Keeping Track Of Books

[Michael Colton]

How do you keep track of what you have read, what you plan to read, and other such details? Are there any good applications for this sort of thing? My memory is not that great so I am finding it rather difficult to remember not only what I have read and what I want to read, but also my thoughts on what I have read. Especially short stories.

I was thinking of making some sort of Excel spreadsheet, but that seems a bit cumbersome.

 

[The Judge]

I have exactly the same problem in recalling what I've read in past years, which can be frustrating.

When I produced my website a few years ago I decided to incorporate a journal of my reading in that, separate from my blog, which I've continued to do, averaging out at about an entry a week. Some books might get two or three paragraphs of my thoughts/reactions if they take a while to read, while others might only get a line or two, particularly collections of short stories, which just get lumped together, but occasionally I've gone into greater detail in my blog if there's been a point I think requires more in-depth musing.

Separately I also have a table of my reading. I've never bothered to master spreadsheets, but no doubt that would be easier for those who know what they're doing. In that I only have the title, author's surname, the year of first publication, and columns for whether it's a SFF genre book, a collection of short stories, and whether I couldn't finish it. I keep a separate list of list of non-fiction books.

It's not perfect, and I can still easily forget the actual plot of a novel, especially if I've read several by the same author in quick succession, but at least I know what I have read!

 

[Extollager]

I don't keep a diary, but I always have a notebook (composition book size) at hand to jot things in, and at the rear thereof I list the books I've read: the dates, the author's name, the title, which reading (first, second, etc.), and typically whether it's fiction or not. I usually don't add notes about the book, with the result that, occasionally, I review the list and find mention of a book I hardly remember. (Anyone have any thoughts on Dickinson's Tsuga's Children?) From time to time, I transcribe the handwritten notebook lists into a master digital document. I began to keep a list of my reading 40 years ago, and have often been very glad that I did so. I would encourage those who don't to consider doing so. if your memory is like mine, you often associate events with a book you were reading, so if you have a list of what you were reading and the dates, you may be able to pin down when the event happened.

Off-topic, but I'm also glad that, for several years in which I was somewhat active in fandom, I kept a log of mail sent and received (1970s).

 

[soulsinging]

Me and a few other people around here use the website Goodreads (Share Book Recommendations With Your Friends, Join Book Clubs, Answer Trivia) which is kind of like a rotten tomatoes for books. You can log books you've read and rate/review them, track books you have on your shelf but haven't read yet, see reviews from other book lovers... it's a pretty decent site. Several authors have begun using it as well.

*edit* guess that automatically created a link, so you can go right to the site and check it out.

 

[J-Sun]

I used to keep stuff in a DOS "flatfile database" (which is to say a database-like spreadsheet) and then had a bit of a disaster and kept stuff on paper for a long time, but randomly. Then I started an ad hoc variety of poorly done LibreOffice spreadsheets for a variety of purposes and have been trying to get them reduced to a master spreadsheet but, y'know, I suck. If I'd have just done it right, or would just do it right, it wouldn't be cumbersome at all. All this should be a database but I do find them cumbersome. Too much complication for the organizational benefits. (Or, again, I guess I just suck.) There are a variety of pre-fab "book collection recording programs" and I guess they must suit many people but it's like wearing someone else's shoes to me. Even when they're highly customizable (and they aren't, usually) they aren't how I'd do it.

The most important thing is to keep the data accessible (this applies to everything stored digitally). A plain text list, as long as it's structured, is sufficient, but a spreadsheet as .csv is a structured plain text list, so is good. When you can set your quoting and separator symbols, ad have good processing tools, it's better still. I just use unquoted pipe separators and can use cut and sort and grep and awk and whatnot on them and do whatever I want, basically.

 

[Michael Colton]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. I have just come across Book Collecter by Collecterz and downloaded the trial version. I shall let people know what I think of it. If I do not like it, I will either go Excel or GoodReads.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I just have a very big pile at the side of my bed tbr and a bookcase of ones I've read - any not there, I can live with forgetting about, whether read or not.

