# How many books are on your kindle and how do you organize them?



## J.B. (Aug 15, 2014)

I only have about 200 books right now. I've thought about organizing them, but haven't yet.

Unless I can remember the name of the author or title of the book so I can use search, I end up spending a lot of time scrolling around trying to find the book I want to read next.

Is there a better way?

1) How many books on your Kindle
2) How do you organize

Thank you!


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

I have over 2500 books in my archive. I don't keep them all on my kindles. I use collections to sort the books by either sub genres, tropes, what to read next, next in series, etc. 

I also use Calibre with tags to sort and backup. Whenever someone recommends something I already own, I put it in another appropriate collection on my kindle. I have several layers of TBR lists. I also use goodreads and book likes. 

So basically, organized chaos.


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## GBear (Apr 23, 2009)

I use collections to organize my books. Most books fall into two collections, a "status" collection and a "genre" collection.

Status collections include Currently Reading, Samples, Unread, and Finished Reading. 

Genre collections include Fiction - Type (i.e. Crime, Drama, Fantasy/Futuristic, Historic... and Non-Fiction - Type (i.e. Biography, History, Science, Travel)

I also have a Reference collection that has things like Dictionaries, Kindle guides, and cookbooks.

I put numbers in front of the collections (01, 02, 03...) to ensure that status collections are listed before genre collections and things are generally sorted how I wish. It used to be symbols, based on some extensive research posted by other Kboarders.

I have yet to update my Paperwhite to support "cloud collections," so some things may have changed. Unlike some, I haven't gone to the detail level of doing author or series collections. Nor have I integrated with Calibre or Goodreads. But this works for me. 

I only have about 150 books on my Kindle, because I've only had the Paperwhite about a year and decided this time not to migrate past read books from my previous Kindles. About half of those are in the Finished Reading category.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

i have thousands of books in my cloud.  

but since i'm reading all my books in alphabetical order, all i keep on my kindle are the books that i've recently read and not yet written up for my thread here, books that are in the current letter to be read (or are being read), my borrow for the month, and my complete works of shakespeare because i frequently go back to reading that.


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## crebel (Jan 15, 2009)

Julles, you will probably get a different answer from every poster who responds, but here's mine.

I also only keep around 200 books on my Kindle at any given time, that's about 7 months worth of reading for me.  At this time I do not have them organized in any way.  If a book is on my Kindle, I know I downloaded it because it was something I wanted to read.  Therefore, even though I have my books sorted by most recent, I go to the last page and open the oldest book.  When I am done reading it, I delete it and repeat the process. Only occasionally do I read something as soon as I get it or, if it is the first book of a series that I enjoyed, I keep buying and reading until I finish a series.

Setting up collections is the only way to organize books within a Kindle itself.  You can create any collection that makes sense to you:  by genre, by author, waiting to read, already read (if you don't delete books when you finish and store them in the cloud), free, etc. Books can be listed in more than one collection. 

I did have 4 collections on my older Kindles, and now that Amazon has "fixed" the silly way they implemented collections on the new devices, I imagine I will set those up again on my Voyage.  Two collections are each for a specific author that I always want to keep on the Kindle; 1 for children's books that are read over and over again with my grandkids; 1 for cookbooks.  That's the extent of my organization.

Off Kindle, I am sure there are people who will explain to you about Calibre or Goodreads to keep track of what you have waiting to read and what you have already read.  I still keep track of and rate books I have already read in a little notebook that is always with me.

I'm sure you will get lots of suggestions.  Good luck with whatever you choose!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Organize? I have "search," why would I bother to organize?   seriously, I keep most of my books in one big lump in the cloud. When I want a book, I search for it by keywords, and put it onto my chosen device.

Closest concession to organization I make is that when new books are loaded onto my K after purchase, I delete the ones that I'm not eager to read first. If I come across a book in my cloud that I want to read (either by running across them when browsing my collection, or just being reminded of them) I will load them onto my Kindle so I will be reminded of them when browsing the books on my Kindle. Occasionally I go through the books loaded on my Kindle to delete those whose unread books whose luster has dimmed and that I'm no longer eager to read soon.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I also have thousands of books on my account.  Maybe 3000?  Over 2000.

