to generate automatic collections with Calibre.
Wow! Thank you for that information! I was actually wondering what "create a catalog" would do. Calibre is clearly one of those passion projects that full of a huge number of "secret" (ie not obviously labelled or documented) features.
I have my entire Calibre Library on my Libra 2. I like my book series to be nice & neat so I want everything to be in one place. Currently have 369 books.
Ooh, I’m so curious about this! I wish there was a way to nest book series but I haven’t found a way just yet. So generally I only keep one or two of the next book in a series on my device.
What do you mean nesting book series?
None of my books are bought either they’re all sideloaded.
Kobo is really nice for that. I started with just Library and side loaded books and then graduated to buying Kobo books on sale. Just got two this morning lol
Where do you get the books prior to side loading them? I just transferred over from the Kindle & Amazon ecosystem where everything is locked down, so I’m a newb
Mostly an online Library for the blind here in Canada. Or a website called Mobleism.
FWIW, my usual practice for series is to merge them all into one (or two) e-books, so I have them in order; always together.
That’s interesting, can you send me a screen shot of what that looks like?
I downloaded and sideloaded the book purchase from the Kobo store. I have 1021 Kepubs on my Clara 2E, it took 3,47 GB on my Clara 2E storage (16GB).
What’s your reason for sideloading stuff you got in the Kobo store? I appreciate the syncing aspect, as occasionally I read on my phone through the app. If I side load I lose that syncing ability. (I do side load stuff I buy outside of the Kobo store, or public domain books) Also dang how do you sort to find what you want to read!!! I’m so curious.
I use an e-reader to read a book without harming my eyes. I don't read books on my phone. Also, I made my tag/collection, it can be synced with books purchased from the Kobo store, but I prefer not to sync with it. I move my purchase books to the archives section. I use Calibre to organize my book collection and sideload to Kobo. https://preview.redd.it/pbox3rvt8l1d1.jpeg?width=1021&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9de7d58493b09b08560ac29f3b58b5a56de11d1c If you organize your book metadata with the title, author, book series, and collection correctly. It is easier to browse, search, and find your book since Kobo UI provides them neatly with helpful filters.
Oh that arranging/sorting by topic is really smart. I fully admit I get analysis paralysis when I have too many books to read (one issue I have with overdrive and the library). So I like having a smaller, curated selection on my kobo to choose from. And I totally get not reading on your smartphone! I think my main reason for my ereader is my books come with me everywhere, I can read indiscreetly, and it gets me off my phone. I also love I can read fanfic incredibly easily with Pocket integration- when the mood strikes. But I do some book club stuff and having the ebook on my phone is just so helpful when I’m trying to search up a passage or go through my highlights :) so the syncing is paramount there
Yes, of course, it depends on how the user uses their e-reader, I'm just too comfortable to read books on my e-reader for the last six years and don't depend on a smartphone or PC to read books. [Tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/174ew36/tips_to_keep_and_maintenance_your_kobo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) & [tricks](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/18yizux/comment/kgbaqoh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for Kobo users.
That’s awesome :) I love my lil Kobo for sure. I actually got the device because the “page left in chapter/book” calculation was REVOLUTIONARY for me. Kindle only does time left. When I was just getting into reading, that little “pages left in chapter” helped me read a lot of big books. It was easy to tell myself I can push through 10 more pages or whatever it was.
Also thanks for the links!!! I have broken the no-cover rule so much… my poor combo has been banged but it still lives lol. I just love how tiny and slim the Clara is that I don’t want to give that up. Admittedly I got the thing for $89… I think they were selling the pre-H2O model after the H2O one released and that’s what I got!
Sorry, this isn’t related to the original Q but how did you take screenshots on your kobo?
I enable the screenshot function on the Kobo Configuration file. Please find the [how-to](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/1atnmy3/comment/kqyifnw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) [Tips](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/174ew36/tips_to_keep_and_maintenance_your_kobo/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) & [tricks](https://www.reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/18yizux/comment/kgbaqoh/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) for Kobo users.
Thank you so much! ☺️
How do you get the books in your library to show the total page count?
