Thanks for this! I have a note on my phone in which I list my TBRs but adding who recommended it and why I might want to read it would be helpful. I like your method for picking books as well.

I’d love to check that out one day. The mustier the better when it comes to bookstores imo.

I use Librarything, used to be the major Goodreads competitor before Storygraph. It also has interesting graphs, book recommendations (for me these are frighteningly accurate), and lets your import your GR data.

Librarything works differently than Goodreads. When you catalog a book on Librarything, you pick a source to add the information from (they might have your public library). Then your catalog entry is your catalog entry. It will link to Librarything's pages on the book / author but you are much more free to edit your catalog entry how you wish.

Librarything's user base also skews much older - feel like younger people tend to find the UI off-putting.

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Goodreads is affected by Amazon advertising deals. And they sell your data. Avoid Goodreads.

I track mine, also because at the end of the year I can never remember all the books I've read and I like to make a list of my top 10 books of that year. I use the StoryGrap app for it.

I use reading journals; there are several types available and I like to switch between them and use different ones when I finish up one. I like that they are organized into a biblography section, a rating section, a summary area - this makes it much easier for me to use them.

I just started using storygraph and so far I'm loving it. The recommendations are decent, but by following similar readers I've found some great books I otherwise would have missed.

I use StoryGraph. They don’t use advertising to recommend books.

There’s a set of authors that I loathe. I tried, over and over, to get Amazon to stop showing me their work.

StoryGraph has never recommended their books, even once.

It’s not Amazon affiliated, so it’s not tainted by Amazon advertising. Amazing.

Nope, just one line per entry. It's pretty minimal, just date finished, title, author, and genre.

I'll give you some advice that's contrary to what you're getting on this thread: make a commitment to finish a certain amount of books by the end of the month/year and dont start a new book until you finish the one you opened.

What it comes down to is a commitment. If you set a clear goal you'll feel pressured to keep up/bad if you fall behind. If you don't start a new book then you'll want to read the one your on faster in order to get through it. You have to make the conscious decision to put down your phone and read but it gets easier the more you do it.

Might also help if you read nonfiction, classics, or popular novels? That way you can talk to other people about it and be in the loop with your reading ("I just learned x" or "now i get that reference to y" or "I also read that new book/I need to finish this book before the next one comes out")

I mainly use Goodreads to track what I read throughout the year. I also use a notebook to keep track of books I read in a month, along with the rating and format I read them in.

Nah. It's actually about tennis and drugs man.

How: goodreads

Why: I like statistics and setting reading goals. It’s fun to see my reading journey trough the years: what did I read at what time in my life? How much did I read each year? Did my taste change? Etc.

With some non-fiction, I’ve found audiobooks are easier. If there’s a bunch of technical/impossible to pronounce words, I’ve found listening to them didn’t interrupt my flow and made it easier to understand.

I tracked in a notebook until about a decade ago when I started using Goodreads. If you use a kindle it tracks automatically, you can self log, and you can friend others ti see what they are reading or follow favorite authors.

So I don't start re reading a book I've already read. Mainly for lawyer/detective series that have 10-30 entires

Hey wait this Paul M story feels familiar

Go to nearest public library and get a card

Go get Libby app. Find your library

You can download thousands of books directly to your phone

I also like paper white kindle. $100 and very nice.

As for books. As the librarian at your library. They do this for a living. They can get you started

Then start small. Have a goal of like 15 pages a day or 1 chapter or 3 chapters or whatever. It will become a part of your routine.

I've tracked every book I read since 2015 when I did my first reading challenge. I started because I wanted to know how many "off-list" books I was reading that weren't part of the challenge.

I've continued because I like having that record to look back it. I can sort by rating to figure out what the best book I read that year was, or how many books I've read that I disliked that year, etc. And also I can remember if I actually read a book before vs just saw it in a store or it had a similar title to something I read.

I started on Goodreads but this year I'm using storygraph too and might switch over entirely; I like the additional stats and the ability to give partial stars.

If reading feels like a waste of time to you, then it is hard to imagine you spending much time reading. Either you need to change that underlying belief or you need to go do whatever it is you think you should be doing that is not a waste of time.

I am putting off starting the Wheel of Time series, not because I don't want to or because I think the books are too big, but because of how many there are. I feel like it would be hard for me to maintain focus to read all of them and I imagine it will take a while and that's time I am not spending reading other authors that I want to delve into. I really want to read them but there are shorter fantasy series that I trying to knock out first.

The book smell!

There is no secret to reading. You either do it because you enjoy it or you don't. Forcing yourself to do it is rarely effective.

I'd suggest just trying different genres until you find something you can actually enjoy reading. Other than that, there really is no trick to it.

A toddler or a new born today can still make it to 2114

I use Goodreads and Storygraph.

Goodreads for the connection they have to Kindle ebooks (my preferred way to read) and Storygraph has the cool charts and pie graphs.