There are about 40 on my Voyage, but that's because it's a new device.  All new books I pick up go on the latest device. 

I have a bunch of collections in the cloud (set up on my Fire, mostly, but also on my iPod Touch and on Kindle for PC).  Some are genre, some are when I read a book, some are by author.  Books can be in more than one collection.

I only have five collections on my Voyage so they all fit on the first page.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

I don't organize except cookbooks go on the K4PC.  And classics go on my Kk.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

I only keep TBR and currently reading books on my Kindle - once I've read them I remove them. So I only have about 50-60 books at any given time, no great need to organize them - TBR books are in a collection for to-read and currently reading books aren't in a collection. I sort by collection so currently reading books are always on the home page and I just click on to-read collection to pick a new book.


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## J.B. (Aug 15, 2014)

history_lover said:


> I only keep TBR and currently reading books on my Kindle - once I've read them I remove them. So I only have about 50-60 books at any given time, no great need to organize them - TBR books are in a collection for to-read and currently reading books aren't in a collection. I sort by collection so currently reading books are always on the home page and I just click on to-read collection to pick a new book.


That seems like a good system.

I've never removed anything. Does it automatically go back to the cloud? Can I delete things I HATED off the cloud?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Since the recent update on the Voyage I've done some more organizing.

On my first kindle, everyhthing ON the device was waiting to be read, everything NOT on the device had been read.  But when I switched kindles in 2010 -- got what later came to be called the 'keyboard' -- that really didn't work. BUT, that was also about the time where you began to be able to rate your book as you finished. It didn't go to reviews or anything, but to the kindle.amazon.com page.  So I had a site I could use to figure out all I'd read and all I hadn't.  

About that time they implemented collections as well, so I had a handful -- not more than 9 or 10.  Generally, books I was waiting to read were in one or more collection, and the handful I was currently reading were 'uncollected' on my home page.  Then I just deleted them when finished -- still rating them as I finished. I stuck with this method until fairly recently.

When they implemented cloud collections, it just didn't work for me. It imported collections from multiple previous kindles I'd owned. As well as my brother's who shares my account. Made it unwieldy, so I deleted all but 3 collections -- for stuff connected to my church volunteer work, non fiction, and Amazon info -- everything else remained uncollected on my home page and I considered the whole shebang to be my reading queue.  When they added the ability to 'star' collections as belonging on the device or not, that helped, but I really didn't make any further changes until the recent update to my Voyage which greatly improved, I think, the way the cloud collections are implemented.

So, oever the last couple of days, I made two new collections. One is called "Read it" and has everything I read. I used the kindle.amazon.com page and went through my Kindle cloud (over 2300 items) to move books into it. That one is NOT on my device -- my plan is, when I finish a book, rate it as usual, then move it to that collection and delete it from the device.  It'll stay in it in the cloud so I don't need to wonder, at a later date, if I've ever read it. 

The other one I made is called "Reading Queue" and, though not yet fully populated -- I've not gone through every book -- it has the books I expect/plan/hope to read sooner rather than later. It is, as you might expect, a somewhat fungible list.   Anyway, when I pick one to start reading, I take it out of that collection so it sits uncollected on the home page.  This has made my home page compact -- I show 4 collections -- plus my newspaper back issues -- as well as the handful of books I'm currently reading, and then the dictionary collection.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

JullesBurn said:


> That seems like a good system.
> 
> I've never removed anything. Does it automatically go back to the cloud? Can I delete things I HATED off the cloud?


If you remove something from your device, it's not gone forever -- it will remain in the cloud. If you don't want it at'all at'all, go to Manage Your Content and Devices under Your Account at Amazon and delete it there. You can delete like 10 at a time. You'll get a warning that, once it's gone, if you want it back, you'll have to buy it again.

I've done that myself especially with a bunch of early books. . . . when I first got my kindle I was giddy over the idea of FREE BOOKS and picked up every one offered. After not too long I realized most of them were rubbish. I'd read a few pages and wonder why I was bothering -- so I got rid of all those. I've gotten rid of a bit of paid for rubbish as well over the years, and also learned to be much more discerning.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

JullesBurn said:


> That seems like a good system.
> 
> I've never removed anything. Does it automatically go back to the cloud? Can I delete things I HATED off the cloud?


