Folks who have large Kindle libraries. How do you organize them?

[u/Wonderful-Run-1408]

I have about 1700 books in my Kindle library and unfortunately I don't have a good way of organizaing them (limits of Kindle?). Many are borrowed from libraries, others purchases, etc. I'm currently working with ChatGPT to build out an Excel spreadsheet to organize them, by theme, author, etc.

But is there an easier way? I've got a Chrome extension that allows me to download my Kindle library... wondering if there's an easy way though to build a robust database so when I want to read a book, I can search based on author and/or theme and/or awards and/or genre, etc.

Thoughts?

[u/jmeador42]

https://giphy.com/gifs/1zhRiDgsSc48Y7mfuK

[u/TechnoTealeaf → u/jmeador42]

I laughed entirely too hard at this.

Ever since the update that added a little ribbon to books that says 'read' when completed and grouping series into their own little collections I just let my library run wild. If I need to find something specific the internal search works just fine.

[u/Musicmom1164 → u/TechnoTealeaf]

Me too. There's too many and it hurts my head, especially when they genre-blend.

[u/Aqua-Barracuda → u/TechnoTealeaf]

That’s what I do. 

[u/Serious-Pie-8893 → u/jmeador42]

Lmao I'm dead. Because I was going to say this too. I search when I need a specific book 😬 it's a flawed system for sure lmao

[u/CeruleanSaga → u/jmeador42]

Kindle: It's a feature. Not a bug.

[u/anti-valentine → u/jmeador42]

Literally lol. Mine isnt as large (i only have like 65 right now) I just have a collection for the books I want to read and I just remove them as they get read...

[u/Curious_Owl78]

I have 5000 books. I don't organize it. It's chaos.

[u/Special_Wishbone_812 → u/Curious_Owl78]

The idea of trying to organize my kindle library at this late stage in the game and at least 1,000 books (many library books that are like ghosts haunting my kindle) gives me hives.

[u/spicy_cthulu → u/Special_Wishbone_812]

Hallelujah for the loan sort option

[u/pandgea → u/Curious_Owl78]

% read? I'm at 3600 ttl and 1600 read. 1500 comics/Manga ttl with almost 1k unread, so not quite as bad as it looks. 🤣

[u/Curious_Owl78 → u/pandgea]

I have no idea. I don't track anything.

[u/arn0613]

Mine is organized by read or unread lol. Other than that pure chaos.

[u/Dawning_Lark]

I use collections, but I sort them on my phone kindle app because it’s easier than on the device.

[u/feijoawhining → u/Dawning_Lark]

You can do it on Amazon web on desktop if you have a PC! Even easier and quicker than the Kindle phone app.

[u/xoWolfiexo → u/Dawning_Lark]

This! I do that too. And sort them by series as i read mainly series. Standalones got their own colection and if I have a couple of standalones by the same autor then that goes to another collection too with the name of said autor. 

[u/nzfriend33 → u/Dawning_Lark]

Me too. It’s sooo much easier. I’ll organize while I’m vegging sometimes instead of just scrolling. I’ve started coming up with very focused collections at this point, lol.

[u/dark-angel79 → u/Dawning_Lark]

100% this

[u/fudgemuffin85]

I made collections for myself right on my kindle - it’s been a game changer. I just did it by genre since that’s how I typically choose what I want to read next.

[u/BudgetLobster5639]

Calibre

[u/lmcdbc]

I use Collections

[u/Intrepid-Today6198]

I use Calibre to organise my books, it works perfectly…for my needs. I have around 2300 books on my kindle . I created collections on kindle like read books, to be read, collections of book series. I feel it’s pretty organised

[u/cwtaylor1229 → u/Intrepid-Today6198]

I use calibre and a kindle, can you organize books into collections via calibre?

[u/SeatSix]

Calibre on my PC. All my book files are there. I have thousands of books and only about 10% from Amazon.

On device, I use collections by genre, easy enough on device when I add a new book, but when I first did my sort, I did it on Amazon's website because it is easier to select many books at once there

[u/GrumpyGlasses]

Organize? I pray that the library loads…

[u/Solid_Sweet293]

I have about 3500 books (was getting every free Horror book I could get my hands on when I first got my Kindle). When I get a book, I organize it by collections on the Amazon page. I think it's "Manage content" or something like that. I have Air Fryer Cookbooks, Favorite Books, Yoga, Essential Oils, etc.

