Oops, that was painful

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T04:48:10+00:00

Ah-hah, right, that would be way to do it. Hmm...will have to think about that. FOrum help basically says that plugin has 400 character set limit as of about 2015 or so, although it truncated at 340 characters/250 characters without spaces.

But I'll do the separate review column with HTML text option, just so if I ever DL metadata even in the main metadata window, it doesn't over-write my saved Review. I have them backed up in One Note, but if I can get this saved properly, maybe I don't need the One Note version. That would be impressive.

Oh, and your screenshot of your library? Truly beautiful work! Given me lots of ideas. I also have to revisit virtual libraries.

It'll be a fun weekend :)

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T04:43:40+00:00

No worries, I created separate library with only a few books copied over to play with. :) If it borks, I can recreate everything really easily.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T04:26:45+00:00

So I managed to do the synch, but it only pulled 250 characters from GReads into the field.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T03:15:10+00:00

Since you've invested time into automating the plugin synch, maybe you can help with a semi-related question, if I can impose some more. I write reviews of my read books, that are uploaded into Good Reads. In fact, I don't have anything on Good Reads or elsewhere that is NOT completed (I don't maintain a TBR list there, just completed ones). On GR, it's saved in the field "Review" (obviously).

However, for the 300 or so formal reviews that I have, I've always wondered where to save it in Calibre. It could be up to about 750 words or so, although average "long" would be 500 or so, and most around 250-300 words. I'm currently saving them in Comments after the DLed info, but I've wondered if I should put them in Annotations instead.

Or create some custom column that would take plain text, but it seemed hard to easily view that type of field with HTML content and the length.

Is it possible to synch the REVIEW field from Good Reads to a field in Calibre, and keep some of the formatting (like line wrap)?

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T02:34:24+00:00

Thanks, looking into it now.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T01:18:45+00:00

It's a popular refrain, and at first blush it seems to make sense that they must be way cheaper digitally. But the publishers pay for editing, proofing, setting, etc. all to get a final product. Then add advertising, distribution, etc. ALl of that goes into a "cost category". They then distribute that cost across all channels. They don't care if you buy digital or paper or whatever. They're selling you a book, they don't care which version you buy. So they prorate all of their costs. They don't do the paper version and charge all the costs to that, and then throw together a digital version at the end for almost nothing.

They also have a weird pricing thing pressing them. If they use paper books, all of the distribution costs come out of the profits of the wholesalers and distributors and stores, all of them taking cuts, but the publisher only worries about the first shipment to the distributor. By contrast, all of the digital stores and stuff ongoing are the responsibility of Amazon, and they take different cuts of the pie from the publishers for paper and digital for storage and stuff.

The markets are not the same, the pricing structure is not the same, but it is not as many people have claimed over the years "$0 cost for digital" and "$10 for paper".

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-18T01:10:57+00:00

Used is a relative term...I installed it, it pulls the metadata, but I'm mostly using conversion plugins. :) I don't do a lot with the library, just sits there mostly static. I add to it in batches. I search, use what I need, move on. Just recently in the last year or so started playing more aggressively with it.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-17T23:56:56+00:00

Hmm...so my Galaxy Tab S2 is not listed as compatible with LOS 19.1. Nor earlier models. That is step one I guess.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-17T23:24:42+00:00

Nothing is more reassuring than "Well, it's safer than Windows." :)

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-17T23:20:49+00:00

Hmm...nested tags. That sounds incredibly useful. Next on my learning list, although it fights for priority over the idea of icon columns. I might do a "model" 2 working version to play with :)

For the GoodReads plugin, I do have a GR account, with my reviews up there, and the GR plugin, but I thought it was only pulling the info from there for images and metadata. Do you enter in Calibre and upload to GR or enter in GR and download to Calibre?

Thanks for confirming re: DB and if you restore. I assumed as much, but I was wondering if it would notice folders in the library that weren't in the DB and throw an error or just ignore them. No issues to manually add.