If you bought them from Amazon, or sent them to Amazon using Send to Kindle, yes to both questions. To delete things you hated off the cloud, you'll have to go to your Amazon Manage Your Content. www.amazon.com/myk

Oops Ann answered while I was talking to Fred before hitting "post." 

Betsy


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

I have a handful of books that go on every Kindle that I own.  These are my favorites that I don't mind reading over and over.
Collections didn't work out well for me, so I tend to keep 4-5 pages of stuff waiting to be read on my current Kindle.  Then I remove from Kindle after reading.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

I loved when they went from deleting one at a time to ten at a time.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I've done that myself especially with a bunch of early books. . . . when I first got my kindle I was giddy over the idea of FREE BOOKS and picked up every one offered. After not too long I realized most of them were rubbish. I'd read a few pages and wonder why I was bothering -- so I got rid of all those. I've gotten rid of a bit of paid for rubbish as well over the years, and also learned to be much more discerning.


OMG those early days. Its OMG free books gimme gimme . I finally got the time to purge and permanently deleted over 1000 books which most were freebies, some where those 1 cent ones that were around for a while. Some I could not even remember every getting and must have been sleep one clicking. It took 2-3 to do that last year as I also went through one by one to make sure I had them logged at GR and calibre. 
Now, I only get freebies I vet like I do paid books. No more clicking just because its free.

Paid rubbish, had a few of those too. 

Its amazing how far we have come with book organizing on the kindles. I used to keep everything on my K1. I put a bunch of public domain on there too so I had like 2000 books on that thing. It took a full 8 minutes to do a search. . I remember how I took time, hour, 2 hours to browse through the books, clicked on the ones I wanted to read next so they would be on the top of the list. That was the only way really to organize at the time. So whenever I got new books send to it, I had to go back down pages to find the ones I was reading and click on them again.

Seems like sometimes the more I try to organize, the more collections, the more shelves I create, the more chaotic and overwhelming it gets. So many books, so little time and I keep reading about more books to read. Then the recommendations. It never ends......


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## DaveM5090 (Nov 19, 2014)

Love this thread. As a relatively new Kindle owner I find it hard to sort my collection. I have Thrillers, History, Classics, Biographies but do not find it really user friendly.


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## J.B. (Aug 15, 2014)

DaveM5090 said:


> Love this thread. As a relatively new Kindle owner I find it hard to sort my collection. I have Thrillers, History, Classics, Biographies but do not find it really user friendly.


I'm loving all the responses as well. It's hard to believe there are so many different ways to handle a our books on Kindle.


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## geezergas (Nov 8, 2014)

I have @ 600 full size books on my Kindle DX.  Before the Kindle I had a couple thousand books around the house.  I made up a spread sheet with all books & authors.  Also H K P for paperback, hardcover or Kindle.  That way I can follow authors, read books in order, catch up on books I've missed.  I can try a new author, read books in order.  Also my family can keep up with the 600 Kindle books and see what's available.  I travel with an updated thumb drive to check for wanted books.  Amazon/Kindle is great about not allowing me to buy a book I might have purechased years ago (for the Kindle). I read well over 100 books a year so its both convenient and necessary to keep up with what I've read. The spread sheet idea works very well for me.


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## Kathy (Nov 5, 2008)

I have around 400 books on my Kindle and 2000+ in cloud. I use collections to organize. I like to have a lot of books loaded since I travel a lot. I re-read books when I am to tired to start a new one so I enjoy having them available at all times.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

I have one collection per favorite author.. and then have some other catchalls - like Non-Fiction, Mystery, Other Fiction for authors with a smaller number of books.  I find it a lot easier to decide on which author I want to read next,  and then just check my PC file where I keep track of which book I read last since I like to read them in chronological order.

My Voyage has maybe 4 books "On Device"  right now.. now that Amazon finally recognizes that.. but I download the books as I want to read them.


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## JuliMonroe (Apr 25, 2011)

I only keep what I am reading and about to read on my Kindle. I think I "stole" Betsy's idea of keeping the book I'm reading not in a collection. (Or did I steal the idea from Ann?) I've been brutal lately about cutting back my book buying, so I only have 5 books right now, two I am reading and three TBR (in my To Read collection). Oh, plus one sideloaded fanfiction.  

