Readers: do you keep records?

[Kerrie]

Do you keep records of books you've read?
How long have you done it? Why did you start?
What do you use to do it? What do you record about each book?
How do you use your records?

[Joy Calderwood]

LOL. It's happening, man!

[Kerrie]

My problem is where to keep my lists - I've already got 1 database I can't open, 1 notebook 1975-2000 that I've put in a safe place ( and now can't find). My current database and notebook system seems to be working just fine but I do like the look of LibraryThing.
You've certainly been busy there Daniel :-)
A friend has her very impressive one at http://www.librarything.com/profile.php?view=sally906

Our library has a link to a site called Library Elf at http://www.libraryelf.com/ which promises to help me keep tabs on my library books, but has links to other places like Amazon. However as it won't accept my card details, I have yet to explore its possibilities

[Kerrie]

I've made a start on LibraryThing. Have a look at http://www.librarything.com/profile/smik

[Daniel Hatadi]

Oh cool! I wonder how many Crimespacers are using LibraryThing?

[012158]

I started keeping track back either in the 80s or 90s, when the MBTB Houston discussion group started up again. Then I joined 4MA, and really had to know what I had read or not. So, what I did, was create a file in Word called books, then I list the author in plain text, the title in bold text, and then the date, whether it is an ARC or 1st edition or pb in plain text within parentheses. It is a crude way, but it works, and authors that have series or both series and stand alones, I list the series category in bold italic to separate it from the other titles.

[Codie]

I used to record all the books that I read when I was younger, but haven't lately. The only reason I still don't is because the real world seems to get in the way of my reading..lol.. I used to keep them on index cards in a box, sort of like a card catalogue. I think if I have the time that I'll start doing that again. It was always a good way of keeping track of what I've already read.

[Beth]

I've been keeping a list since March of 2004. I started it just to see how much I do actually read. At first i used this nice bright pink notebook but soon found myself wanting something alot easier to search through. I then started my own blog. I mainly just post the basic info.

Date finished, Title - Author.

I've just recently started notating what genre the book is, if it was a library book and give it a rating of 1 to 4 stars.

I'm in awe as to how much time and enthusiam people put into their lists.

I can generally read about 12-15 per month. I'm trying to break the 150 mark for the year but not to sure how thats going right now. I hate it when i'm in a slump.

[Kerrie]

I changed jobs at the end of 2000 Beth, and consequently bring a lot less work home, and have more time for reading. My husband retired in late 2001 and that has given me more reading time too, and he now does most of the household chores. I have noticed an increased in the number of books I read on an annual basis, but even so 150 a year would be a lot more than I have ever managed. In a good month I get 10-11 read,
I have found too that I need to record more about each book. It helps me remember the plot more easily and I find I can talk more sensibly about them.

[Gumshoe Carl]

I use an excel spreadsheet to track author, booktitle, grade (A-F), month and year of reading, and a short synposis. I have offically done this since January of 2006. I try to keep up with my spreadsheet and hope to do this for the rest of my life. I think it would be amazing to have 20-30 or even 5 years of content to look back on. I also initiated a travel journal last year to keep track of my worldly travels.

[Bethany K. Warner]

I do keep records of the books I've read.
I'm in to my fifth year of keeping records after I started in March 2002.
I record the title, author, date finished, number of pages, if it's a non-fiction book (a rarity for me) and whether this is the 2nd (or 3rd or 4th, in some cases) reading of the book.
I keep the original record in my journal and then I also transfer it to an Excel file that lets me compute things like total pages read and average pages read per day.

[Lois Reibach]

I think I started keeping track due to summer reading programs when I was a kid. Have kept track of what I read my entire adult life, but unfortunately lost those early years after entering data in my first computer, which was mostly a toy which crashed before I got a printout, but after I'd tossed the handwritten notes. Sigh ...

Now I have Excel spreadsheets of books I've read (goes back to 1994, when my kids were big enough that I could manage more than a book a year during vacation), books I own but haven't read (presumably to eliminate duplicate purchases, but has failed during times it wasn't up to date). I carry these and lists of my favorite reads from previous years (because I can never remember when asked what authors I like :)) on my Palm. Have been managing to keep it up to date this year, and it did save a few duplicate purchases.

[Rebecca26]

I do maintain a reading list. I started after I left university in 1988. At that time I was writing short essays and summaries about the books. By 1995 I was getting lax, so in 1996 I started a yearly list containing title, date completed, and author. After I spent a number of weeks sorting through my paperbacks looking for a book that I had read, I started to add a symbol that tells me if the book is a library book or an audio book. I finally went back and sifted through the 1988-95 entries and created list for those years, too.

I maintain my list for several reasons. One being I want to know where to find the book again if I want it. Also, I read a lot of series mysteries and I always start at the beginning of a series. So I am normally oodles of books behind in a series and I want to know where to pick up when I get back around to an author. Finally, I think it is immensely satisfying to add a book to the list.

I keep my lists in a journal. I do not trust computers with this type of information and reading about other people's experiences makes me realize my decision was a good one. Besides I enjoy going back through the years looking for a book. What I am reading at a certain time will often invoke memories of my life at that time.