Decided the new membership fee just isn't for me, so will be moving on after it hits. Hope you all have working devices and have a good list of places to hit for help if this forum dies down in the future. I think most of us have settled in pretty well with our machines, and that's why it's been a bit slow. 

Good place for help and various ebook forums (including news, freebies, deals, and it's own ebook library of public domain books...) is MobileRead.  I also hang around The Passive Voice (more about publishing ebooks), Teleread and Ink, Bits & Pixels.

And besides Amazon, I browse GoodReads listopia and reviews as well.

Hope to see you all around, here and there. : )

I can't see paying $1 a month just to be able to post on forums, when there are plenty of other web site forums around. I'll keep my PBS account, because I use my TBR and BIR lists. Though I do rely more on Goodreads for my lists, the PBS ones come in handy at times.

Though I do rely more on Goodreads for my lists, the PBS ones come in handy at times.

I've been keeping all my lists on Calibre. One of the reasons is that it's easier for me to see it on one monitor while browsing books on the other. And I can never figure out Excel well enough to not lose my temper at it when ever I do use it. Lol. Calibre I can work with.

I keep spread sheets in Google Drive, too. And I use Calibre, but not for books that I don't own but would like to read. That's where PBS and GR come in handy. I was keeping track on a blog, but that's kind of fallen away. Although I should update it with my end of 2014 stats.

One of the things I like about Calibre is the ability to color code my books. I have several different lists in one sheet. There's "Orphans" (books where I might have #3 but not the first two. I don't start a series where I still have gaps that I don't have filled or know where to get the book.) "Pre-Orders" (Blue), "Read" (Green), "Kindle Unlimited (Orange - Those books I want to read that are on offer at KU at the moment) and "To Find" (Red) for those books I want to keep an eye out for that may or may not be in kindle format yet. The "Pre-Orders", "Kindle Unlimited" and "To Find" are empty and are great as place keepers for books I need to look for. So I was able to fit in my PBS wishlist under the "To Find" pretty easy.

So I can see my list and know exactly which ones I have and which ones I need to look for, without sorting them. And once I look up the books in series to see what I want, I don't have to keep looking it up.

That's a huge help for me to keep track of things.

I didn't realize you can make entries for books you don't have yet into Calibre.  That's handy. I keep my series lists in Excel and also on FictFact.

As far as the new membership charges go... It kinda sucks but I've decided that I will probably do the limited membership for $12. I'm looking at it this way... It's about what I would pay for a magazine subscription (which I never do anymore) but I get way way more out it then I ever would with a magazine. I waste my money on more useless things on practically a daily basis so at least I get something of value out of PBS. I probably wouldn't do it if it didn't have the 30 book swaps included (which basically means the $12 is just paying for the swap fee in advance at a slight discount). I'm going to just limit myself to the books I will definitely need for series I'm actively reading or books by those favorite authors that I know I'll read instead of letting them gather dust on the shelves because my book eyes are bigger than my book tummy and I can't read fast enough :)

I think there are a couple of Paperbackswap groups on Goodreads and some Kindle or general ebook groups, too.

Wow, Calibre does way more stuff than I know how to do it.  I just keep all my books tagged with the series and sort by that column if I want to see if I have an entire series or what's missing.

Besides the Wish List here at PBS, I have a very small Reminder List that I really don't do anything with.  I do use the To Be Read list to track what books I do have and I use the Note feature to denote if I've read it or not.  That way, when I'm posting in a game, I can easily see what I have on had and what I've read when revealing.

This is the kind of talk I will miss if I can't post in these forums any more. Sucks! I'll probably pay the $12 when I get some money....gotta scrape up some change for the house payment, first.

So how many ebook readers are staying on PBS?

I'm staying til at least my Gold Key runs out in November. By or before then, should know how things shake out.

Calibre question: I'm not sure how to backup my books in Calibre. Can I copy them to a CD for safe keeping and, if so, what would I copy. All I've ever figured out how to do is load my books I have on Kindle and load the metadata if it's missing. I'm such a dope.

We'll miss you Cindy.

We'll miss you Cindy.

Thanks, Mary! I appreciate the thought. : )

Calibre question: I'm not sure how to backup my books in Calibre. Can I copy them to a CD for safe keeping and, if so, what would I copy. All I've ever figured out how to do is load my books I have on Kindle and load the metadata if it's missing. I'm such a dope.

You're not a dope! : ) All this stuff takes a bit of learning. I think there are several ways to do it. I know of two.

1) Copy the whole Calibre Library from your hard drive to your CD or DVD. Just check the size first to make sure it'll fit. I back mine up to a flash drive and put the flash drive in a Media Safe. I also have it backed up on Carbonite, so there are copies on site and off site in case of disaster. (As well as all our family pictures and scanned documents.) People usually have their library on C drive, and the file should be called "Calibre Libraries". That folder has all the books and settings for the program. Just select it and copy it to another destination. Just make sure and "Copy", not "Cut and paste". You don't want to move it all by accident.

When you load an new edition of Calibre, it'll change the main program in the program file, but won't change any information in this file, where your books are. So if need to reinstall Calibre on another machine to open these files, it shouldn't be too hard.

2) You can select your books and "Save to Disk" to a file on your hard drive. The button to do that could be on your tool tray at the top, or if you mark the books you want to save and right click, the 'Save to Disk' should show up. You can save them in what ever Format Calibre supports. If the book isn't in that format already, it'll convert it then save it. That will take longer to process than just saving the formats you already use. Mine are in Epub and AZW3, but I only save the Epub copies. 

