Managing a Reader book collection

[ChristopherTD]

I have accumulated a large collection of MS Reader books, and find the "Library" facility very limited. The sort by Author is very flaky, sometimes sorting by first name and sometimes by surname. It also only shows half a dozen titles per screen. When looking for a particular book, or just browsing for the next one to read it is cumbersome.

Before I delve into the SDK to extract the data myself, does anyone know of any 3rd party library management tools that do a better job of displaying the available books?

[ChristopherTD]

I have accumulated a large collection of MS Reader books, and find the "Library" facility very limited. The sort by Author is very flaky, sometimes sorting by first name and sometimes by surname. It also only shows half a dozen titles per screen. When looking for a particular book, or just browsing for the next one to read it is cumbersome.

Before I delve into the SDK to extract the data myself, does anyone know of any 3rd party library management tools that do a better job of displaying the available books?

[dMores]

file explorer?
just give your books meaningful names, and maybe sort them in subdirectories. a click, and they open.

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by dMores

file explorer?
just give your books meaningful names, and maybe sort them in subdirectories. a click, and they open.

I guess that is one way, and may even have the benefit of hiding the books until they are opened (if Reader is not clever enough to traverse sub-directories).

[chasmanor]

There is a very nice program at www.wakefieldsoft.com called BookBag.

[drop]

I think ChristopherTD is looking for a solution that automatically extracts information from the lit files without user input, given that the files are probably formatted.

I would be VERY interested to see what you find, ChristopherTD. The rate my "library" is growing, I could really use a good management system yesterday. I tried managing it using ListPro. But it feels so wrong that I need to manually enter the data.

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by drop

I think ChristopherTD is looking for a solution that automatically extracts information from the lit files without user input, given that the files are probably formatted.

That is it! I guess what I am looking for is a program similar to MusicMatch Jukebox or iTunes except that it finds ebooks on your device, extracts the "tag" information and presents the results in a pleasing and efficient manner. Being able to fix broken/incomplete tags and launch the correct Reader would be neat too.

I did try the BookBag but it wasn't really what I had in mind. FWIW the uninstall of BookBag removed MSADO25.TLB which is a shared component and used by other software. If you do try BookBag I suggest you do a custom uninstall to avoid losing that file!

[acollet]

While I like the idea of bookbag, its clearly notihng more than a db which anyone can create in Handbase, etc. Surely can not see spending 20 bucks on it and it doesn't manage the files. One thing I found that does manage the files well is CommonTime mNotes. Yes, mNotes is a Lotus Notes syncronization program but it also allows you to manage your books from within the notes databases and keeps insync w/ the pocket PC. I understand Notes is in the minority here but it is a slick management tool for your ebooks.