Sheepish but obsessed

If I hurry, I can hit my book-per-week target for 2016. I'm at 49 books finished so far; I'll read the last 4 chapters of Malachi tomorrow and add the Bible to the list. Four days is plenty of time in which to read two more books, right?

My accounting is always a little goofy. I finished reading The Hobbit aloud today, snuggled up in between Pete and Stella, but re-reads only get counted in selected circumstances. I included L.M. Montgomery's Emily books on the 2016 list since I'd last read them in 1986; I've certainly read many chunks of the Bible more recently than I've read The Hobbit. And yet-- the Bible will go on the list and The Hobbit will not.

Do you keep a reading log? Paper or electronic? What does it include and exclude? Mine dates from 2000; it is paper. The rule is that I can only write down a book if I finish the whole thing. This is a little silly, I know, but I do it faithfully anyway.

Comments

[Beth]

I moved from a paper record to librarything after a flood destroyed several years of reading records. And now I also use goodreads, which before I mainly used for my to-read list.

And I only record something if I finish the whole thing, although I would have counted the read-aloud. And I'll count rereads even if I read the book the year before, as long as I read the whole thing. Rereads in the same year don't count, though. There are many silly rules that I won't detail.

[Salome Ellen]

I don't record anything, mostly because it takes away time I could use for reading! 😇 Actually, I didn't think of it when I was younger, and now I would feel pressured to go back and reconstruct, which would be hopelessly complex.

[Tracy]

I used to keep track but not since I went back to school. I'm doing a lot more re-reading lately because it doesn't take as many brain cells and my brain cells are tired. So I get something I've read and loved and get to love again.

I didn't write down most re-reads, especially since some of them are books I read every year.

I only have one book that I haven't finished lately. (Bleak House.) (Yes, I'm still trying to read it.) (It's become a quest actually.) (Nina wants to know why I can't read it, so I read her a paragraph and she loved it, and wants to read it.) (why don't *I* love it??)

[Colette]

I've kept a Word document since 2007 and have liked using Goodreads to leave reviews, mostly to remind myself of what I took away from the book.

I'm at 27 books this year. Pregnancy brain and the postpartum haze combined with going back to work really kept that number lower than average.

[L - Mama(e) in Translation]

I don' record anything, which is kinda sad (because between blogging, short form journaling, rare long form journals, and obsessive photo categorization, I really *really* keep meticulous records of my life.

I think it's because I haven't been reading much since blogs came along and even less since social media became such an obsession (particularly stupid facebook). Sigh...

I totally should keep track. it would take very little room in my paper journal... Shall I make that a resolution? GAH, I'm 100% against resolutions...

[MrsDarwin]

My husband keeps encouraging me to keep a reading log, but I keep forgetting to note things down in Goodreads. Record keeping is not my forte...

[el-e-e]

The last 2 years I've used Pinterest, of all things. In the early 2000s, I kept my Book Club's Excel spreadsheet (I wonder if I still have that?), but we dissolved finally, around 2013.

[Kerry]

I use a journal to record the books I'm reading; finally started two years ago. I'll write down the titles, then favorite quotes. The title gets underlined when finished. So high-tech! Trying to keep it going; I find it's worth it.

[Melanie B]

I seem to record my reading every other year or so. I track it on the blog with an end of month list of what I've been reading. I keep track of both books finished and books in progress, but on two separate lists so to speak. So they sort of only count if I finish but they also sort of count if I'm making any progress at all.

Last year I did not keep track-- I think I didn't get to it in January and for some reason if I can't be a completist and do every single month I won't do it at all. And boy it's made me feel rather grumpy when it came to December and I could no longer remember what I was reading in January or February nor could I respond reasonably to questions about what was the best book I read last year. I can't recall much of what I read, which is sad. And I have no idea how many books I read, which is annoying the me who wants to be in competition with my past self. The year before last I did keep track. I read 52 books, without even intending to do one a week. Thanks Facebook, for popping up that reminder in my memories.

This year I'm resolving to keep track. Usually I keep a running list of what I've finished/am reading in a Pages document on my desktop. Then I write little reviews of a sentence or two of each of the books. I've tried Goodreads and I just can't remember to keep it up. I guess somehow it doesn't really feel like my space in the same way my blog does.