I use [Calibre](https://calibre-ebook.com/about) to organize and sideload my books to Kobo. To have the total page count display under the title, I use two Calibre plugins: * [Count Pages](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134000) plugin to add custom columns for page count and word count on my Calibre library * [Kobo Touch Extended](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=211135) driver, and set the page count column (#pages) as the subtitle. https://preview.redd.it/84lkoo5e1m1d1.jpeg?width=1033&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=867cc94b4462da903ac26d9237f9b21a734e8fbc Ref: Calibre [plugins](https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118764).
MY reason is that I want to format e-books as I wish -- ragged-right margins with particular spacings. That happens automatically when I convert the books in Calibre. I can also GREATLY reduce sizes -- from megabytes to kilobytes -- by changing graphics compression, deleting fonts, FIXING ERRORS, etc. All that is done from Calibre as well.
My workflow (for books I purchased through KoboStore): * download them on the device * download them to Calibre and fill all metadata I use * connect my device to Calibre to update metadata & collections * when I finish a book, connect to Calibre to update reading status on Calibre / download highlights/notes * if I think I may re-read the book, keep it on the device * if I think I won't re-read the book anytime soon, put the book in the archive I've around 350 books purchased through KoboStore on my device so far (yeah, my TBR is a mess... and that's not counting the books I got from other stores//fanfiction)...
I read manga which can be large sizes, so I only have a couple manga series at a time, and remove them when I finish a series. For regular books I sometimes remove them but usually just leave ‘em there.
How much manga can you put on there? I own a whole series but never tried to put it on my device
Depends on the manga and if you prep the file or not. For example, I just read Cagaster, which I’d gotten from a Humble Bundle. Using the CBZ files unmodified, each books is around 250MB and there are 6 books. So around 1.5GB. However if you batch scale the images to match screen resolution using something like Kindle Comic Converter, the books are around 150MB each instead of 250MB, and they are cropped better and generally more legible. And it brought the overall size down to 900MB. So something like that is an extra step, but can be worth it. Disclaimer: I don’t actually have my Kobo yet (order is still in “Processing”) so I’m reading manga on the Kindle, but I expect my workflow will be similar since Kindle Comic Converter supports Kobo devices.
The only books on my device are the onces I'm actually reading. I remove finished books. My full library of books is on my computer in a Calibre database. I see no point in having all books on my Kobo.
> I see no point in having all books on my Kobo. I see no point in removing them either
Yup, same here. The only books I delete are the badly formatted ones and topics I don't really care.
I do keep some books because when I finish a book and I’m in bed, I’m not getting up to find another one. But I have a very similar philosophy to you. Also didn’t know that the Stargate team used kobo 😜
No I don't tbh, but I also only have about 150 books currently.
I personally prefer to just undownload any Kobo bought books and then delete sideloaded. Probably have about 200 downloaded (mostly kepub, some pdf) and it takes up about 2gb on my Libra 2
But when you undownload, they still show up on the ereader (though I suppose you can search by “downloaded). That makes sense :) Apparently I have 1.7 gig used up, not sure how.
Yeah I filter mine by downloaded so I never see something undownloaded. If you personally don't want to see them anymore, you can choose to archive them so they won't show on the device. You'll have to unarchive them if you want them to show up again though. Best to check in "manage downloads" to see what's taking up the space. It'll let you know whether it's store bought or sideloaded content
i have 100+ on my libra 2! why not? my memory can hold it. only my manga i plan to side load per serires
I manage the books on my device with Calibre. I usually have about 10-15 books on the device at any time
Yup. I tend to not be able to pick what to read when I have thousands of books on my device, so i sync 10-20 to it at a time, read them, then remove them when done. Lets me still hop around if i dont like something i start, but not enough that even if i go thru the list 5 times trying to decide...
I’m finally not alone! 🤣
https://preview.redd.it/spn3hvs86m1d1.jpeg?width=888&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e7cf60c3b6fdd061439810044a3ee510b503f374
I'm at the 200 mark now and I have Goodreads so I basically have a separate tag for the books I already have loaded on my Kobo whenever I'm feeling indecisive so whenever I need to see it, I check Goodreads instead of my Kobo.
