Filter / Sort option

[LDB]

Ok Amazon, you've had MORE than enough time to step up.

Going to www.amazon.com. Manage Your Content and Devices. Show: Books All. When you click the All button you get the drop down with choices. Where is READ? It should be possible to see all our read books, and only our read books.

On our Kindle we should be able to also sort by size up or down and we should be able to sort on percentage read up or down.

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[Linjeakel]

Amazon aren't going to spend time and money introducing new features unless they know a lot of people want them.

I can't say that I particularly want or need any of those options you mention - but if YOU do, you and anyone else who wants them need to tell Amazon that by giving them feedback. Often.

[LDB]

Well, I admit it's been a few decades since my FORTRAN and COBOL days but I'm pretty sure when they have a system in place like this and just want to add another flag to the existing list it's a job that takes their programmer less than the time between clocking in and going to coffee break, so very very little time cost or money cost, far more greatly offset by the goodwill it earns them than the minuscule cost of implementation. Maybe it's different now. Things have changed just a little in the last third of a century.

[Ann in Arlington]

I'm not sure it's really an issue of how easy it is or is not; as Linda says, it's probably more what people are asking for.

In Manage Content, there is a 'read' tag, now on anything you've read; I'm not sure it would help me much to be able to sort to include or exclude those books. AND ... I am pretty sure there are some omissions. I'm feel like there are some I have read -- before they introduced that feature -- that are NOT marked as read. ON my kindle, I tend to remove books once I have read them.

I don't see any value for me in sorting by how much of a thing I've read. Sorting by length of the book could be useful when I'm looking for something shorter. But if I switch to list view I can see that information in a relative way, which is good enough for me.

But, yeah .... if it's something YOU would be interested in, you should let them know.

[LDB]

I'd like to sort on size because sometimes I want a short read to pass a specific block of time. I'd like to sort on percentage read because sometimes I switch books before finishing one and it may drop down "out of sight, out of mind". By sorting on percentage read I can find them again more easily. I'll look for a means to suggest it direct to Amazon also. I figured they probably regularly check in here too though.

[Ann in Arlington]

I'd like to sort on size because sometimes I want a short read to pass a specific block of time. I'd like to sort on percentage read because sometimes I switch books before finishing one and it may drop down "out of sight, out of mind". By sorting on percentage read I can find them again more easily. I'll look for a means to suggest it direct to Amazon also. I figured they probably regularly check in here too though.

That makes sense.

I don't know what kindle you have but the ones I have ... all fairly current: Voyage, Oasis, PW ... there is, as I noted, some indication of both length and how far along in a book you are when you have it set to show a list vs the grid view. You might check that and see if it does what you need.

[Andra]

Older books that I have not read since the flag was introduced are not automatically marked as read. I can do it manually, but with the size of my library that will be very time-consuming...
On the manage content page I think you can filter by read. I am reading on my new Fire tablet right now and it will let me filter on read items. I have not checked either of my current Kindles.

[LDB]

Yes, I can compare the general size by how long the line beneath the title is and I use that now but it would be nice if rather than scattershot they were sorted by exact size. If I need/want a certain size I have to go through all 52 pages of books to look for what I want. Sorted I'd only need to look at a page or two. Oh well, at least it's better than nothing as it is.

[jkingrph]

It would be nice if Kindle could add some basic automatic categories or types, such as history, non fiction, fiction, and some subtypes in those for some broad category collection purposes. Sort of an automatic collection feature.

[Ann in Arlington]

It would be nice if Kindle could add some basic automatic categories or types, such as history, non fiction, fiction, and some subtypes in those for some broad category collection purposes. Sort of an automatic collection feature.

I've thought about this, too. But the problem I see is that the only sure delineation is Fiction vs Non-Fiction. So many books can fall into more than one category. Admitedly, Non-Fiction is a bit more clear cut. But lots of fiction books have elements of more than one genre.

AND ... who decides? I'm sure we've all seen cases where an author/publisher 'tags' their book so it'll pop in some very popular category, but that's actually a small element of the story really. Consider the discussions we've had here about what is and isn't a "romance".

I guess I think it would be very hard to do in a credible way, and probably impossible to do so as to please everyone.

I also think those of us who have frequented this board for some time are more "in to" our kindles than most kindleers. I know a fair number of folks now who have kindles -- pretty much none of them care much about any of this stuff. They keep a few books at a time on their devices vs. hundreds. They don't buy that many that they need any grand sorting system. Many use the library borrowing feature and the books are gone from their devices when the loan period runs out. If there's any kind of keeping track, it's "off line" in a notebook or separate document file. So ..... I'm not sure how many of Amazon's customers are really clamoring for such features.

[Fogeydc]

Well, I admit it's been a few decades since my FORTRAN and COBOL days but I'm pretty sure when they have a system in place like this and just want to add another flag to the existing list it's a job that takes their programmer less than the time between clocking in and going to coffee break, so very very little time cost or money cost, far more greatly offset by the goodwill it earns them than the minuscule cost of implementation. Maybe it's different now. Things have changed just a little in the last third of a century.

It's been a few decades since my COBOL days too, but I well remember how even a tiny "easy" change can screw up things you didn't think about, or how exactly you decide which way to specify the sort flags can screw up how someone else has done things somewhere else in the overall operation/system/sequence. Even after you think you've tested everything.

Yes, things have changed in the last more-than-a-third-of-a-century -- they've gotten more complicated and everyone has much higher expectations!

[barryem]

I was a programmer for more than 35 years and I can promise you that on any major moneymaking system there are no small jobs. Too many parts fit together intricately.  Make a small change and it's almost certain to affect other parts.  Maybe many other parts.  Professionals don't let that happen.

The job of finding problem in other parts can be and usually is very labor intensive.  It's a safe bet that even a small simple coding change on a system that large results in hundreds of man/hours testing even if few issues are found, and thousands if there are issues.

Even more important is that their system works well, makes lots of money and has only minor competition.  Remember New Coke!!! 😉

Barry

[Andra]

I have checked my Voyage and Oasis. Both will let me filter on "read" books. It does seem weird that Content and Devices does not have that option.

[Ann in Arlington]

I have checked my Voyage and Oasis. Both will let me filter on "read" books. It does seem weird that Content and Devices does not have that option.

Interesting! I'd not noticed that but, as I said, I tend to remove books I've read from my devices. So maybe there was just nothing to sort.

[LDB]

I haven't looked in my Oasis as I tend to remove items as soon as I've finished reading. It's in C/D where I have everything that I'd like that option.

[crebel]

My Oasis2 does let me filter by "read" when I set it to "ALL" as well (more or less the same thing as C/D).

It certainly isn't all books I've read and deleted from various devices since 2008, but it does show all 457 books that have received the "read" tag since that became a thing.

Not sure whether that may be a little more helpful to you since it isn't an option through C/D.

[LDB]

I'll have to check that out. Thank you.

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