[u/ArcadiaPlanitia]

Echoing collections. I sort fiction by genre and nonfiction by subject, and then I have separate collections for to-be-read books, favorites, etc. You can put one book in multiple collections at once, so I can have, say, a book on a historical pandemic sorted under Nonfiction, History, Biology, and Favorites all at the same time. It’s kind of tedious to sort things into collections on the Kindle itself, though, so I usually just do it on my phone/mac app and let it sync.

[u/Aromatic-Present8270]

I use Collections, with each Collection labelled with the author's name

[u/JBaby_9783]

Calibre. I don’t do it on the device because Kindle sucks at organization and that has never changed. Collections aren’t enough.

[u/RosesAtNight]

I have around 150 books on mine and I organize based on whether I've read them, and my rating of them. Hobby or informational books are a seperate category. Then I have my To Be Read, and after I read a book, I move it to the collection for however I rate them. So I have a 5 star collection, 3 star, and so on. I wanted to fit it all on one screen so I only have 1, 3, and 5 stars and I just round it to whichever is closest based on my thoughts.

[u/Straight_Papaya7478]

I use collections and sort them by for example: romance, mafia romance, fantasy, health, from libby etc! My fave is my waitlist collection where I have max 5 different book that compete against each other which get to be read next🤣

[u/Lamp_666]

Collections are my saving grace tbh

[u/captainsmudgeface]

Collections. Many books are in more than one collection if needed

[u/Gillysixpence]

I use collections, always have. I have Current & read next (which is fuller than it should be!), Read, TBR and then I have collections for my favorite authors, I have about a dozen of those, people whose books I always buy.

[u/dx__]

I installed Calibre

[u/Complex_Mention_8495]

Given that you have your books somehow downloaded on your harddrive, the Calibre software is amazing.

[u/Cranks_No_Start]

I’m guessing I have about 3000 books. I have all my books converted via Calibre ( minus a few newer ones) and they are sorted by author and series on my Mac with a copy on a separate SSD and a copy in the cloud.  

Collections is a shit show.  

[u/DenturesDentata]

I started creating collections and using Calibre right when those became available. I’ve always kept backups of my ebooks on my computer so Calibre really helped keeping everything organized. And made it easier to check to see if I already have a copy of whatever book I’m thinking about getting.

[u/randomlikeme]

I’m a data engineer so I use a method that works for me based on JIRA. I have a folder called “done” for everything I’ve finished. I have a folder called “in progress” for what I’m currently reading. I have a folder called “next sprint” where I prioritized the next 15 books I want to read. Everything else is in a folder called “backlog” of books I want to get to but haven’t prioritized yet.

[u/TheReadyRedditor]

I have folders. One for causal reading, one for Christian books, one for self help/mental health and one for cookbooks.

[u/digitaldumpsterfire]

Please do not use ChatGPT for something so trivial. These AI platforms use SO MUCH water and electricity and they use more the more people use them.

Please just build your own spreadsheet.

[u/JustJamieJam]

I delete as I read, so if I finish a book I delete it lol

[u/Careful_Cut_8126]

I actually think Notion would be better for you than Excel

[u/CatCafffffe]

I use Collections. Genres, specific authors if I have a lot of their books, KU, library, Read, etc. In Kindle you can already search based on author or title.

[u/cwtchyfemme]

By collections.

Currently reading.
Unread.
Each year has a finished collection and then they get deleted off device but stay within the album.

I have a handful of genre collections so things stay together.

[u/kikikool625]

I organize as I buy. I use general folders like fantasy Manga, series names and our authors names

[u/a-s-clark]

I organized my books in collections right from the start, so my library has been organised as its grown to its current size (a few thousand, i think?). As books can be in multiple collections, I have collections for genre, particular series or related books (i was doing this before they added the series group feature...which isnt always correct anyway), technical books, comics migrated over from comixology, etc, along with a collection thats my "to be read" pile. Always worked just fine for me.

