# How to categorize books in collections



## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

This may sound dumb, but is there an easy way to decide which category a book might fit into?  Let me explain my question...
I don't like to read reviews or synopses of the fiction I read.  I like to approach a story knowing nothing about it.  I will pay attention to the Amazon star rating or recommendations from friends, but that's about it.  I don't even read a writer's foreword or acknowledgements until after I've finished the book lest there be something given away about the story.

So, I'm asking, is there a listing of books somewhere with no possibility of spoilers that will tell me if it's Mystery, Romance, Political Thriller, etc.  Some books are obvious.  For instance, most of Grisham, I would put under Legal Thrillers.  It's the not so obvious ones I'm talking about.  For instance, is "Love in the Time of Cholera" (haven't read it yet) an Historical novel or a Romance?  Discuss amongst yourselves...


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

If you buy your books from Amazon about half way down the page there's usually a product details section. If the book is ranked there it will tell you in what genre and further still down the page, sometimes other customers will have tagged the book and that will help you too. I'm not sure how else you can find out what a book's about without..um.. finding out what it's about!

PS - if you don't know what a book is about, not even a little bit, how do you decide if you want to read it?


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Good question. I do not know the answer but I would try the library classification sites. I saw a thread on KB recently. (Currently posting fron K2 or I would look for it.)

If I do not know I am currently checking the front of the book to see if the library classification info is included or if there is a hint there. Otherwise I put it in my Fiction, Other (or Nonfiction, Other) Collection until I read it.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

Linjeakel, I have downladed lots of samples based on recommendations on KB or that caught my interest. However I have since forgotten why I downloaded the sample but am now trying to classify the samples, some of which are over a year old..I did the same with freebies. So many books, so little time.  Your suggestion of checking Amazon is a very good one. I will need to see if their Kindle store page has enough information. Thanks.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Linjeakel said:


> If you buy your books from Amazon about half way down the page there's usually a product details section. If the book is ranked there it will tell you in what genre and further still down the page, sometimes other customers will have tagged the book and that will help you too. I'm not sure how else you can find out what a book's about without..um.. finding out what it's about!
> 
> PS - if you don't know what a book is about, not even a little bit, how do you decide if you want to read it?


Well, most of the time I have some inkling what it's about. For instance, I don't enjoy Fantasy and I can usually tell by the cover that a book is in this genre. But many times, I just start reading and if it doesn't grab me by the time I'm 25% into it, I don't finish it. This has happened very few times.



Annalog said:


> Good question. I do not know the answer but I would try the library classification sites. I saw a thread on KB recently. (Currently posting fron K2 or I would look for it.)
> 
> If I do not know I am currently checking the front of the book to see if the library classification info is included or if there is a hint there. Otherwise I put it in my Fiction, Other (or Nonfiction, Other) Collection until I read it.


That's what I have to do, create a generic Fiction category to put them in until I know better which type of Fiction.


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## Whidbeyislandgirl (Apr 19, 2009)

I have a "currently reading/to be read" collection that I dump everything in, then when I've read the book I delete it from that collection and put it in the collection it belongs in..... I also have a "Ready for Calibre" collection, so when I download books to my Kindle that haven't be modified in Calibre yet, I put it in there until I can sit down at my computer and get them all in Calibre. Modify the title and published date if it's in a series, etc, then put it in the currently reading collection if I haven't read it yet, or it's final collection if I have. 

Seems to be working just fine for me.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Whidbeyislandgirl said:


> I have a "currently reading/to be read" collection that I dump everything in, then when I've read the book I delete it from that collection and put it in the collection it belongs in..... I also have a "Ready for Calibre" collection, so when I download books to my Kindle that haven't be modified in Calibre yet, I put it in there until I can sit down at my computer and get them all in Calibre. Modify the title and published date if it's in a series, etc, then put it in the currently reading collection if I haven't read it yet, or it's final collection if I have.
> 
> Seems to be working just fine for me.


All good ideas. Thank you.


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## LibbyD (Apr 28, 2009)

You could look at a brief biography of the author to see what kind of work they are known for.  Wiki bios usually list an author's work, and the lists are often separated into genres if the author writes in more than one.

