Musing Mondays

Recording Your Reading

Do you keep track of what and/or how many books you read? How long have you been doing this? What's your favorite tracking method, and why? If you don't keep track, why not? (question courtesy of MizB)

I first started tracking my TBR list in a Word document. My book recommendations were written on scraps of paper, back on envelopes and post-it notes. One day it occurred to me that I should write the titles in one list. This list soon turned into a color-coded (by genre) 10-page document. Next, I decided to track all the books I could remember reading in Word.

Recently, I wanted to expand my TBR list and add more detailed information and continuing to maintain this list in Word was getting too complicated. I then transferred this list into Excel, but soon after I stopped updating it. Reason being I needed to access this list outside of my home. I completely forgot about using iDisk on my iMac, so now I'm thinking about returning to my Excel spreadsheet.

I also track my TBR and "all books read" list on Library Thing and Shelfari. Earlier this year, I experimented with Good Reads and only have the books read in 2009 listed there. I also maintain books read each month on My Journal blog. I have a separate challenges blog and I also keep track of books read for each challenge in an Excel spreadsheet.

I love making lists and I'm always looking for ways to improve my book tracking system. I'm curious to know how others track their reading.