# How many books can your e-reader hold?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 21, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538 "2016-08-21T19:22:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/1 "2016-08-21T19:22:45Z")
I have 326 books on my Kindle, and it has started telling me I need to delete something in order to have room for more.
In fairness, one of them is _Infinite Jest_, which is a big book. And not one I’m going to delete.
How many books do you have on your e-reader, and have you ever had to delete anything?
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/2 "2016-08-21T20:06:30Z")
Kindle Paperwhite.
680 books, 600MB out of 2GB still available.
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/3 "2016-08-21T20:14:57Z")
Kindle DX. Currently there are 528 books on it and I haven’t been forced to delete anything due to space issues yet. In fact, it looks like I could easily shove 1000 books on it.
---
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/4 "2016-08-21T21:42:26Z")
I’ve got an old Kindle, and I don’t carry more books on it than I’m currently reading, or have just recently read. (Or a small handful of reference books.)
My storage is all on my PC. I pipe it in, read it, then delete it.
---
### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/5 "2016-08-21T21:51:45Z")
Much like **Trinopus** I keep most of them on my PC or my portable HD. I did accumulate hundreds on there at one stage. When I had a couple of minor problems it was a pain going through so many files to sort them out so I cleaned it out and started again. I have less than twenty on there now - those I have started reading, the next ones I plan to read and a couple of recent purchases.
---
### Author:  [@pidgeon92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pidgeon92)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/6 "2016-08-21T23:02:50Z")
A text only Amazon file tends to be less than a megabyte in size, so a 2GB Kindle should theoretically be able to store 2,000+ novels. Graphics heavy ebooks will be larger in size.
I see that _Infinite Jest_ is a novel, so I doubt it’s more than 2MB in size at 1,098 pages. I think there’s something else on your Kindle that is sucking up your storage. Plug it into your computer and have a look at the files.
If it were my Kindle, and I couldn’t find the problem after looking at the files, I’d do a Factory Reset to clear everything out and reload the ebooks.
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/7 "2016-08-21T23:13:46Z")
> [@pidgeon92](#):
>
> A text only Amazon file tends to be less than a megabyte in size, so a 2GB Kindle should theoretically be able to store 2,000+ novels. Graphics heavy ebooks will be larger in size.
>
> I see that _Infinite Jest_ is a novel, so I doubt it’s more than 2MB in size at 1,098 pages. I think there’s something else on your Kindle that is sucking up your storage. Plug it into your computer and have a look at the files.
>
> If it were my Kindle, and I couldn’t find the problem after looking at the files, I’d do a Factory Reset to clear everything out and reload the ebooks.
Part of the space is operating software, indexing, etc.
---
### Author:  [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2016, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/8 "2016-08-21T23:41:59Z")
I’ve got the kindle app on my windows tablet with 512 GB of hard disk space and 10 TB of cloud storage on OneDrive. So it can hold around 5.5 million books which is more than I could conceive of reading in my lifetime. Plus you can always stream it on [read.amazon.com](http://read.amazon.com).
---
### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/9 "2016-08-22T00:32:42Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#):
>
> I have 326 books on my Kindle, and it has started telling me I need to delete something in order to have room for more.
>
> In fairness, one of them is _Infinite Jest_, which is a big book. And not one I’m going to delete.
>
> How many books do you have on your e-reader, and have you ever had to delete anything?
The kindle stores all of your books “in the cloud,” so even if you delete them from the device, you can instantly download them again if you want them.
Go to the “books” setting and you should see “cloud” and “device.” Deleting them from the device does not delete them from the cloud.
---
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/10 "2016-08-22T01:47:18Z")
Another gripe… My Kindle is so old, that it doesn’t actually move books to folders. I can create a folder – say, a Mark Twain folder. I can send all my Mark Twain books to that folder.
But they also still show up in the top-level list! They don’t disappear from the top list of books when I send them to a folder. So what’s the damn point of having folders, if books won’t _move_ into them, but only get _copied_ into them as data shortcuts/pointers?
