If it’s for your own reference and study, why not just create a simple table within whatever word processing program you use? You can modify it to suit your objectives.

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I'll go it a go. I am a slow reader with a tendency to get distracted even when I'm enjoying something.

the way i see it, colleen hoover writes fanfic for people who will never read fanfic… outside of like, maybe reylo

So the thing with their export feature (which is required by the eu) is that it's buggy and they made it hard for others. When I tried to import it to two different places, less than 10% of my books followed. Adding by hand thousands of books is a huge time investment. At this point, when I do it I'll probably move them to Gemini or something similar rather than trust another website like Goodreads.

Thanks for sharing, I'm sure your clients must have really appreciated your efforts, it sounds like you went above and beyond.

I'm interested to hear you're enjoying StoryGraph too, like a few other users have mentioned. I think I'll check it out as a potential options and have a play around with it.

I like the sound of your challenge too, what a great idea! Enjoy your literary journey around the world.

Hah! Excellent one. I'm gonna have to steal that from you.

Exactly. The idea of a Library with knowledge beyond our wildest dreams and finding Guards to protect it is so appealing. The premise is why I kept reading.

Thank you for your input. Guess it's going on the DNF pile then.

Yeah I know exactly what you mean and it's something I want to be really conscious of... I think going overboard on tracking, one would run the risk of sucking a lot of joy away that comes from the fuzzy/organic nature of reading.

I really like your perspective for sure.

I think given the times we live in, a lot of people these days have a (quite unhealthy) impulse to quantify everything. I don't want to indulge that impulse too greedily or have it become a chore... one of my favourite bits from Ralph Waldo Emerson is a nice reminder to not get caught up on obsessively tracking/monitoring:

“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”

1. Look at the displays. Libraries often are promoting a theme and have some displays out.
2. Look at what is being returned. My local library is small so the to be re-shelved cart is accessible. Since this is a random mix of books you end up looking that things you never would have considered normally.
3. Look at the new arrivals. This again is often a random mix across many genres.

At this point I then start sidestepping. Either I spend some time going deep into an author's back catalog or I see what is shelved nearby.

Also, a lot of imprints develop a certain style. If you notice that a handful of books you liked recently have the same publisher start looking for that publishers mark on books.

I've read The Bone Clocks by him a few years back - it was a recommendation that my creative writing teacher told me to check out since I have a knack for world-building in my short stories.

I remember it being pretty dense when reading the book, but the more I read it, the more I got invested in it. I, overall, really enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading more of his books later on in the early future.

Edit: typo

Go to the library and pick out 2-3 books you think you might be interested in (probably a mix of fiction and non-fiction). You can speak to the librarians about your interests and they can provide some recommendations. Then pick a book to start with and dedicate 30-60 minutes each day to reading that book. Try to make it a habit. If you really don’t enjoy the book you picked to start with, move onto the next book.

Something else you could try is finding a book that was turned into a movie that you might be interested in. Read the book first, then watch the movie and compare the two. Knowing that you will be able to watch the movie and then see the book come to life might provide some motivation to start and finish the book.

Great advice to browse in the library. Their job is to make reading seem fun so they can make a lot of suggestions or offer lists or displays to draw you in…they know what people like. Also a lot of public libraries have book clubs or meetups, it can help to have that kind of light social pressure to finish a book, and you will learn what other people have to say, why they think something is really good (or not), it can open up your mind to new things to look for when you read.

I use goodreads and just recently started using Bookly. It's super cool to see my reading stats.

Wow yeah, I'm sure you'll get some awesome insights if you diligently keep on top of it like that. How do you find inputting the data, is that easy enough and not too taxing?

Haaaate Goodreads. I love just the default apple app “reading list”, maybe it’s with android too.

I did it to keep track of how many books I read per year and it allows you to create whatever categories you like (I like to track how many women authors I read, classics, and non-fiction). You can also make a “to read” list by scanning the books barcode or just adding manually. It’s incredibly no-frills and I’ve been using it for years!

Ah I see, that's too bad!

I just had a quick Google and I saw there are nice Export options at least, so you could quickly generate a .csv file if you ever wanted to backup/migrate your data and use a different tool. It sounds like you've put a lot of effort into it!

I started tracking my reading this year, I ended up making myself a Google spreadsheet with a form that feeds into it because I struggled to find a tracker app that I liked that tracked the things I wanted to track

I intend to also start a physical diary for notes but I like seeing the raw data, for example I've noticed my wpm drops for books I don't enjoy as much as others

I loved this book so much, too, I especially felt like Nao and her father were actual people I knew; it was a really uncanny feeling. I was moved by Ozeki's great compassion in writing about the mental health challenges of two different generations, and at the same time never letting the beauty of their lives be diminished, a theme she carried over to Form and Emptiness.

Yeah I think that act of submitting some notes or a summary as you describe is a nice opportunity to sort of reflect on a book and mentally put it back on the shelf.

It's funny you mention that particular insight you had, it's great to challenge your reading habits that way. I am toying with the idea of also tracking things like an author's gender/home country to see what type of literature I'm consuming in that sense too.

Pick a selection of the top books right now and read the inserts description. Find a library and check some out. If you don’t like the book try another genre or author in the same genre. Or. Look at the shoes you enjoy and try something there assuming it isn’t home renovation or baking.

I barely got half way through and had to add it to the DNF pile. It just drug on. Nothing was explained well, all the pointless banter and conversation got old and I didn't find the writing creative at all. Which is a shame because the overall idea and plot of the book sounded very interesting to me.

Nope.

I read when I feel like it to enjoy it. I’m not here to monitor or challenge myself like I believe in a self help book.

I love to read and I learned to DNF after a few pages if I don’t enjoy the style or anything.

Life is short baby, life is hard enough to put myself through something painfully boring.

But ! Keeping track of what I’ve read sure, I like seeing what I’ve read and remember those books

Wow okay cool, Storygraph looks really interesting! That's definitely an option I'll consider, thanks for sharing. Those additional features around sharing with friends looks really nicely implemented.

Have you found the suggestions to be pretty decent?

I must say I agree with you on Goodreads... One thing that really, really annoys me way more than it should is the seemingly endless drove of cringeworthy/low-effort "quotes" put on there by people themselves. It's always painful to try and find a memorable passage from an author/book and it's sandwiched between Tumblr-level musings.

Feels good to get that off my chest, phew.

I used to use GoodReads to track my reading, my main focus in the past was to log and rate books I read for work. I was a coach and I liked to give book referrals to my clients this was a great way to keep track of the books I read and give exact titles and authors.

I've retired and now I get to read for fun. I recently switched to StoryGraph and love all the graphs created by my reading list. I read a lot more books than I used to and I don't want to get into a rut by reading too many of the same types of books. The graphs help as do all the challenges the site offers.

I recently created a challenge for myself to read fiction and nonfiction books by authors from 195 countries. I'm using a journal to keep track of these books since I expect it will take me several years to complete.