[NeverWinter]

As library grows i always need a better way to sort the ebooks (i know exactly where is what but when sharing it might be a bit of paing for other people) so im looking for some fresh ideas on how to sort ebooks


I dont use calibre or similar programs, old way folders inside folders is the way


I'll appreciate any tip

[Fizban]

Not sure how much help this is...but here's what I do:

I use Calibre strictly to help me keep a running total of what books/authors I have/don't have and organize by my own set of keywords (I don't import the ones that come in the regular metadata but add my own). Once the books have been added, I delete the actual file formats from Calibre. I usually only use Calibre for the keywords when trying to find a specific book that I know I have but can't recall the title/author of.

In terms of how I organize the actual books, my top-level folders are Classics, Mystery, Romance, Comics/Graphic Novels, Gaming (RPG-related), Sci-fi/Fantasy, Non-fiction, and Hobby/Other. Under those top-level folders I have a mixture of category folders combined with specific author folders, depending on the number of books I have in that genre. I've always preferred to list authors by first name rather than last name as I don't think "Doyle, Arthur Conan" when I think of the author of Sherlock Holmes so I list my folder and file names the same way.

For example, under Classics my next level down contains folders for the B&N Classics, Delphi Complete Works, Fairy Tales, Legends, Myths, and Poetry as well for specific authors that I've collected most of the books by such as AA Milne, Agatha Christie, Alexandre Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle, H G Wells, L Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, etc.

Authors that I only have a few books by are found within the Classics folder itself listed by author, such as Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde and Mary Wollstonecraft.

So my folder structure would look something like (folders in bold):

Classics

• L Frank Baum
  
  • L Frank Baum - Ozma of Oz (EMP).rar (contains all formats I have for that particular book, in this case epub, mobi, pdf)
• Mark Twain
  
  • Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.epub
    
  • Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.epub
• George Orwell - 1984.mobi
• Jonathon Swift - Gulliver's Travels (EPLPr).rar (contains epub, pdf, lit, and prc formats)

Since it's rare for me not to remember the name of an author I collect (unless they are part of a multi-author series), I usually know immediately where I can find a book as soon as I know the author's name. If an author could fall under multiple categories - such as Agatha Christie who would usually logically be found under Mystery, I always put all books by an author in the primary category that I think of them as. In this case, I tend to associate Agatha with the Classics rather than Mystery so I always know immediately where to look for her books if I need them.

It's not a system that would work for everyone but it works for me with a library of about 50k in titles.

folders for sf, history and so on, then authors when I keep more than 1 book of a particular author, series inside authors, standalone novels in "other", separate books in "other" which could be quite huuuge so somethimes its other1, other2 and so on
rather messy but I do it all the time so I can find my books when I need them

I usually sort on genre, or authors. Authors is the best since they write in different genres. And then I group series together in maps. And then standalone books from authors in the 'standalone' map. It's a pain to update it though since I never know who writes a new book. Plus I need a new system to remember what I've read and what I haven't..

[NeverWinter]

Nice, thank you guys for your feedback.. Gonna try them out and see

Genre first and within that author. If an author has many series, I may create separate folders within said author's own folder.

My first priority is to name of the book and the author. If there is not fully there I add them. Then I shelf them in folders according to series. Then I make a new folder for the author and put it in there. If I have too many folders, I do an alphabetical folder list and sort them in. Then I use the search box. Last part is a bit unnecessary but i like how they look.

[BigDoeEyes]

I kinda gave up a long time ago. They are now all in random folders with random names. -_-' But I set my reading app to arrange my books by import time, so at least I'm able to see anything that interested me of late.

[sleeksheep]

Anything I will read goes into calibre sorted by date.
"Maybe" reads go in the Library where everything is in folders.
Numerous Libraries all sorted by Author (ie: Conn Iggulden not Iggulden, Conn - with series in separate folders within )
I use MasterSeeker to find everything - I dont bother looking in the Library as MasterSeeker is just so fast.

I transfer my books straight to my Kindle reader. I just pick a new read from the carousel.

On my Kobo, chaos rules

I sort by series if applicable, by author if I read a lot of their work, and then genre as my catchall for misc things.

I sort by genre.

[hija]

I sort by author. Each author has its own folder no matter how many books he/she wrote.
I begin by renaming each file if they don't have the right format : lastname, firstname - [serie number] - title (I use 1-4 Rename, I really miss Booksorter by Vadi, but it does not work with the new versions of windows)
I have a .bat that I update regularly with the new authors to automatically sort the books in the right folders, where each line would be something like "Move "C:\...\Clancy, Tom -*.* " "C:\...\C\Clancy, Tom" where "..." depend on where are the files you want to sort and where are those sorted
Then I use List Search Utility when I want to see if I have a book

I just use Calibre... But maybe I don't have so many books as some of you?

My music folder, on the other hand, I try to keep neatly alphabetized, with compilations and soundtracks in separate folders, etc.