I’m betting they’ve fixed this with later models.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/11 "2016-08-22T02:46:51Z")
About 5. Any more than than and I’m thinking it’s about to break.
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/12 "2016-08-22T03:34:57Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> Another gripe… My Kindle is so old, that it doesn’t actually move books to folders. I can create a folder – say, a Mark Twain folder. I can send all my Mark Twain books to that folder.
>
> But they also still show up in the top-level list! They don’t disappear from the top list of books when I send them to a folder. So what’s the damn point of having folders, if books won’t _move_ into them, but only get _copied_ into them as data shortcuts/pointers?
Do you have your Kindle set to sort “By Collections” as opposed to by Title or Author or Recent?
---
### Author:  [@pidgeon92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pidgeon92)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/13 "2016-08-22T03:38:47Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> Another gripe… My Kindle is so old, that it doesn’t actually move books to folders. I can create a folder – say, a Mark Twain folder. I can send all my Mark Twain books to that folder.
>
> But they also still show up in the top-level list! They don’t disappear from the top list of books when I send them to a folder. So what’s the damn point of having folders, if books won’t _move_ into them, but only get _copied_ into them as data shortcuts/pointers?
>
> I’m betting they’ve fixed this with later models.
Collections are more like tags, not folders. So, a book can reside in multiple collections, as well as at the “top” level.
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/14 "2016-08-22T04:40:59Z")
I don’t have a Kindle but I do have a tablet I use for reading so I’m not really getting the issue of not having the book immediately on your Kindle. I easily and quickly move stuff on and off the tablet to external drives with wifi, USB cable or micro USB thumb drives. I got a 128 gig microsd card for $ 40 on sale a few months ago and put it in the tablet and really don’t need to move much stuff offline these days.
Can’t you just store books offline on the Amazon cloud or on your PC?
---
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/15 "2016-08-22T05:14:33Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> Do you have your Kindle set to sort “By Collections” as opposed to by Title or Author or Recent?
As Ruk said on Star Trek, “THAT WAS THE EQUATION!” Thank you, mil milion gracias! I didn’t even know that there were sorting options; I just now went and fiddled with it a while until I found my way to that control. I’m happy now!
(By dangy, I do love my Kindle! It’s so light-weight and comfy. Imagine reading Plutarch’s Lives in a physical book! Thing weighs a ton! The Kindle makes it a dream!)
---
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/16 "2016-08-22T05:18:01Z")
I think my Kobo could hold 1000. It has fewer than 100 right now.
---
### Author:  [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/17 "2016-08-22T07:29:13Z")
I have a Nook HD+. I have 1066 books on it. I have 9.7 GB free of 12.6 GB. If necessary, I can install up to a 32 GB micro SD chip into it. I imagine formatting might use up some of that 32 GB.
---
### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/18 "2016-08-22T15:47:43Z")
My original Nook had something over 300 books on it when it went kerflooey a couple of months ago and wiped them all out. No real loss; I have copies on PC.
I replaced it with a Kobo, which I now wish I had bought in the first place – much more powerful software for manipulating data and much greater control over font size (you can even install your own fonts).
---
### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/19 "2016-08-22T16:02:15Z")
> [@Turble](#):
>
> My original Nook had something over 300 books on it when it went kerflooey a couple of months ago and wiped them all out. No real loss; I have copies on PC.
>
> I replaced it with a Kobo, which I now wish I had bought in the first place – much more powerful software for manipulating data and much greater control over font size **(you can even install your own fonts)**.
Sounds nifty.
Imagine, _War and Peace_ in Comic Sans.
_flees_
---
### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538/20 "2016-08-22T16:07:00Z")
I keep what I’m currently reading and a few that I want to read. Everything else? That’s what the cloud is for.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-books-can-your-e-reader-hold/763538.md?page=2)