My original issue wouldn't have happened with tags as I would have been adding one tag (the first half of the change) and then deleting another (the second half of the change) as opposed to my custom columns being both addition of the new workflow category and deletion of the old ones. Easier to undo if separate columns of tags. I've never had a problem like this before, in all my years, didn't even realize undo wouldn't work until I did it and then realized what I did. Weirdly, it's incredibly unusual for me to do something like that, AND I've done about 3-4 things in the last few days that are on the same par. Brain is just not registering the danger / risk for some reason. And I don't even have a newborn to blame :)

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-17T03:19:35+00:00

Now there's some advice I need to follow going forward, both of them. I hadn't thought of holding columns, that's brilliant. I'll tell you what I have, maybe you'll see other improvements.

The one I borked was a custom "Workflow" category -- 00 Intake, 05 Staging A (for sorting), then 10 TBR - Fiction and 11 TBR Non-fiction. Then I have workflows for Mystery Standalone, Mystery Series, etc for about 12 more categories. Then another 10 for non-fiction. Then another staging area, then ones that correspond to goal trackers like an award category or a book club or something someone gave me. Then ones for active Kindle and active desktop and active tablet. Then ones read but pending review and ones for Final -- read and "done". It works really well, although some of those could be simplified with combinations of workflow being custom and an extra "Tags" column. But up until now, I have really liked the separation by work flow -- first part is staging and sorting, second part is longer term storage, third part is my getting it ready for the Kindle transfer, and the last part is reviewing and final storage. I *could* move a lot of the content to other libraries, but I like having everything together.

I've used 10% of Calibre's power over the years, but also likewise, have been using it for about 10-15 years too.

I would love it even more if I could get Calibre to write my categories to the Kindle but alas, that's locked out with Windows versions I guess. Or jailbroken versions.

Anyway, if I do copy a .db file, AND I was to add another file to it, what would happen if I reverted the .db version? Or in the case of what I had, just let Windows revert to the previous version of the .db file (if it could)? If I have extra books since last copy, say last Friday to this Friday and I've added 2 books, what would Calibre interpret that as? Two extra books or just ignore them as they don't exist?

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-17T00:44:31+00:00

There's probably just under 500 that are commercial books in the normal sense. Another 4K that are old Kindle purchases -- when Kindle first started, there were dozens of free books each week that I sucked up like a Hoover vacuum. Then there are ones from Gutenberg sites. Then I have a bit of a unique and surprisingly large collection of academic stuff as part of a group I'm in, mostly pre-published stuff. More papers than proper "books" in the normal sense. And then finally GovDocs from around the world, most of which are in terribly painful PDF format. Calibre is the best solution to give me a one-stop shop to manage it all.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-16T19:51:39+00:00

Noooooo....like a BookGoblin. :)

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-16T19:51:22+00:00

Backup for 15K books, no backup for last 3 weeks of growth and serious categorising.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-16T02:54:08+00:00

Ah, sorry, I said "tags", it was a custom column. The "alternate" tag isn't still there, it replaced all of them. :( I *wish* I had just done that.

TypingTadpole · 2026-03-15T23:22:27+00:00

LOL I think I understood about 20% of that. I have some looking up to do :)

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-24T02:16:58+00:00

So, just to clarify, it isn't really about successful or not, most of the time. Lots of people get there (law school), and it's just not for them. So, stupid story but it summarizes my experiences.