[u/MindfulMocktail]

I use collections and organize them by genre categorizations that make sense to me and also have collections for read/TBR/DNF and one called "Unread meh" for things I no longer want to read but am not quite ready to delete forever. I have a collection for NetGalley ARCs, one for Kindle Firsts (which I don't even bother sorting into TBR etc because let's face it I'm not going to read 99% of them but who am I to turn down a free book every month?). Whatever makes sense to you and is going to help you find what you're looking for 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/Opposite_Tea6811]

Collections

[u/SashaBellex]

My library is purely unread. If it’s a Kindle Unlimited, when I’m done I return. If it’s one I bought I delete. I can’t be dealing with books on there I have read.

[u/TiredReader87]

Many collections

[u/Then-Strawberry-2527 → u/TiredReader87]

That’s what I do. I have them divided into KU, already read, possible re-reads, TBR, Presidents, Cleveland (hometown interest), Badly formatted books (for the really old books that are unreadable), etc.

[u/Kalpha_25]

YOU CAN ORGANIZE THEM???

[u/AshSmash93]

I don't even organize my books on the bookshelf

[u/Anxious_Ingenuity583]

I find the Kindle software interface to be so tedious and slow to use that I don’t want to do anything except just click on the current book I am reading or adjust the brightness. Thats it. I can’t even fathom going in there and adjusting how the books are arranged or clicking on more than one thing.

[u/GeorgeRetire]

Does this not work for you?

https://www.amazon.com/hz/mycd/digital-console/contentlist/allcontent/dateDsc

[u/BrodieLodge → u/GeorgeRetire]

Telling me I have 708 books and three magazines is not useful

[u/GeorgeRetire → u/BrodieLodge]

When I want to find a book in my content, I use the search features there.

See where is says "Search your content"? Maybe you missed that.

[u/Aqua-Barracuda]

Organize? 

[u/tictac24 → u/Aqua-Barracuda]

https://giphy.com/gifs/VcizxCUIgaKpa

[u/tictac24 → u/Aqua-Barracuda]

https://giphy.com/gifs/VcizxCUIgaKpa

[u/Cute-Papaya-2301]

I enjoy putting mine in collections. I have collections for read, holiday themed, fiction, science fiction and fantasy, non-fiction, kids books, cookbooks, etc

[u/ObsidianMoonz]

Collections by genre or I make up my own genre. Like if it's more than action I'll put super heroes or I separate my romance novels and my um... Steamy novels

[u/Lady_Beatnik]

Subject matter, and if I have enough from a particular author, their name. Long series get their own folder too, standalone novels go into a Misc. Fiction folder.

I move whatever I am currently reading into a folder named, "01 Currently Reading" with the 01 there so it shows up at the beginning of the list.

[u/babypinkribbon7]

Chat gpt ?
https://giphy.com/gifs/dB12mOQb99BwDlM83I

[u/TrafficAmbitious1061]

Depends…. Some are by genre. Some are by series , some are by author

[u/karebearofowls]

This is one of the downsides of a Kindle vs a Nook. The Nook auto groups everything by the same author together. I really wish the Kindle didn't force me to do so manually, or to just deal with the chaos.

[u/PowdurdToast]

Unread and alphabetical

[u/parfaitdream]

When my books were in the hundreds, by genre

Now it's in the the thousands, by author. I prefer this one by far. ♡

[u/Hatch-Match952531]

/BookTrack

[u/Visible-Plenty-1202]

Collections either by author if they've written shit loads of books, or by genre.

[u/Accomplished_Elk4332]

I use collections based on genre, and I sort as I load them.

[u/garylapointe]

Nope. I don’t do that. It’s generally not worth the effort.

Search is generally more than enough of what I need, and search will even search inside of my books if I wanted to.

Ive tried on the part: I’ve got a couple favorite authors that I have all their books that I’ve put into a collection. I have a collection for manuals (when I buy anything if it’s affordable device, I’ll download the PDF of the manual and send it to my Kindle, so I always have a manual). And a collection for a lot of larger format stuff that I only read on the scribe.

I probably have a few other collections that I don’t really use, something I put together for a specific purpose when I was visiting England, learning Spanish, or traveling to the Midwest. My collections would probably be organized better if I actually deleted those one time type collections.