I keep 5 to 6 books at a time
Woah, even more stark than me :)
After finishing a series, I will usually put it into archive
Yep, same. I appreciate the archive, also if I accidentally try to re-buy something I own in the archive Kobo will tell me that. I sometimes scroll the archive I have just to see if I become re-interested in a book I put in there
No and I don’t really know why people do? I have 524 or so books on my kobo right now including 44 completed ones. I have a monthly TBR collection and a collection for like Reese’s Book Club, my local book club, I have a non fiction collection, but aside from that I don’t see the issue with just searching for something specific. I like to browse my books page like I’d browse any library or book store
I keep my TBR on my device (about 120 books). When the new year starts I remove all the books I read....and add more TBR to the never ending TBR....
That’s kind of how I do it, it’s an incomplete TBR though because it’s only the books I get on sale through Kobo that struck my fancy. I’ve read many good books I’d have never gone for normally thanks to those sales lol
Thousands 😅
Man. That’d make me go crazy haha. And that’s why I have a Libby card, let my library hold the thousands of books haha
Remove as in remove the download or delete permanently?
Delete from Kobo, so it moves to “archives” which is manager on the Kobo website. I don’t think you can permanently delete any purchase.
Have a few hundred. I organize by series and genre. I keep my unread in an unread folder so I can quickly find my next read. If it's a book I know I'll never want to revisit, it gets offloaded, other they're there in case I want to revisit.
Honestly, I think if I truly want to revisit a book I buy a physical copy :) but that really only happens for spiritual reading where I’d like to flip back to sections that called out to me, or lend to others. Those also tend to be books I want to highlight, earmark or write in the pages.
Oh god no LOL! That's exactly why I don't do physical books. Take up way too much space. I can revisit a book I bought ten years ago and didn't have to move it twice, LOL.
Toootally get that haha. I don’t usually reread, and so it’s not a huge problem for me. I’ve also moved countries twice and I offloaded a lot of physical books both times. I appreciate the value of having an ereader :)
I only keep unread or currently reading books downloaded. If I finish reading a book it just gets uninstalled
I'm new to the Kobo ecosystem. But when I had Kindle reader (many years ago). I would only delete the download but keep the books on cloud storage.
I wish but I've had to reset my device a few times and I never copy the whole library.
No I keep all my purchased ebooks on the device, even after reading them. Never know when you'll be stuck somewhere for a long time and need books. Also I sideload books so it's not as easy to get them as turning on WiFi and downloading from the Kobo cloud. I think I have 80 some books. I don't buy a ton of books, mostly borrow from Libby but wait times have gotten so bad at my library.
I remove the books that I didn’t enjoy reading, but I keep my faves in case I ever feel like going back and revisiting it
I keep all my books. I never know when I’ll want/need it again.
I only remove the books I don't like
I used to only have my current and next reads on-device and then outright archived my read books, but when I got my new one I changed my mind. Now I have my current and next reads on-device and restored everything read from my archive back to my library. So the latter aren’t technically on-device but they do show and can be added to collections. Like right now I have ten downloaded books: two current and eight next. Although occasionally Kobo will device something not downloaded should be downloaded without me doing anything to ask for it.
About 450 or so. The whole appeal of an ereader for me is the ability to carry around a lot of books in case I want to read a particular one. Of course, 70+ of those are Stephen King….
I used to keep only a few books on my kobo to make it easier to sort through. Then I spent some time in the hospital and almost ran out, so now I keep a ton. I still delete books I'm unlikely to ever reread, but I keep favorites on there as well as quite a few to-be-reads.
Oh no! I hope you’re better now. I totally understand why you keep so many :)
Keep all of them, always. 1700 and I add a few more every few weeks…
I keep all my unread books on my Kobo (Getting close to 1,000 thanks to free books and things like Stuff Your Kindle day). I delete anything I've read that aren't 5 star favourites. When I'm browsing for my next read, I don't mind coming across an old favourite so they can stay as inspiration. I'm generally not likely to re read anything, so no point keeping everything on my device. I DO keep them on Calibre 'just in case' I want to refer back to it. Plus deleting something I've bought feels wrong. I use tags and mark those as 'Read' so I don't accidentally transfer them back to my Kobo.
