Do you keep a record of books you have read?

[posey]

I have been doing this for approx 20 years.
Anyway I was having a good look through it earlier on and found it quite fascinating how my reading tastes have changed, how I had prolific years (when dd was born I had to stop work for 10 weeks before she was born, then read while feeding her which was approx 23 hours per day, so read loads that year.) and years where I read very little ( when dh was very ill and I couldn't concentrate on much)
I had a Ruth Rendall/ Barbara Vine year, a couple of chick lit years...
Nowadays I seem to read fewer books but they are a bit more challenging.
So who else does this? Oh and what it is written in? I have a very nice notebook, bought in a craft Market!

[BabeRuthless]

I keep a list using the Evernote app for iphone. I started doing it last year when I set myself a reading challenge for the year (not doing that again, takes some of the fun out of reading). There's a few reasons for doing it, part of it is to do with being a massive book geek & I also do it as I have a memory like a sieve when it comes to names & authors I like. It also helps if you're working through a series (e.g Jo Nesbo) & you read on different formats like paperbacks & ebooks.

[candytuft63]

I am a Bibliotherapist - I use reading, mainly fiction and poetry as a tool for helping people with mental health problems. I often suggest that people buy the nicest notebook they can find and record what they have read. It becomes almost like a diary, as what we choose to read is often a response to moods, and personal circumstances. I have kept a reading diary for years, and its enlightening (to me , anyway) - for instance I tend towards reading the most depressing stuff when I am at a low ebb (as opposed to cheery, happy books), because I think that well, there is always someone worse off than me, and I feel better as a result !

[elkiedee]

I keep various lists at the moment and have done for years but a lot of them are prone to getting lost due to computer crashes. This year, I'm keeping a diary, a word document list and an online record on www.librarything.com. How much I read varies widely - 49 books in 2009, 319 books in 2010, I was ahead of myself last year this year for a bit but I think the gap's going to close as I've slowed down a bit.

[AliceAirhead]

No, but I wish I'd started one years ago. I've read so many books over the years i can't remember all of them. Think it's a bit too late to start now...

[Abcinthia]

I started doing this on goodreads. I have a record for this year (so far) and last year.

I wish I'd started keeping a record of them sooner.

[overthemill]

yes via goodreads, it really helps me but feels a bit nerdish!

[overthemill]

candytuft please explain your job. Sounds fabulous, how do you/did you get into it?

[inthesticks]

I started to keep a list after a thread on here a few years ago.
It was along the lines of "how many books have you read in 2007?"
DS2 was just really getting into reading for pleasure rather than for school and it seemed like a good way to encourage him.
I'm a born list maker so I have kept it up religiously. At first in an old exercise book but now it a pretty notebook. I find I refer back quite often to look for authors I have enjoyed, and which ones I've already read. With some authors there are so many I don't remember the titles of the ones I've read.

[exoticfruits]

I started about 18months ago and wish that I had started when I was a teenager. I find it very useful, I just don't remember and can look back and see my brief summary and what I thought.

[bigbadbarry]

I've got mine online ( since 2002) so I am a fully paid up wanly juvenile. I just find it interesting, and I often forget if I have read something.

[bigbadbarry]

Tsk. /wanky.

[mixedmamameansbusiness]

I love lists and I love book so I have no idea why I have not thought of this already. I am starting tomorrow.

[twinklypearls]

I use library thing www.librarything.com/

But then again my books are alphabetically arranged as well so I am clearly odd.

I love reading, I love reading about others experience of reading. I like to look back to see which books I have enjoyed, it is almost like a diary.

[twinklypearls]

library thing

[twinklypearls]

If your books are not in alphabetical order how do you find the one you are looking for?

[bigbadbarry]

I mostly know where they are, approximately :) Sometimes I can spend a while looking...
I have them sorted to some degree: craft books, gardening books, (cookbooks in the kitchen), travel writing, parenting stuff, DH's boring stuff, are mostly grouped together. Novels are a bit of a free-for-all, but it is fun looking!

[superjobeespecs]

i wish i had i must've read thousands of books. i love reading but can never reemember my faves.

[twinklypearls]

lol at your categories, I have similar and then a shelf for dp's boring stuff.

[inthesticks]

Since reading this thread I have been on Goodreads and I'm hooked. I have spent hours on it satisfying my inner nerdy list making habit.

[twinklypearls]

Good reads looks better than library thing, I may convert

[Bella2010star]

Thanks so much been and downloaded goodreads for my iPhone. This will be much better than getting out crappy pieces of paper in the library with the title of the next book I want on

[Suedonim]

I've been keeping a list for about 20 years now. I think I began it when I joined a postal book group (before the www had been discovered by mere mortals like me!) so I didn't send the same book twice.

But now, I am relishing the fact that I shall, in my not-far-off dotage, be able to look at my note book and remember all the books I've forgotten, which will be about 95% of them.

[AllTheYoungDoods]

Ah this thread touches a nerve.

I kept a list from my early teens in a hardback notebook. When lots of my books went into storage the notebook accidentally went too, so I kept all the books I read in those years in separate boxes so I could one day update it.

After we moved house, I came home one day and DH was proud as punch. He said 'I've a surprise for you, you'll love it, I've got all your books out for you'. He'd taken them all out of boxes and lined them up on shelves for me... He meant SO well, but now they're all shuffled up and I've no idea how to go about working out which ones came out of storage and which didn't!

[Spanna22]

I've been doing it for 10 years - on a spreadsheet. I went through a really anal stage when I pregnant with my first, and added a pivot table a graph - I guess that's taking it to the extreme! After a lap top death recently (no of course I didn't back up!) I wish I'd kept it simple with a notebook.