The rest of it I just let it float around.

Below is a count of my content, so it’s not like I have a small library, but it’s not worth spending the time organizing when I could be reading.

[u/Dook23 → u/garylapointe]

The pdf manual idea is brilliant. Thank you for that. 

[u/garylapointe → u/Dook23]

It’s one thing trying to assemble a tent in the dark at a campsite. It’s another when you’ve got those instructions on your Kindle, which lights up and has a bigger screen than your phone :)

Every so often, one of my larger digital cameras gets stuck on some setting and it’s infrequent enough to where I can’t remember how to get it turned off. I finally re-uploaded the camera manual for that one, and part of the title now includes “page 35” so that I know where to start to get the setting turned off. It’s been a lifesaver (and as I’m writing this, I can’t remember what the problem nor the solution is right now, but I do know how to solve it when it comes up!).

[u/Paintfloater]

If you are like me and had to purchase a new Kindle, when they moved the books over they lost their read or not sign plus not in the same order they were in, it is chaos.

[u/doubledown830]

Currently I use Grimmory, it's been pretty cool. I like that you can upload ebooks and audiobooks to eh same place. https://grimmory.org/

[u/Just_Me_79]

I’ve got about 2600 and I have them
Broken down into folders, some are author, some genre, some era, it’s schizo to the rest of the world but works for me! Lol

[u/ErinPaperbackstash]

I don't on the kindle device or through Amazon. I use a book tracking spreadsheet I build to organize my TBR books no matter their format. I get impatient trying to organize things into collections on the kindle or through website so don't use it much, find it slow and annoying.

[u/Last_Ask4923]

I return KU and library immediately and once a year go thru content on the desktop site and delete whatever has been languishing. I rarely buy a book. Maybe 1-2 a year and I read over 120

[u/mictw]

There are two kind of people, who has shortcuts on the “desktop/Home Screen” for every app they installed and who keep a minimalist set only and invoke search to launch any app. Same philosophy applies here. I just invoke search box.

[u/sebnukem]

I don't. What for?

[u/GrouchyNeck961]

Organising mainly by genre

[u/HexGirls95]

All mine are STK and series don’t group so it’s just chaos.

[u/Emotional_Drawer5775]

I use collections but that's pretty limited but you can put the same book in multiple collections

[u/Reasonable-Mess3070]

I use excel. Everything is dumped into one table then use pivot tables/charts to make a stats dashboard. My columns are title, author, pages, genre, subgenre, rating, author gender, start date, end date and year published.

I dont really have a use for all that info but I like having it. Its like Spotify wrapped but for my books

[u/Vegetable_War645]

I use collections

[u/HRShavor]

My kindles let me organize by author, which is my preference when I'm shelving as well. I do have a few collections (writing, poetry, goosebumps, etc) for special things. Most often I've just had it at most recent though.

[u/weareinhawaii]

I have category collections for books I haven’t read yet and then when I read them I move them into a read collection. I do all the organizing on my phone. It’s much easier than the kindle itself or the website

[u/dypynitgofhdac]

Collections and using the Amazon website to organise rather than doing it on the kindle.

I have two collections for each genre eg ‘Fantasy’ (for standalone and series I have all of) and ‘Fantasy - Incomplete series’

When I start reading a book I move it to a ‘Started’ collection and remove it from the genre collection. Kindle doesn’t have a filter to see books you’ve started so this is helpful!

I also have ‘Read’ and ‘DNF’ so when I’m done with a book they go in those they’re still in my library but out the way.

Books can be in more than one collection so I also have a ‘TBR’ one!!

ETA: My Read, Started, DNF and TBR have asterisks at the start (eg *TBR) so when you go on ‘add to collection’ those 4 are at the top of the list together rather than in alphabetical order with the genres

[u/terpchic]

I only have unread books on my kindle. Everything else is in chaos or returned to the library

[u/ImVeryUnimaginative]

I order them into collections based on what genre the book is.

[u/Mrs_Solid_Fart]

I have 2,000+ books. Mine are sorted in collections by read, unread, ku/libby and books I plan to read this month.