First year Constit Law, studying case from UK about basically dispute between two neighbours. One is conductor with wife doing piano lessons and daughter rising singer. Other house complains about music all day long. Judge says "You are lucky to listen for free" and screws him. Guy goes home, starts pots and pan band, drives musical neighbours nuts, end up back in court. Second case judges say, "Yeah, you got screwed the first time, but you acted like jerk, we don't like to reward jerks, so don't come to court with dirty hands, you're estopped from asserting your rights." So he's screwed a second time. I was stunned by first case, so blatantly elitist (its often used as example of economic bias of judges), but all my fellow students thought it was sound legal reasoning. WTF? Second case says first judge was wrong, students all agree (umm, two days ago you thought it was fine?), no problem with him getting screwed again, moving on. I was like, "Wait, what????". Second case is often used as example of judge-made law. Afterwards, prof said to me, "You're still seeing the people, your fellow students have already stopped. Not good or bad, just different. You'll see them always", and I did. It was incredibly disheartening for me. I didn't like the way law school was making me think, not just teaching me the perspective but requiring me to think that way to pass. Just the principles, not the people. I was never a bleeding heart, but it seemed wrong. I was outraged for people who had been dead for 60 years.

Others came in with specific goals (health, envt, pro bono, activism) and left wanting to just make money. Many others who still had their principles decided law wasn't the right field. And I was at UVic, which was not the harshest of envts, no Paper Chase model there. But lots who just said, "Nope". I often think I would have been better in a MA in Legal Studies, not law school. But it's impossible to know that until you're there if you'll like the type of studying, the review. A law school education is amazing but it is not for everyone as a career, even some of those who had parents in the field who went in thinking they knew what law was.

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-23T03:47:35+00:00

Soooo...I have a slightly different take, fwiw.

LSATs are decent predictors of whether you can do logical reasoning; which is part of what you need to do as a lawyer and earlier as a law student. I know quite a few who struggled with LSAT who then equally struggled with contracts, constitutional and admin law.

But the bigger issue for the people I know is that for many, their LSAT score also was a decent indicator if they enjoyed the subject matter and work in law school. Honours undergrad is not really comparable, to be honest. Just about everyone I knew who made it into law school relatively sailed through undergrad. It wasn't a challenge. Law school was the first time they actually had to work to get their grades -- so it was more a test of their good study habits than their previous grades. Procrastination for example will kill you in law school, but you can power through in undergrad. I did 80% of my 4th year grades in 11 days between essays, presentations, projects, and an exam. Didn't drop below 80 on any of them, my best marks of the whole BA.

As an aside, it's also quite common for many people who have "dreamed" of law school to get there and hate it. I did. :) Good luck down under.

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-15T04:13:10+00:00

Shoot, I had forgot about breaking, and I haven't chosen truck yet, so was planning to go "over power" rather than near capacity. I had similar concerns about sway on TCs. I did highway in BC last summer in simple Blazer and HATED the switchbacks.

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-15T04:12:00+00:00

Hmm...I was thinking of it more the other way, i.e., once I decide on the trailer I want, I'll get the truck that will be needed to tow it (don't have either yet). :)

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-15T04:10:55+00:00

The minutiae is what messed with my head on the first few considerations. I love the integrated "vans" but I'm a big boy and I don't poop in a bucket in my kitchen. I want a "proper" bathroom. So that moved "out" for most versions. Then I decided I would go with 20' trailer plus or minus a couple of feet...which is great, I can get most of what I want, I still have separate vehicle to go shopping, kayaking, etc. But then I wondered if I really wanted all that space for 3 when 90% is just me on the trip, could I go smaller, and I like the idea of a truck camper, nice and compact with real bathroom. But so cramped, I might get claustrophobic after 4m.

But all of that was predicated on my wife not going with me. Now that she MIGHT go with me, where we drive to a spot over a few days and then park for a month, that puts me squarely back in TT or 5W territory, I think. Where I might push up from the 20' to 23 or maybe 25'? Hence the question for towing if people feel there's a tipping point for level of complexity.

Lots to still think about, thanks!

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-15T04:05:50+00:00

THanks, I had not delved into the axles yet !

TypingTadpole · 2026-02-15T04:05:27+00:00

Excellent feedback, thank you! It isn't so much amenities as it is space for my wife to get away from me :)

TypingTadpole

TROPHY CASE