How to Keep Track of Books You’ve Read
Have you ever picked up a book and thought, “I don’t think I’ve read this one,” only to discover that the opposite is true after reading a few pages? Maybe you haven’t. Either way, you can only benefit from keeping track of the books you read. Knowing what books you have read - or already own - can not only help you with saving money at the bookstore, but can also help you discover what kinds of books you like most.
Perhaps the easiest way to track your books would be to buy or create a reading journal. Writing down your thoughts will help you remember what you have read in the past. No matter how much you love a book, sometimes you forget certain aspects of it over time. Reflecting on books in writing will help you clarify what you read, what you learned (if anything), and what you thought of it. There is no right or wrong way to journal your reading, you just have to find what works best for you. If you so choose, you could simply record four main points about each book: the title, author, date you read it, and some sort of impression about the book itself. Of course, you can always add more columns such as star-ratings and book genres. Unlike using websites or softwares that keep track of your reading online, journaling gives you the ability to doodle what you think a character might look like or an item you associate with the book. If you are artistic, journaling might be the best way to go for you.
Goodreads is a great way to track the books you read. It offers great motivation to read, as it has yearly reading challenges where you can set reading goals. Additionally, the site recommends new books based on what you’ve enjoyed before. Just like in a journal, Goodreads allows you to rate and review books. You can see book reviews and updates from your friends, and you can comment on them. Goodreads can also be a great place to interact with readers who have similar reading styles to yours. The site has an app as well, so it is very convenient and can be used anytime. If not Goodreads, there are many other websites and/or apps you can check out such as The Storygraph, Libib, and BookSloth. I just started using The Storygraph a couple of weeks ago and am really liking it thus far. The Storygraph allows you to take a survey which recommends books in line with your interests. If you are someone who prefers virtually tracking books, you should definitely find a social cataloging website that suits you.
Spreadsheets are a great way to make graphs and organize statistics about your reading; you can enter each book and the amount of pages into it. Your graph categories could include average pages per book, genres read, and average ratings. They can easily be customized to have daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly data. The best part about them is their privacy. If you want to read all the romance novels ever written, no one else has to know. If you want a field to track the publisher of every book, you just add a column. The opportunities are endless and you can sort them all day long. If you are very organized and like numbers, spreadsheets are for you.
There are many other ways to track your books other than the three mentioned. You could set up a blog where you write reviews for each book you read, or you could even organize your bookshelf in a way that separates what you’ve read from what you haven’t. You just need to find a method that is effective for you so that you do not completely forget the books you read.
Citations:
Colyard, K. (2018, July 12). Keep Track Of The Books You Read With The Help Of These 5 Free Apps. Retrieved from https://www.bustle.com/p/keep-track-of-the-books-you-read-with-the-help-of-these-5-free-apps-9743819