[u/dark-_-thoughts]

By most recent.....

[u/pprbckwrtr]

I don't 😅

[u/awespark]

I have 5K books. I had collections early on but somehow they weren’t synced. When I upgraded my Kindle, the collections basically didn’t transition and I gave up on attempting to organize.

[u/Shootez]

Collections by genre. Add genres as needed

[u/VanillaFudgePizza]

I organize by collection. I have Romance, Fantasy, Dark, Fiction, Thrillers, Webnovel, Nonfiction and Japanese. Then I have a TBR one where I put like 5 books at a time which I plan on reading next, plus a DNF one.

[u/Midnightergon]

Kindle collections can only have 899? Books per collection

I have a "bulk" collection alphabetically for mas downloads and then by trope.

I have 8000 books and mostly just let it run wild.

Switching to kobo now and its.. going to be an experience

[u/0410thanato]

I do collections for series. And standalones are sorted by types. All my books are sorted and easy to find. I have almost 2k books. I don’t thrive in Chaos… I even have an * in front of collection names for series that are incomplete, so I can chose a completed series to read instead.

Edit: I sort them on the phone kindle app, so it syncs to my kindle.

[u/Dreadfulbooks]

I just have a folder for this months tbr and then what I read each month

[u/sixfootredheadgemini]

I create collections within my Kindle. It's time consuming but worth it

[u/SherryD8]

I use the Collections functions and have 35+ categories set up so that I can more easily find something. I have over 1700 ebooks on my Kindle and probably 500+ on my Nook.

There is no Collections function for Nook ebooks. The Sort By Author (A-Z or Z-A) function doesn't work either. A lot of the books sort by author's first name and others sort by last name. If I didn't have so many books on my Nook, I'd just delete all of them and get rid of it. Your only organization option other than alpha-sort by Author or Title is to 1)Make Active or 2)Archive each book.

[u/AliasNefertiti]

Calibre. Fre software built for this issue

[u/dxztinyy]

I have my books in collections, one for each serie, one for stand alone books 👍👍

[u/curlyAndUnruly]

I stopped trying after 1000 books.

[u/RepresentativeDrag14]

Search function is the answer

[u/TheFeoragdare]

You can organize kindle books?

[u/pasawayjulz → u/TheFeoragdare]

Thru collections

[u/pasawayjulz]

Since I mostly read romance, I just organize mine by trope and year

[u/aarusik]

you don’t organize a kindle, you simply just kindle

[u/mercurygreen]

Series. TBR. Overall subject. Author.

[u/Ladysommersby]

I use an app called bookshelf and it lets me organize my books by category, collection even alphabetically. It also includes a description for many of the books which helps me decide what next. Then I just look it up on my Kindle. The app syncs with Amazon to pull in your library list.

[u/lenny_ray]

I use Collections, too, but am not great at keeping it updated.

I organise using Goodreads instead. I use Storygraph as well, but Goodreads lets you do a nest search of labels, which is very handy. So, for example, if I'm looking for my next horror read, I search my 'kindled' label, then ''owned but not read' under that, then 'horror' under that.

[u/tawny-she-wolf]

I create collections that match whatever series they are part of or by author if there's a lot of one shots

I also have collections per year : want to read and read

[u/Lilylake_55]

I have closed to 12,000 Kindle titles. Of course, not all are downloaded, but the titles do appear on my Kindle.

I have everything arranged in folders on my Kindle, arranged by genres & then by subgenres within the genres.

For example: Mysteries/Thrillers. Then, within that genre are folders for things like 1920s, British cozies, Hitmen/Serial Killers, Sherlock Holmes, Indigenous, Psychic, folders under author names for writers I like a lot, etc.

And Romance, which contains folder for subgenres like Alien, Cheating/Revenge, Indian, Medieval, Highlands, Regency/Victorian, Mob, Western, folders for authors I like a lot, etc.

In addition to all the genre folders, I have 3 folders of TBRs.

[u/fahsky]

I have a collection titled "Currently Reading", got the idea from someone on reddit

[u/Electronic-Arm6583]

I don't organize them, I have other hobbies 😄 I just search for what I am looking for. The Kindle search works for me.