 

[Michael Colton]

I just have a very big pile at the side of my bed tbr and a bookcase of ones I've read - any not there, I can live with forgetting about, whether read or not.

I have piles and bookshelves as well, but I can scan my bookshelf and not remember if I have read something - even after reading the back cover or the first couple pages.

 

[tinkerdan]

I use goodreads and then I have the kindle which keeps track through cloud presently but I'm not all that faithful that there won't eventually be a failure there. I also have a pretty fair memory of what I've read and there seems to be no end to what I want to read.

Those few I read over are probably the only ones I want to keep track of.

 

[Bick]

Whenever I read a book, I enter it, under year, on a Word doc created for the purpose. This keeps track of things quite well, I've only been doing this since 2009 though.

 

[kythe]

I never kept track of my reads over the years. But it frustrates me that sometimes I read something that really had an impact on me, but later I can't remember the title or author. This year I started a small notebook of "2014 reads". I've got a list for books, and separate lists for various short stories by Poe and Lovecraft (newly discovered authors to me), and another list for miscellaneous short stories.

I like keeping a written notebook rather than a computerized one. It takes me back to childhood when I read more freely.

 

[Michael Colton]

Whenever I read a book, I enter it, under year, on a Word doc created for the purpose. This keeps track of things quite well, I've only been doing this since 2009 though.

I think if I do find a system I will only include books read since I started tracking. Any attempt at remembering books I read years ago and my impression of them would be fairly inauthentic and not terribly useful.

 

[Kzinti]

Easy. I just get one book at a time. That way my attention doesn't waver.

I used to get a ton of books at one time and found myself rushing.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Nice to hear that there are others as clueless as me.

50+ years... tens of thousands of shorts... thousands of novels.... It all gets to be a bit of a jaded blur.

Never wrote anything down. It's only the top one percent of profound that stick in my mind.

Lately, most of my fiction reading is in bed, late at night. Any mental notations get lost in dreamland.

Titles seldom catch a gleam of recognition. I can get deep into a story before I recognize it.

The worst is the menu of the Kindle. There's no way to mark "read," "unread." The titles are sorted according to last access. I constantly put already-reads to the top of the cue... just because I have to check

The best part of getting old and dim of memory, is that a reread of an ancient favorite can be an utterly new experience.

 

[Michael Colton]

Easy. I just get one book at a time. That way my attention doesn't waver.

I used to get a ton of books at one time and found myself rushing.

I was referring more to remembering and keeping track of books you have read in the past, not currently on your to-read list. But I agree, having too long of a to-read list can get cumbersome (due to suggestions from this site, my current list is massive).

 

[VALIS13]

Goodreads for me!

 

[Lord Soth]

Goodsreads for me also, but I also use Calibre (for my kindle). Its very easy to add a column into the standard format saying "Read: Yes / No."

 

[Null_Zone]

I just have a very big pile at the side of my bed tbr and a bookcase of ones I've read - any not there, I can live with forgetting about, whether read or not.

Pretty much the same here.

Though if I am being really organised I'll sort the books on my Kindle into a "To Be Read" folder. Well it happened once, but another attempt is always a possibility.

 

[Vertigo]

As others I also use Goodreads, which I find great for organising my wish list and owned TBR list and planning what to read next. However I don't find it quite so good for more sophisticated tagging and organising, for that I use Calibre.

Calibre is really designed for managing ebooks (and other digital reading media like magazines, news etc.). However you can create entries without any actual attached book file so it can also be used as a record of library books and printed books. So, for example, using Calibre I can easily find all the books I've read that are science fiction dystopias with weird aliens etc.

 

[Fried Egg]

I find GoodReads a great tool for remembering both what books I have read in the past and also for remembering which books I have bought but not yet got around to reading (otherwise they easily get lost on book shelves). As long as you don't mind storing this information in the public domain, this is a great facility. You can also export all your books on the site and store it locally as a CSV file so you don't have to worry about the website going offline and losing all your data.