Submitted by FangFeline t3_z5ttv5 in books

Hello all,

What do you do with the kindle books once you've read them? I have a lot of books that I would like to get rid of to create space in my library.

I knew what to do with physical books. I could donate them to a school or shelter or just simply gave them out to free up space on my bookshelf.

I know kindle has an option to delete books but that just feels like throwing them away. What do y'all do with your digital books?

8

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

bluredditacct t1_ixy0qx9 wrote

I created their own category called "finished" and just delete them off the Kindle but not the cloud. I also have one named "delete" for all the trash books, usually free or discounted, that I would delete but don't want to be bothered. Also if you delete a book off your Amazon account, which is a total pain to do, it will let you buy it again, if it's not deleted instead of "buy now" it says something like "open book". I tend to be forgetful so that's helpful.

17

trishyco t1_ixy1drr wrote

I do this exact same thing. I have a folder for “delete”and another called “read”. The “delete” are books I have no intention of looking at again. “Read” is for books I might read again, refer back to or part of a series that I might been to check back in with. None of these are technically taking up digital space because they aren’t downloaded to the device.

3

unlovelyladybartleby t1_ixy7b0k wrote

I have 5000 books on my eReader (kobo not kindle), a backup on my laptop, and 20,000 books on a hard drive

Why delete them, they fit nicely inside your electronics

10

ZaphodG t1_iy2yhqd wrote

This. I used to have a large collection of hard copy books. I purged those and am now building up a large collection of eBooks. I only switched over less than 3 years ago so I don’t have 5,000 books on my eReader yet. I also have read a lot of library books that I delete when the loan expires.

With hard copy books, I discarded them because my bookcases were overflowing. I’ll never have that issue with eBooks.

1

GingerIsTheBestSpice t1_ixy43ay wrote

When they start to bug me, i remove them from home or delete the download - then they're still in the library if i want them again. I like to reread books i really enjoyed.

I used to be super organized & put them into collections, which is very neat. I love that you can put books into multiple collections, so it can live in "Romance" "fantasy" "time travel" and "favorite authors" all at the same time.

5

BeardedinIdaho t1_ixzp66i wrote

I get most of my ebooks from non-Amazon sources, so I use calibre to manage my library. I can remove all the books that I don’t want on my kindle and just store them on my computer like a large library.

5

kteb20011 t1_ixypyg1 wrote

I rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and move them into the appropriate star. Lol

3

seattle_architect t1_iy1em6f wrote

You can “remove download” to free space on kindle.

3

Astrid-Wish t1_ixye57y wrote

The ones you buy can easily be moved to a back up drive or even storage on your computer. Hook it up, drag and drop.

2

skullfullofbooks t1_ixyoa96 wrote

If you mean you'd like to remove them from your library so they don't show when you're scrolling, your best bet is to utilize collections. Make a "read" or "finished" collection and stick them in there. Then make another collection for books that aren't finished and stick them in that one. View books with collections and you'll never see the finished books. Items not in collections will appear after the collections end, so you could also choose to only make one collection for read books and leave the rest free.

If you need more storage space, or if you don't want to use collections, you can delete the download of the Kindle book from your device, then set your library to "downloaded only" view. It will only show books on your device. Just remember to download a new book you've recently purhased, you'll have to switch back to the "all" view or you won't see them pop up!

2

FangFeline OP t1_ixypsyt wrote

Thank you all for the suggestions and for sharing your own experiences of what you do.

I will create a collection for the books I'm done reading and then I'll remove them from device so they are stored in the cloud.

Secondly, I am going to make some suggestions to amazon on how better to have these books being put to use as it feels like I'm just storing these books for no reason at all and ultimately so much energy is spent in running these cloud systems that it's not worth it. I would like to be able to donate them to a local library.

2

-1_2_3 t1_ixzfj6v wrote

I think for-profit amzn is not going to help you or anyone else donate your digital book collection to a library.

4

Competitive-Finger26 t1_ixysayg wrote

I delete them completely. If I have no plans to ever read them again, why hold on to them? Dropped my collection down from a couple hundred, to 3. The only 3 books I owned that I know I will read again and again.

2