"Hiding" books on the Kindle

There's been a lot of whining about this, and I've been one of the whiners.

I've found a trick to do it, but it only works with books you convert using MobiPocket Creator.

Once you've imported the text into Creator, go to Book Settings. Where it says Book Type, select News Feed. (hit the Update button to make sure you save your change.) Go ahead and build the book as usual, and transfer it to your Kindle.

Now for the cool part. Go to the homepage on the Kindle. Scroll to the top and select Show and Sort. The top 3 choices are Show All, Books Only, Periodicals Only. If you show Books Only, your "newsfeed" book will be hidden. If you show Periodicals Only, your "newsfeed" book will show, along with whatever newspapers or magazines you have.

This could be a useful way of hiding personal and business documents, as well as any 'special' books you convert. This is only a half-step in the right direction, but it's better than nothing.

Sadly, you can't toggle the tag in the book, once you've done it, it's done.

Also, it doesn't work on existing binary files (.azw, .prc, .mobi) This is left as an exercise for the reader.

Thanks, Garry. I recently emailed Amazon and asked them to expand their show/hide feature to include samples. I am drowning in samples!

Yeah, it seems like such a simple thing to do.

I read somewhere that Amazon bought MobiPocket. I'd like to see a tighter integration with Kindle and MobiPocket Creator. For example, Creator can create a file that requires a password to open. It won't work on the Kindle unfortunately. It would be a big help to people who want to use their Kindle to keep business documents. Them and pornhounds....

This may be obsessive, but I use my sd card as a primitive folder. Books I am currently reading I leave on the kindle. On my sd card I have created a number of folders: personal documents, mysteries to read, recipes, classics to read, etc. I then attach my kindle to the computer when I want to shift books onto the kindle. I don't like having pages and pages of books on my kindle and this way I can organize unread books by genre and bring them onto the kindle when I want. Oh and I also have a folder called books I have read. Obsessive, I know!

I've been playing with the idea of using the SD card as a sort of 'library' from which I 'check out' books to the Kindle. I've been doing this for a couple days and I'm quite happy with it.

First, I removed the back cover from my Kindle and set it aside. I then put the uncovered Kindle into it's M-Edge case. (This obviously won't work with the original case.) Doing this gives easy access to the SD card.

Everything in the 'library' I move to the SD card. The two or three books I have 'checked out' are on the Kindle. I then turn off the Kindle, pop the SD card enough to release it, but leave it in the slot. Then I power up again. Now, all I see in the Home Page are the books I 'checked out', the My Clippings file, and my blogs that I subscribe to.

When I finish a book, I delete it. When I want another from the 'library', I power down, push the SD card in 'til it clicks, power up, and I have 30 pages of books in the 'library' to choose from. When I find something interesting, I use Content Manager to move it to the Kindle, then power down and pop the card.

This is also a good way to hide stuff from casual kibitzers.

The instructions emphatically state that you should power down before inserting or removing the card.

After you create your folders or whatever you do with the card and your computer, you actually can leave it in the kindle. If you put it in, but don't insert it all the way (so it isn't connected), you can still close the kindle cover. But you are right; anytime you insert or disconnect the sd card you must turn off the kindle first. Since I still have the original cover, just leaving the card in the kindle but not inserted all the way in the slot works just fine.

Good idea! I should try this with the new SD card I got. It might cut down on my reading ADD, too. ;)

I also discovered that if you have the sd card in, you can go to the content manager and choose Kindle memory only. Then it only shows what is on the kindle!

I really wish Amazon would just fix this, it would be a matter of marking an item in the "book" database as visible or not and then filtering the total list of books. This should be a very simple matter and I am really surprised they don't have better library management tools on the Kindle.

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Thanks, tasidog! I should have looked at the Content Manager more thoroughly. This is exactly what I want to do, because I don't like the idea of being in-and-out with the SD card. I don't want to leave the back off the Kindle, but I don't want to be taking the back on and off too frequently either because I'm not sure how sturdy those plastic tabs are.

Thanks again.

EDIT: No, wait a minute. This really isn't that helpful. Or am I missing something? I can set the Content Manager to Show Kindle Memory Only, but that doesn't do any good on the Home screen, and the Home screen is where you open books from. So I really can't use the Content Manager for any effective filtering.

Am I missing something?

Tasidog,

Content Manager is only for moving books or deleting them, you can't open books for reading. You have to be in the Home Page to actually open a book.

This is why people have had to come up with funky work-arounds.