# Collections for the Fire



## ennis333 (Jun 29, 2011)

One thing I really made good use of with my K3 was collections--kept my books nicely organized into a variety of my own, self-determined categories.  Unfortunately, this feature is not available on the Fire, and I don't recall anybody mentioning it on this discussion board.  

So how are you all putting up with this lack of categories?  Granted, I can go to the books (or carousel) and hunt for what I need, but this still doesn't strike me as being particularly handy, given that I have a couple of hundred books -- a number that is only going to grow!  Any thoughts--or have I somehow overlooked a category capability for the Fire that you can fill me in on?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Nope.  No categories on Fire.   Actually most of the apps don't have them so it's not completely surprising, but it's also a 'real' Kindle so it is a little bit odd, I think.

As I have multiple kindle devices, I don't worry about it much.  I put different books on each one, in general, though I do like that I can sync 'em if I'm getting to a 'good part' of something. The Kindle for PC app does allow collections so if the urge hits, I go there to organize things.  

On the Fire you can show only those items on the device by so selecting in the book section.

I kind of like spinning the Carousel wildly to find something to read! 

There are 'file explorer' like apps that let you make and put things into folders you can look at much like you would on the computer.  I do not know if such apps would work with the Kindle book files. . . . .


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## EllenR (Mar 31, 2009)

Honestly, after using the collections on my K2 I found cumbersome to use. Perhaps if it had drag and drop it would work for me but it doesn't.

I do not miss the collections on my Fire at all. I love the Carousel and LOVE having covers to look at. I have hundreds of books but most of them are on the cloud, so not a big deal for me.

I hope they do NOT add collections to the Fire or if they do, that we can turn them off. I much prefer things as they are now.


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

I really wish it had collections and hope it gets added, but I'm not too hopeful about it really.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Actually, since Kindle for PC does allow collections, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kindle app for the Fire didn't allow them soon.

Betsy


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Actually, since Kindle for PC does allow collections, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kindle app for the Fire didn't allow them soon.
> 
> Betsy


Ooooh that gets my hopes up. Hope hope hope.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> Actually, since Kindle for PC does allow collections, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kindle app for the Fire didn't allow them soon.
> 
> Betsy


I think they recently added the capability to the iPad Kindle app. The Android Kindle app still does not have it, however.


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## Cardinal (Feb 24, 2010)

ennis333 said:


> So how are you all putting up with this lack of categories?


What I am going to do, which is probably not very helpful for you, is if collections don't get added to Fire I'm going to spread mine out over two eInk Kindles.

When the Fire first came out I read that they might be added. I hope so. If collections aren't added soon I will probably return my Fire.


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I think they recently added the capability to the iPad Kindle app. The Android Kindle app still does not have it, however.


They did add the capability to the iPad kindle app which really annoys me. Why give more and better capabilities to their app on the iPad and not their own device??
Something very wrong with that.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

sparklemotion said:


> They did add the capability to the iPad kindle app which really annoys me. Why give more and better capabilities to their app on the iPad and not their own device??
> Something very wrong with that.


Oh, no sense in being annoyed; you're just not looking at it from the proper perspective:

What they're doing is using the iPeople as guinea pigs so that they can iron out all the bugs on those devices and then when the android/Fire update comes down we'll be golden.


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Oh, no sense in being annoyed; you're just not looking at it from the proper perspective:
> 
> What they're doing is using the iPeople as guinea pigs so that they can iron out all the bugs on those devices and then when the android/Fire update comes down we'll be golden.


Hee hee. I like your thinking.


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## TraceyC/FL (Mar 23, 2011)

sparklemotion said:


> They did add the capability to the iPad kindle app which really annoys me. Why give more and better capabilities to their app on the iPad and not their own device??
> Something very wrong with that.


I'm totally missing where they added collections on the iPad.... I just downloaded the update.

We got magazines though....


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I think they recently added the capability to the iPad Kindle app. The Android Kindle app still does not have it, however.


Hmmm, looked there first, didn't see it. Off to check..

I can't see the option to sort by collection in my iPad app, or any way to create a collection?

Betsy


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## stacydan (Jul 20, 2009)

I hope this comes in an update, just for convenience.  I have over 1000 books just from amazon, not counting the over 400 SAMPLES, plus many other books that I converted to mobi and are on my K2 but I will not put on fire.  I love looking at the covers, but sometimes I'm wondering if this is a young adult, an urban fantasy .... etc.  and collections helps me when I know what genre I feel like reading.  I don't have alot of books actually downloaded to the fire, but I like to keep most of them on my K2.  I did have to take a bunch off to free up memory space though, my TBR list is growing faster than I can read, but I especially don't want to miss the freebies because sometimes they are free for only a limited time!  So far I am loving my Fire, but I would love to have the same collections on it.


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## mkelley (Dec 24, 2011)

They definitely do NOT have collections on the iPad app even in the update -- that's why I switched to Stanza.

I'm going to put Aldiko on the Fire I'm getting for my wife.  It has collections and a lot more (based on what I'm reading, it's a far superior reader app than the Kindle one).


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## sparklemotion (Jan 13, 2011)

Can you use Aldiko to read kindle/mobi format books or only epub?

