Calibre is a hugely useful ebook management software.
It allows you to tag, sort, and otherwise play around with the ebooks in your personal library.
Unfortunately, the Collections feature doesn’t automatically apply to side-loaded ebooks.
Related:How to Remove DRM From Your Ebooks
This is where plugboards come in.
To use plugboards, first, you’ll have to ensure the books onCalibrehave the appropriate series metadata attached.
Click off theEdit metadatawindow and selectPreferencesin the top bar.
In theSource templatebox, it’s time to choose what you want your titles to actually look like.
Apply the plugboard (via the tick button at the bottom of the window).
The plugboard is now saved.
However, you’ve got the option to delete unwanted formats to free up space.
Highlight the book in the Calibre database.
Under all of this will be the stored formats for that book.
Simply right-choose the format you want to delete.
When the list of options shows up, chooseDelete the X format.
The Kindle hi-res plugin will help.
select thePreferencesbutton at the top, then, underAdvanced, clickPlug-ins.
A window that looks like this should appear.
SelectGet new plug-insat the bottom, and a second window will appear.
In theFilter by namebox start typing “hi-res covers”.
The correct plugin should appear.
ClickInstall, and once you’re back to the first window,Apply.
You’ll have to restart Calibre for the changes to take effect.
Choose a book in your library, thenEdit metadatafrom the top bar, and finallyDownload cover.
Searching by tag or rating is also infinitely faster than it is on Goodreads.
Towards the middle, you’ll see a box for inputting your rating.
(Unfortunately, it doesn’t accommodate half-stars, but then again, neither does Goodreads).
From the main program, you’re able to now search your books by tag or rating.
This includes allowing you to read books by stripping the DRM.
Meaning that books bought from Amazon can be read on any other machine.
Which makes it a must-have program.
