Get past a few dozen books in your Kindle and you start to feel the need for some organization.

I have hundreds of ebooks, which I’ve collected over the years, primarily for reading on my computers.  When I bought a Kindle (3rd edition) last year, I started to convert my ebooks into Kindle-friendly formats (prc, mobi, azw).  My first attempts used Mobipocket Creator to (mostly) convert pdf files to prc format [Yes, I am aware that the Kindle 3 can handle pdf files – you just need a magnifying glass to read some of them.].  This was usually successful, but some pdf files gave prc files with broken paragraphs, sentences and even words.  Some dialog formatting made it difficult to tell when the speaker had changed.

Then I tried Calibre to see if I could get better file conversions.  Not only did I get better conversion results, but Calibre proved to be a much more feature-filled program than I expected.  It creates a database of your ebook files complete with info, tags, cover images and plot summaries.  It includes a communication link to your USB-attached Kindle – marking the books in your collection that are currently loaded on the Kindle.  It can convert from and to many formats and it allows you to customize the conversion options.  You can convert one book file at a time or use bulk conversion for all selected books.  It can download files/feeds from dozens of news sources in Kindle compatible Article format.  It can send books to, or receive books from your Kindle.  The program creator (Kovid Goyal) seems to be releasing updates about once every week or two.  As donation ware it is a surprisingly full-featured application.

With my ebook files in a Calibre database on my computer (and backed up on my network) I don’t need to have all of my books on the Kindle.  However, I still have over 100 files on the Kindle, giving me about 12 home pages worth.  My scheme to organize them is to use the collections feature.  So far I have just four collections:

1	Reference
2	Books to re-read
3	Books finished reading
4	News and feeds

I put the Kindle manual and dictionaries in the “Reference” collection.  When I finish a book I move it into the “finished reading” collection.  I set the Kindle to “organize by collections”.

When I want to add books from my big collection, I start up Calibre and convert (usually from epub or pdf to mobi format) and transfer into the Kindle.  While I’m hooked up, I take the opportunity to download news articles (they automatically transfer to the Kindle).

Organizing the big collection in Calibre is most easily done using the “Tags” feature of the program.  If you used the “get metadata” download to get the book information (plot summary, publisher, series, etc.), then you most likely already have tags for the books.  Using the tags to filter books displays only those books with the tag.   The built-in help describes a method of using tags to create sub-categories (like “History/Military”) for a further level of organization. These tags or other book information can be used with a Calibre plugin to create and manage Kindle collections.  But that’s a story best told in its own post.

If you are like me and have ebooks on your computer or in various formats, then I highly recommend using Calibre with your Kindle.