Today I came across a Let’s Talk Bookish prompt for September 2026:
Prompts: How do you manage your digital library (Kindle, Kobo, etc.)—do you delete books you won’t read, or do you let them pile up? Do you feel less guilty about owning too many digital books versus physical ones? Which is harder to let go of: a well-loved physical book or a purchased e-book?
It has inspired me to revisit this draft, add an update, and post it even though it is a month late.
Looking for Alternatives
When I couldn’t find a couple of ebooks that I knew–KNEW–that I had, I realized that I absolutely needed to have an up-to-date list or catalog of my ebooks. Especially since there are so many different platforms that come and go. (Goodbye, Aldiko, I wish I could remember which books I had downloaded in your app. Fortunately, I think they were mostly public domain books.)
And then I purchased another ebook Humble Bundle.
Over the years, I had been using GoodReads and LibraryThing inconsistently to track which ebooks and ecomics I get via Hugo voting packets, Humble Bundles, and other purchases. I tried Calibre a few years ago, but got frustrated. So I downloaded a new copy and took another look.
Another wrinkle is that I’ve saved the ebooks in too many different places — my laptop, external drives, GDrive, iCloud…
Calibre vs. LibraryThing
I love how Calibre will compile and track when you have different versions of a title (e.g. PDF or EPUB). It works best when you ingest the ebook files directly. However, I wanted to bulk add records without the files attached or bulk update existing records by importing a spreadsheet. I end up re-entering a lot of catalog record metadata.
LibraryThing is exhausting. It used to be really easy to identify which edition I had in my collection. Now the records are merged into one giant record. Yeah, with RDA it’s easy to group together different editions and translations of a work. But when I think I’ve selected the correct record for an edition to add to my collection and save, the book title will suddenly change to another language. Or I change the format to ebook, and then the cover image goes away. I don’t trust it like I used to.
At least I can export info from both of them. I wish that all ebook platforms had a way to download a list of titles.
October 2026 Update
I started this post in April 2026 to yell into the void. I started a spreadsheet to track all of the ebooks I had and where they were located. I found the two books I had been searching for. Then I had a breakthrough with Calibre and never published the post. I finally figured out how to use it to ingest all of my DRM-free ebooks and add empty records for any app-only ebooks (e.g. Kindle).
It is going really well. I’ve added over 1500 books, comics, zines, and journals to Calibre!*
I’m not done yet; I’m still working through the Kobo and Amazon tabs on my spreadsheet. I have consolidated where I keep the ebook files on my computer (in addition to the copies made by Calibre.) There are still a few old ebooks that I have not yet found.
I have also figured out how to repair super old EPUBs and how to create new ones. I will no longer delete old EPUB files, assuming that I still have a copy on another external drive. When I have multiple PDFs or EPUBs of the same ebook from different sources (e.g. Love and Rockets: Maggie and Hopey, which has been included in several Humble Bundles over the years), I keep them when there are differences in size or formatting.
It’s taken some anxiety out of buying ebooks. Whenever I purchase a new ebook (or bundle), I quickly add it to Calibre and Excel, move the files to my computer, then back up Calibre and my computer. I do regret not starting this project two years ago, before Amazon disabled the ability to download their ebook files outside the Kindle app.
In the future, I’ll revisit LibraryThing. I’ve also begun tracking my collections of audiobooks and streaming videos. I will not be adding my eARCs to Calibre. I already have a spreadsheet for them. Plus, you know, ethics.
* Does include some excerpts, eARCs, watermarked copies, and eligibility PDFs from Hugo packets. Calibre’s tagging system makes it easy to identify them. Maybe I’ll delete some of these in the future.
