Stupid ereader question.

[theweaselking]

I've got a new Kobo.

How can I get a list of the books that I have finished reading, preferably with the date and time I finished them, either in the Kobo application or in Calibre?

(If it involves the Kobo application: I want this to include non-Kobo-Store books.)

Comments

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

This may be a question for the creator of Calibre himself. He frequents the Ccalibre subforum of Mobilereads on a frequent basis. There may also be a plugin that does what you ask. The Calibre subforum can be found here. (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=166)

You can also add a "read" tag to Calibre. It's the date and time that are tricky.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I mean, the application keeps track of when I open which books, and how far through them I am, and marks them finished when I run off the last page.

Why can it not tell me "when first opened" or "when it was marked read"? That seems like trivial information that would be included way before now, right?

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I don't know. What I do know is that neither my Nook Color, nor the Kindle or Nook aps on my Droid track that kind of information. They will tell me where my bookmarks are and open to the last page I was looking at, but they don't track dates.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

I'm about to make the jump to an ereader, how do you like the Kobo? Is it your first or did you use something else before, and how did you like that one?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

First: I have the Kobo Touch, the e-ink touchscreen that is the redheaded stepchild of kobo usability. Due to some screwed-up development hijinks, it is just now, when the Android-based Kobo Vox is already on the shelves, getting the most basic useful tools. Like "give me a way to see my Shortlist" even if the proper "I'm reading" list that the normal Kobo and the Kobo application use is unavailable.

Second: This is *my* first e-reader, but it's actually my wife's cast-off when I bought her an older non-Touch Kobo because the Touch's book organisation was so goddamn frustrating.





How do I like it: for reading books, it's pretty good. It's light, reasonably responsive (it will occasionally not register a touch, or register two touches instead of one, but that's "occasionally"), the text is crisp and the size adjustments work well. I like reading books on it.
For reading more than one book at a time: As long as I have 5-10 books on the go at once at most, the Shortlist function works well and is reasonable to navigate from the home screen. More than that is awkward - and until the most recent update, like a month ago, it was a serious pain in the ass to find any book in your library, and to switch between books. However, that update exists, and I rarely read more than 2-3 books at once, so no problem there.
The library: Lets you sort ONLY by a very few categories, and doesn't let you sort authors by letter - so if you want a book by "King", you can sort alphabetically by author, and then you have a slider that tells you you're on page 15 of 40 of your book list but not what letter that is. So you have to slide back and forth. It's annoying.

This means I'm actually doing most of my library organisation on my computer, in Calibre, and not using the Kobo's storage for, well, anything.


The NON-TOUCH Kobo (the Kobo Wi-Fi) is slightly slower because the hardware isn't as powerful, and doesn't have quite the same ability to adjust fonts, but is otherwise better in every respect. It actually has proper, useful tools for keeping track of what you're reading. It lets you navigate your library by letter, and actually has a working "search" option. It still has the extremely-low-power e-ink screen that makes the battery last forever. It is by far the better product, and is also dirt cheap as e-readers go.

I strongly recommend that you not take a Touch unless it's free. Mine? Was free, and I quite like it for what it is, but if I were paying money, the non-Touch is cheaper AND better, so you should buy it instead.


The Kobo Vox, the new one that runs Android: Uh, for your $200, get a Playbook and install the Kobo App. For $50 I would be all over it, but not $200. Thing is, it's a 7" Android tablet running a heavily-customised OLD version of Android. If you want a cheap smart tablet, get a Playbook. If you want an Android tablet and think of the e-reader as a bonus, get a Galaxy Tab. If you want an e-reader, get a Kobo Wi-Fi. The Kobo Vox basically has *nothing* going for it - it's not the best at anything, not even for its price.

[laplor.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this review. It supports pretty much what I've been thinking.

My conclusion has been that we're about a year from some kind of really good e-reader at a reasonable price. I almost bought a Kobo Vox, but I haven't yet seen a review that didn't scare me away from it.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I quite like the Kobo Touch, I just wish it had a better set of tools for managing books. And, I mean, it's not like they'd be resource-intensive, so I live in hope of either a real firmware update or a third-party one that implements them.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Good to know, thanks.