Now, that doesn't include the two Samples Collections, one for KU-eligible books (I'm going to re-up soon, I think) and one for books to be purchased. I've got 26 samples on the Kindle right now.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

You stole that idea from me, Juli. 

I think I'd get twitchy if I only had 5 books available!


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I think I'd get twitchy if I only had 5 books available!


No kidding   

That'd be one of my worst nightmares....


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Like many people, I have several pages of genre collections, but I also have four special collections that I prefixed with numbers so they would always be at the top when my PW2 is sorted by collection. The "specials" are "1 Currently Reading", "2 DD", "3 On Deck", and "4 Finished". 1 is for anything that I'm in the middle of and intend to finish. (I have another collection for "abandoned" books.) 2 is for books that I am reading/have read to my daughter. 3 is for books that I want to get to soon. Like if I'm reading a series but want to take a break, I'll put the next book in the series in that collection. 4 is one that I often go through and delete books from, but I also refer to it often to update my Goodreads account and things like that. It's also a good if I'm reading a series and want to refer back to previous books - I usually keep them all on the device until I'm done with the whole series.


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## bobbic (Apr 4, 2011)

cinisajoy said:


> I don't organize except cookbooks go on the K4PC. And classics go on my Kk.


Hey, great idea! In general, I don't organize mine, either, but need to. Right now I have around 300 books on it and who knows how many in the cloud.


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## bchaplin (Jul 30, 2010)

I have mostly genre categories, like "Fiction", "Nonfiction", "Sci-fi", with a few special-interest areas for things I'm particularly interested in. Books I'm currently reading go into the not-so-imaginatively named "Current".  I started placing numbers in the collection names to keep them sorted in the order I want.


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## Nancy_Bout (Nov 13, 2014)

I keep maybe 100 on kindle and I lost count what's on my archives I read a book a week on average.
I have regular e ink kindle and kindle fire 1 and kindle fire HD


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## JuliMonroe (Apr 25, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> You stole that idea from me, Juli.
> 
> I think I'd get twitchy if I only had 5 books available!


Thanks again for the idea, and now I know who I stole it from.

To make you less twitchy, I'll let you know that I just bought the Thriller Story Bundle, and now I have 14 books on my Kindle. 3 currently reading and 11 to read. Better?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

JuliMonroe said:


> Thanks again for the idea, and now I know who I stole it from.
> 
> To make you less twitchy, I'll let you know that I just bought the Thriller Story Bundle, and now I have 14 books on my Kindle. 3 currently reading and 11 to read. Better?




That helps a bit . . . . . still not sure it'd be enough for an extended vacation. It's not just that I have to have _enough_, I also need choice.


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## JuliMonroe (Apr 25, 2011)

Ann in Arlington said:


> That helps a bit . . . . . still not sure it'd be enough for an extended vacation. It's not just that I have to have _enough_, I also need choice.


I'm actually about to leave for a week-long cruise, and yes, I do feel like I might need a few more, just to be sure. I mean, some of the bundle books might suck.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

JuliMonroe said:


> Thanks again for the idea, and now I know who I stole it from.
> 
> To make you less twitchy, I'll let you know that I just bought the Thriller Story Bundle, and now I have 14 books on my Kindle. 3 currently reading and 11 to read. Better?


You might have stolen it from me, but I stole it from Ann. 

Less than 50 books on my Kindle and I get twitchy. I bought the darn thing originally (in 200 so that I could have a library with me at all times.

Betsy


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I keep only about 100 books actually on the Kindle. I have several thousand stored on my computer in Calibre. When I read enough from the Kindle, I delete them and load more from Calibre. I more or less keep them in genre categories.


Mike


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## Jeh (Dec 11, 2011)

I probably have about 100-150 books on my DX and they are in collections by author.  

I use Calibre  to remove DRM so I can move them around easier but I haven't used it for collections.  Maybe it's me but I dont get the point.  All my books and I have between 2000-3000 are stored on a hard drive and I just use Exploers file system and have them alphabetised by author. If the author has a series I will do a sub folder with the series name. 

This way I can just moved an entire series over at a chunk and with calibre I've  changed the title to incorporate the a sequence number so it's easier to read them in order.


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