(If you have multiple formats in Calibre, and limited space in your backup, then you might want to just save the one format. Then you won't have duplicates taking up space.)

If you use the 'Save to Disk' option, you can save the books in several ways. Go to "Preferences" and "Saving Books to Disk" and you'll see a template that you can use to tell the program how to set up the files names in the way you want it.

I have a very limited knowledge of this, 'cause once I got it like I liked it I quite messing with it. ; ) Mine are saved as....

{tags}/{title}-{author_sort}

Which just means I save those books in a folder that is given the name I have in the {tags} column. 

Then the folder sign

And the book saves with the {title}, and a dash, then the authors name that's in the {author_sort} format. (Mine is Lastname, Firstname)

So I select the books I want to save, create a folder to put them in, then go in Calibre and select the books I want to save and hit "Save to Disk". I make sure to pick the right destination, then chose "Save Epub Only." Once it's set up, it'll just convert (if it needs to) and send a copy to that location.

Why do I save them that way? Because, for me, the tags are most important. My tags are the genre of the book. The next important is the title, which I put the series info in with the book title. I could use the Series column in Calibre, but found I never care about the name of the book as much as the series information, so just like it always in the title. Then the author's name.

Then I put them all on my iPad Mini in a program called FileBrowser. This acts as an extra backup of my files, and I can carry my whole library when all the eReader programs can only carry a limited amount. FileBrowser is made to hand files, so can handle my whole library, and I can search for any book I want by Genre, Title and Author name.

Then I just click on the book, and FileBrowser asks me what program I want to open it in. Wa-la! There's the book in the program I want to read it in. 

Soooo.... if you just want to copy the library, to put back into Calibre, #1 is the easiest. If you want to sort your files, rename them to use in other ways, then "Save to Device" will work.

I've got a pretty complex system for my genre's so I can find what I'm looking for pretty easily. But I'm sure from outside it looks pretty obcessive. Lol. But, hey, it's what I do for fun. 

I'm staying!

When I changed computers last summer, I found some easy instructions somewhere online about how to move my Calibre library from one computer to another.  I think I just googled for the info.  It worked like a charm.

There is a new PBS group just formed at Goodreads for those of us who won't be able to post on the forums here. I talked to them last nite and they added an eBook section just for US! We can set it up however we like and continue posting all of our Kindle & B&N free eBook alerts there, Kobo Coupon Codes, as well as much needed Calibre set up info & tips, etc. You don't need to hang out at the rest of the forums there if you don't want. AND you can be a member there and continue to be member here at PBS if you are staying.

Here is the direct link to the eBook forum there: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/262551?group_id=156293

It's a private group, (so it's not Googleable) but open to ALL PBS members, so just register and let them know you are a PBS member here (what your screen name or name is here on the forums) and they will let you in.

Thanks so much Cindy for all the instructions. I will give it a try.

And thanks Sarah for the hint on searching.

Glad you are staying, Sarah! You are a Nookie, right?

I have Kobos, lots of Kobos, but thinking of getting another Kindle Paperwhite 2, if I can get one that isn't updated to the latest software, so I can jailbreak it and run alternative reader software. I want it for the Carta screen. The only Kobo with Carta right now is the H2O, which I don't want due to the size.

Of course if I wait long enough, Kobo may produce a 6" Carta device. That would be ideal.

Yes, I have a Nook HD and a Sony.  I notice the battery life is greatly going down on the Sony which is sad, it's my favorite.  I'll probably replace it with a Kobo eink sooner rather than later.

How is your Nook HD holding up? My girls each have one, and they have received extensive use (apps, videos, stuff like that). One of them seems to be losing battery faster than it used to (and it's the one I bought new!) 

I am hoping for a new 6" Kobo Aura with Carta screen....if I say it enough times, my wish will come true!

It's holding up fine.  Certainly doesn't get the use the Sony does.  I use it for library book lending and I do like some apps.  I don't really read on it much, I don't care for the backlit screen and I like my page turn buttons rather than having to touch the screen.  I can't get the right swipe gesture to turn the darned pages and I hate fingerprinty screens.

I don't think there's an ereader out there with page turn buttons anymore.  I don't really care about it being lit, although sometimes that might be nice.

Oh sure, if you want to shell out $200 for a locked down Kindle Voyage, you can get page turn buttons. 

Lighted eink readers are awesome! I really, really like the Kobo Glo. So much so, I have 2, one in black, one in white! You can get a refurbished one from Kobo.com for $79. So tempting to get another, but I keep telling myself NO. 

Nook Simple Touch has page turn buttons.

True, and the NST is a nice device, but I found myself unable to adjust margins to my satisfaction or use my favorite side-loaded font. I have become spoiled!

Well, I'm not a Kindle girl.  I dislike Amazon greatly.

I have looked at the NST before, I'm just not as big a fan of B&N since they did away with the direct download option from their website.  I had to add Nook for PC to my computer to be able to download purchases so I can get them into Calibre.

I know you're not, Sarah. The Voyage is way over priced for me, and can't be hacked. So it's off my list! I can get Kobo books the way I want them without hacking! Kobo tops my list.

There are rumors on mobileread of a new Kobo coming out with a Voyage screen.....happy dance! Glad I saw that before I noticed the Paperwhites are on sale today. I'm itching for a Carta screen, and one with higher resolution, too? And don't have to hack it to pieces to display books the way I want them? Hurry, Kobo! I have a credit card ready!

Sarah - you should try putting a matte (anti-glare) screen protector on your Nook HD. It will take away the glare and you won't notice finger prints, either. It could make a world of difference to your reading experience.