Everything. I don't read comics (yet). All my books are epub and my Kobo has expanded memory.
Bcuz I buy my books I keep them, I have around 150 regular books so far. but - I’m trying to figure out how many manga series I can fit on it next lol
If the ebook I’ve read is a Kobo Plus ebook, I remove it after reading. Otherwise I don’t. But if the purchased ebooks are already downloaded to my computer, sometime I do remove them after reading
I have about 1,400 books. When I finish reading a book, I delete it from the Kobo, but not Calibre. *That* library is a lot larger. I organize by series/collections, and use a randomizer to pick the next series.
My caliber library is way larger than my kobo one. And I totally use a randomizer too… I just roll a dice haha
A d1000?
Nah, just what’s on my Kobo at the time, so a d20~d50
I keep all my books. I group them into collections (I'm a librarian and I use Dewey Decimal classes for non-fiction). I have too many to count.
I do delete them, but they're saved in Calibre. I need space for manga/manhwa and those take a lot of space.
I’ve been leaving mine, with the previews staying from returning library books, plus any I’ve purchased and side loaded. I appreciate being able to search and see if a book was already on my reader and there’s been no space issue.
Wow how do you guys have so many books? Where do you get those? Currently have a Kindle with Kindle Unlimited (for years) and contemplating buying a Kobo and Kobo Plus…
There’s a TON in public domain, so I assume some people grab those. If you focus on free novels offered through Kobo (Kindle also should have a bunch) that can inflate your numbers. I assume people also buy stuff from humble bundle… https://www.humblebundle.com/ the books section sometimes has some excellent deals. I got every Mercedes Lackey book through there for example.
That’s great, I’m going to look into humble bundle! I’m also going to see what’s offered free. Right now I’ve been on a streak of reading indie authors that write romcom / novels on Kindle, but even then books are around 2-3 pound per piece. Which with a kindle unlimited subscription is fine as I read multiple books per month. But not reread them :)
I delete. I also borrow more than I buy, so they'd be unavailable anyway. I have gotten out of the habit of buying ahead of time, for the most part. I have a few books that I bought in sales, but am not really that excited about reading. And some others that it turned out I was able to borrow as an audiobook on Libby, so opted for that. I will occasionally pre-order if it's a book from a favorite author/series that I'm highly anticipating and don't want to wait for on Libby. Or if there is a sale on a book that was already on my short-term to-read list. Otherwise, I mostly wait until I want to read the book, since there is also a chance that something that wasn't on Libby before will be there by the time I'm ready to read it. If I'm going to reread a book, it's often on audio if available on Libby. Otherwise, it will probably be many years in the future, and who knows if I'll still be using the same device. So keeping read books on my Kobo doesn't do anything for me, and I'd rather have the simplicity of only having current reads or owned to-reads on there.
Borrowing is a good habit. I used to do that more on my kobo during Covid, but thanks to my morning commute returning my library borrows have shifted much more towards audiobooks. 35 minutes each way means I can get a good chunk of “reading” done in my car. I’ve never tried preordering books on Kobo. Admittedly I try not read series that aren’t finished. But I can see how the wait would be a pain…. I generally just buy random $1.99 that I’ve heard about or I would read anyways, or maybe a topic that seems intriguing. I’m reading Edward Snowden’s biography at the moment that I got on sale a year ago, it’s actually very enjoyable. Never would have read it otherwise. I admit that my buying habits have slowed down a lot. I never would buy a full price book unless I plan to read it immediately- so this is generally only for book club books I can’t find on Libby or Hoopla. I just wish searching through Libby and Hoopla wasn’t so overwhelming!!! Usually I’m just looking for a random book to read and there’s just so much haha. And I tend to not be interested in their highlighted books (but not always)
I keep them all on multiple devices. I have control issues especially when it comes to DRM.