And by the way, don't be mislead by the movie.  "Love in the Time of Cholera" is neither a historical novel or a romance.  It is much more complex than that.  I suggest you read at least a little bit about Garcia Marquez before you try to read his work.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

LibbyD said:


> You could look at a brief biography of the author to see what kind of work they are known for. Wiki bios usually list an author's work, and the lists are often separated into genres if the author writes in more than one.
> 
> And by the way, don't be mislead by the movie. "Love in the Time of Cholera" is neither a historical novel or a romance. It is much more complex than that. I suggest you read at least a little bit about Garcia Marquez before you try to read his work.


Thank you, Libby.


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## LibbyD (Apr 28, 2009)

I intended to mention something else, but I was interrupted.

Not all books are of a specific genre.  You could have a General Fiction category in addition to the genres.  However, if you read only genre fiction you might also consider arranging books by author (or title, if you prefer) until you have read them, and put them in a specific category afterward.

Most of the books I read are literary fiction so in my collections look like this:

Fiction. General. A-F
Fiction. General. G-L
Fiction. General. M-R
Fiction. General. S-Z

Next come the genres.

Fiction. Historical
Fiction. Mysteries/Suspense
Fiction. Short Stories

And finally:

Non-Fiction
Reference


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

LibbyD said:


> I intended to mention something else, but I was interrupted.
> 
> Not all books are of a specific genre. You could have a General Fiction category in addition to the genres. However, if you read only genre fiction you might also consider arranging books by author (or title, if you prefer) until you have read them, and put them in a specific category afterward.
> 
> ...


Looks very organized. So, the alphabetical General Fiction listings are by title? And do you put a book that is Historical Fiction, for instance, in both Historical and an alphabetical category?


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## LibbyD (Apr 28, 2009)

DD said:


> So, the alphabetical General Fiction listings are by title? And do you put a book that is Historical Fiction, for instance, in both Historical and an alphabetical category?


No, I sort by author for no reason except I think of books that way. Of course I might think of them that way because of years and years of browsing for books in libraries and bookstores where fiction is arranged by author.

Using your example of Historical Fiction, I do put some in both categories because the line between fiction and historical fiction is sometimes blurry (and debatable). The same is true of other genres.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

LibbyD said:


> No, I sort by author for no reason except I think of books that way. Of course I might think of them that way because of years and years of browsing for books in libraries and bookstores where fiction is arranged by author.
> 
> Using your example of Historical Fiction, I do put some in both categories because the line between fiction and historical fiction is sometimes blurry (and debatable). The same is true of other genres.


Thanks, Libby. I like to organize according to author also. That's how I have all my books backed up on my PC. But I hadn't thought of doing authors in alphabetical groups and didn't want a million Collections. I'm going to re-vamp my collections now. I appreciate your suggestions.


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## hunsakermountain (Apr 24, 2009)

OK, probably a stupid question.  But HOW do I set up categories?


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

hunsakermountain said:


> OK, probably a stupid question. But HOW do I set up categories?


There is a tutorial on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_k2cont_sort?nodeId=200375840&#k2sort


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## LibbyD (Apr 28, 2009)

DD said:


> Thanks, Libby. I like to organize according to author also. That's how I have all my books backed up on my PC. But I hadn't thought of doing authors in alphabetical groups and didn't want a million Collections. I'm going to re-vamp my collections now. I appreciate your suggestions.


Glad I could help.

I didn't want a million collections either but mostly I didn't want page after page of books that I would have to go through to get to the one I wanted. The alphabetical groups help, but I have author groups as well. If I have more than three books by one author I make a separate collection. Those follow the collections I described earlier, and I used the symbol method to keep everything where it belongs. (I used a prefix of two underscores for the first group, which is page 1, and a prefix of one underscore for the author groups, which are pages 2 and 3.) None of the collections has more than four pages, so there is no more annoying searching. Of course all books follow the collections, and those bring the total page count to 40, but I have no need to go beyond page 3.

Collections might not be all we had hoped for, but it turned out to be all I need so I'm a happy camper.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

DD, Just wanted to show you how I set up my collections:



luvmy4brats said:


> I finally got most of my collections worked out and thought I'd post some screenshots. These are sorted by Title, so you can see how the different symbols sort:


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

luvmy4brats said:


> DD, Just wanted to show you how I set up my collections:


Very detailed and very clever names, Heather. I love the "Smut" category. You're so funny!


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