I got halfway through and finally put it down. Your description is spot on.

Alrighty, I just saw you recommend The Incarnations in another thread, and since I revere Ozeki and Mitchell, Barker just zoomed to the upper stack of my tbr. TY!!!

I currently use Goodreads. The little reading goal tracker keeps me motivated to make reading a priority. I like that there is a social aspect to the app too. Like, you can write a review or your thoughts on the book, and sometimes other users will comment giving you the opportunity to engage in discussion. Although, I’m really just a lurker right now.

The Storygraph is a good alternative to Goodreads though. It lets you track things like pacing, mood, and genre, and puts that data into pie charts. It’s also not affiliated with Amazon, which is a sell for some folks.

I’ve tried building an excel spreadsheet to track more elements that Storygraph doesn’t. But, I always fail to maintain that.

And then finally, I usually write my thoughts about a book in my journal.

Haven't read it, but my own rule is that if it starts out shit and then gets worse, it probably isn't going to get any better.

I did goodreads for a while but got sick of it and the social aspect of it. Found a cute print out that is a pretty stack of books and you just write in the name of the books you read on each spine. You can color it too. This has been a fun cute way for me to track 😌

You don’t learn anything useful from fantasy books? You’re reading the wrong fantasy books then.

Like most that have posted, I've got a Goodreads. It's a good place to go back and see what I've read and what I want to read.

I also use StoryGraphs which to me is more data oriented. I can see how many books I've read in a month, how many pages I've read in a month, there's a graph with the number of pages I've read each day (I input my data daily).

Ultimately, I'm curious to see the data.

I was given a spreadsheet that tracked a bunch of data about each book, manually submitting when I’ve finished is like a little treat at the end and it helps me track what I’m subconsciously not reading too.

For example, it made me realise I very rarely read African authors so I made an active decision to buy some fiction from prominent authors from that continent.

“Smokey, mark it zero or you’re entering a cheeseburger of pain.”

I use Goodreads. I like being able to quickly access the app and add a book to my "Want to Read" shelf if I hear or see something about it. You can record what you've read, you can search by author, you can track which books you have read in a series, you can see what book is next in a series, etc. I also like reading their blogs to get ideas on new books to read.

https://bookriot.com/2023-reading-log/

I like this because you can get super specific with what you're tracking and it's not a data mine.

Still hoping for time travel!

Utopia was different, which was nice, it didn't feel like a David Mitchell book like the others, particularly Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas do. I love the latter books, but I would welcome any work from him, regardless of the presence or lack of the quasi-magical realism of some of his books.

The other book that does not have these elements is probably Black Swan Green; his most traditional novel.

Also wanted to add - make time for reading! Ten minutes before bed, right when you wake up. I read a lot when I'm making dinner, like when it's just cooking and you are only there to stir... and right before bed. Then when a book really has my attention that's when you'll find me just reading as I'm walking about the house.

It's incredibly buggy, slow to update, gives bad recommendations (even with my 4k ratings), and is essentially just a data mine for Amazon.

Upstart Crow is wonderful, and so too are both the novelist and the actor.

I don't like Goodreads, it's always felt bad to use and it feels like it's intentionally designed that way.

Just got Storygraph and spent a while putting in my read books, very happy with it so far. I don't really have a reason to track my books read, just thought it would be a fun thing to look back on occasionally and hopefully find new suggestions.

I have a Kobo Clara HD - which when my last one died (I dropped it many times) I got another one. I personally like it for all the customization you can do with it, but it's great un-modded as well.

I like keeping track of what I've read and see the reading trends I have. There's also that little sense of accomplishment of checking off a book as 'read', same as checking something off a to-do list. Having a reading goal has helped me read more

Yeah, does that integration work pretty well?

I've got a bit of a penchant for self-hosting and I'm curious to see if other people use open-source/proprietary tools.

I see your point about a simple solution though, nice to keep things clean and easy that way.

Sounds like you just need a Goodreads account and a kindle Highlights.

For me it feels like every book his some history to it. I feel connected to the previous reader and it’s almost like it’s being passed down?

Yeah, really satisfying being able to see those at a glance that way!

Go to a library and browse the non-fiction, I like non-fiction and that’s how I found out.

Ask the clerk for a staff member who is exceptional at “reader advisory”, that’s what we call it when we try to figure out what you’ll enjoy.

Library, library, library.

Nice one yeah, I've dabbled with Goodreads here and there in the past but I've never used it consistently.

I'm interested to hear why you wouldn't recommend the site to newcomers now?