Edit - I just checked and it doesn't read mobi format. Darn.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

ennis333 said:


> So how are you all putting up with this lack of categories? Granted, I can go to the books (or carousel) and hunt for what I need, but this still doesn't strike me as being particularly handy, given that I have a couple of hundred books -- a number that is only going to grow! Any thoughts--or have I somehow overlooked a category capability for the Fire that you can fill me in on?


Here's how I'm handling it. My K3 is my "library" (that and Calibre). All the eBooks I have that I haven't yet read but want to read are on my K3. The Fire is a "secondary" reading device - I mostly read on it in bed, although I do pick it up at times during the day to read as well. I only keep a few books downloaded to it - my current read and anything I want to read in the near future. I use my K3 to choose my next read. Whatever I'm reading on it, I'll also download to the Fire for "low-light" reading. Easy to do either via wifi from Amazon archives or Calibre. So I don't miss collections that much on the Fire.

Of course if it were my only reading device, I'd miss it a whole lot more.

Oh, I just did a search for Android apps that can read mobi - there are a few, but I haven't researched them yet to see if they have collections. 
Books Wordplayer and FB Reader apparently can read mobi.


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## Hoosiermama (Dec 28, 2009)

> Honestly, after using the collections on my K2 I found cumbersome to use.


I basically use two collections on my Touch..."Finished Reading 2011" and "Reading". When collections first came out, I set up quite a few, then found that I didn't bother with them.



> Here's how I'm handling it. My K3 is my "library" (that and Calibre). All the eBooks I have that I haven't yet read but want to read are on my K3. The Fire is a "secondary" reading device - I mostly read on it in bed, although I do pick it up at times during the day to read as well. I only keep a few books downloaded to it - my current read and anything I want to read in the near future. I use my K3 to choose my next read. Whatever I'm reading on it, I'll also download to the Fire for "low-light" reading. Easy to do either via wifi from Amazon archives or Calibre. So I don't miss collections that much on the Fire.


Exactly what I do. I'm finding that, other than apps, I keep very little content on the Fire. Music and videos all reside in the cloud. If I'm reading a book on the Touch, and decide I want to read some on the Fire (I tend to read more on that in the evening, so that I can also get distracted with other things while DH is watching a ball game ), I keep the current book on it, so I can switch back and forth.


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## teralpar (May 18, 2010)

I don't mind NOT having collections on the Fire. It's much easier for me to select a book on there because of the color book covers. When I'm finished reading a book on my Fire I remove it from the device (back to the cloud), since I can still see the book cover but it's not using any space. As long as I have my collections on my KK3 I'm good.


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## ennis333 (Jun 29, 2011)

Meemo said:


> Here's how I'm handling it. My K3 is my "library" (that and Calibre). All the eBooks I have that I haven't yet read but want to read are on my K3. The Fire is a "secondary" reading device - I mostly read on it in bed, although I do pick it up at times during the day to read as well. I only keep a few books downloaded to it - my current read and anything I want to read in the near future. I use my K3 to choose my next read. Whatever I'm reading on it, I'll also download to the Fire for "low-light" reading. Easy to do either via wifi from Amazon archives or Calibre. So I don't miss collections that much on the Fire.


Good suggestion...and will modify somewhat what I've been doing. I will admit that the one major benefit of the carousel is breezing through and getting a reminder about a book that I have purchased but forgotten about--and upon rediscovery, I want to read it right away. Of course the alphabetized (but uncategorized) bookshelf theoretically could do the same thing, but the smaller images don't make them stand out as much, and forgotten titles just obscures them a bit as they don't jump out at me the same way the categories capability supports with my K3.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

ennis333 said:


> Good suggestion...and will modify somewhat what I've been doing. I will admit that the one major benefit of the carousel is breezing through and getting a reminder about a book that I have purchased but forgotten about--and upon rediscovery, I want to read it right away. Of course the alphabetized (but uncategorized) bookshelf theoretically could do the same thing, but the smaller images don't make them stand out as much, and forgotten titles just obscures them a bit as they don't jump out at me the same way the categories capability supports with my K3.


I like spinning to the back and working my way forward....

Betsy


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

Like most folks, I use my K2 as my main repository, but I'm finding that the carousel is extremely helpful to me because I find books I wanted to read but couldn't remember by the title. I'm hopeless by title (and author, too--I never remember names). But when I can see the book covers, I can remember them. This is one of the few instances where my visual memory is better than my memory for names/titles.

Anyway, I'm relying more and more on the carousel, but I would love it if I could have two carousels, so I could drag books I've now finished reading down to the "second" carousel.  Just a pipe dream.


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

I've downloaded both boys' school textbooks to their Fires.  Each chapter is a separate PDF, and I really wish we had collections on the Fire to help organize these!  Hopefully this feature will come soon in an update.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Meanwhile, you can at least put the current chapters on the 'favorites' shelf which you can organize as you like. . . . .


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## fuschiahedgehog (Feb 23, 2010)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Meanwhile, you can at least put the current chapters on the 'favorites' shelf which you can organize as you like. . . . .


Yea, they'll probably end up doing that, or they may just prefer to keep using their netbooks for textbook reading, since the screen is bigger and they can print pages if they need to.


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