Organizing is my happiness
Jul. 10th, 2014 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dephigravitySo I've had my Kindle Fire for a few years now, and I love it. I do. I have quite a bit of fanfic and a dozen or so novels dl'd to it, but tbh honest I've used it mostly for checking twitter and tumblr when I'm in bed. /o\ Nick is an e!reader fail!
Those that know me, know that I get easily distracted... so that's some of it, but mostly my reason for not reading on it much is the lack of organization. There are no Kindle system built in folders to drag things into, per se. In previous versions you could organize your files on the computer, but with Fire some genius programmer didn't think that was a necessary feature. DISHONOR ON YOU, DISHONOR ON YOUR FAMILY! whomever you are!...
Anywho, what Fire has is a carousel on the main screen and with a few clicks you can list of files you've uploaded. BUT YOU CAN'T REALLY ORGANIZE THEM! Anything you download or transfer over automatically shows up at the front of the carousel and anything you are currently reading or have recently opened in addition to any app you've used. Sounds nice until transfer over fics in bulk. HOLY SENSORY OVERLOAD! It goes from easy to find to a frantic hunt through your high school locker to find the one pencil you knew was in there six months ago... The only real way that I know of to clean that up is to manually click on each thing and remove from carousel... again, if you do it in bulk? NOT FUN.
So this is why I have only been reading recent stuff, and usually only transfer over one fic at a time... my Fire was just a mess of files (not all had understandable names, or was clearly identifiable by fandom, pairing, if it was a downloaded eBook, etc..)
But all hope was not lost. I was casually skimming through apps when I came across one called Book Collections. It's pricey-- $2.99 for regular-$3.99 for the Plus version-- not sure what possessed me, but I went ahead and got Plus. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE (okay not really, but...!)
It asks you what kind of files you want it to scan, and then drops them into the app. It's set up for default folders like: Currently Reading, Favorites, To Read, etc. but you can edit those. You can also add new folders (J2, Sam/Dean, Teen Wolf, Novels, etc. in my case) and then just click each file and tell you where you want it to go! You can add them to multiple folders if you want. You can also edit author and title info and add notes-- pairings, challenges, etc!!! Once done, you can then search the fics in the folders by author or title. SO NICE! It took me a while, but I managed to get through my entire Fire last night, so I now HAVE ALL THE J2 fic EASILY FINDABLE TO READ, FINALLY! \o/ Also finally lets me finally be able to tell which files are part of the enormous mound of the DNW to read gay romance epubs a friend sent me a while ago...
The only drawback I see so far is in order to find something and then read it, you have to do so with in the app itself. The app doesn't automatically remember your placement in the fic, so if you are reading something long it can be a little tricky. But when you close the fic, it gives you the option of noting in the location where you ended, so you can skip back to that when you reopen. So it's still manageable. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it puts whatever you open back on the carousel, so you can always just close your app and read from there like normal. But what's a few extra finger swipes FOR ALL THE ORGANIZATION! :DDD
Seriously, if you have a Fire, I highly recommend it though.
Now to DOWNLOAD ALL THE FIC! And once I finish the newer BBs I've downloaded, I can FINALLY get around to reading the older BBs and fandom classics I never got around to /o\ ... ie Hail Mary, Top Spin, Doors of Time Part II, The Untitled Jared Padalecki Project, etc etc...
OH HAPPY DAY!
Those that know me, know that I get easily distracted... so that's some of it, but mostly my reason for not reading on it much is the lack of organization. There are no Kindle system built in folders to drag things into, per se. In previous versions you could organize your files on the computer, but with Fire some genius programmer didn't think that was a necessary feature. DISHONOR ON YOU, DISHONOR ON YOUR FAMILY! whomever you are!...
Anywho, what Fire has is a carousel on the main screen and with a few clicks you can list of files you've uploaded. BUT YOU CAN'T REALLY ORGANIZE THEM! Anything you download or transfer over automatically shows up at the front of the carousel and anything you are currently reading or have recently opened in addition to any app you've used. Sounds nice until transfer over fics in bulk. HOLY SENSORY OVERLOAD! It goes from easy to find to a frantic hunt through your high school locker to find the one pencil you knew was in there six months ago... The only real way that I know of to clean that up is to manually click on each thing and remove from carousel... again, if you do it in bulk? NOT FUN.
So this is why I have only been reading recent stuff, and usually only transfer over one fic at a time... my Fire was just a mess of files (not all had understandable names, or was clearly identifiable by fandom, pairing, if it was a downloaded eBook, etc..)
But all hope was not lost. I was casually skimming through apps when I came across one called Book Collections. It's pricey-- $2.99 for regular-$3.99 for the Plus version-- not sure what possessed me, but I went ahead and got Plus. BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE (okay not really, but...!)
It asks you what kind of files you want it to scan, and then drops them into the app. It's set up for default folders like: Currently Reading, Favorites, To Read, etc. but you can edit those. You can also add new folders (J2, Sam/Dean, Teen Wolf, Novels, etc. in my case) and then just click each file and tell you where you want it to go! You can add them to multiple folders if you want. You can also edit author and title info and add notes-- pairings, challenges, etc!!! Once done, you can then search the fics in the folders by author or title. SO NICE! It took me a while, but I managed to get through my entire Fire last night, so I now HAVE ALL THE J2 fic EASILY FINDABLE TO READ, FINALLY! \o/ Also finally lets me finally be able to tell which files are part of the enormous mound of the DNW to read gay romance epubs a friend sent me a while ago...
The only drawback I see so far is in order to find something and then read it, you have to do so with in the app itself. The app doesn't automatically remember your placement in the fic, so if you are reading something long it can be a little tricky. But when you close the fic, it gives you the option of noting in the location where you ended, so you can skip back to that when you reopen. So it's still manageable. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it puts whatever you open back on the carousel, so you can always just close your app and read from there like normal. But what's a few extra finger swipes FOR ALL THE ORGANIZATION! :DDD
Seriously, if you have a Fire, I highly recommend it though.
Now to DOWNLOAD ALL THE FIC! And once I finish the newer BBs I've downloaded, I can FINALLY get around to reading the older BBs and fandom classics I never got around to /o\ ... ie Hail Mary, Top Spin, Doors of Time Part II, The Untitled Jared Padalecki Project, etc etc...
OH HAPPY DAY!
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Date: 2014-07-10 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-10 06:55 pm (UTC)