I've been using an Excel spreadsheet for about 10 years. I start a new tab with each new year. I also have different tabs for random book info like tracking which books I plan to read that are available at the local library or references to books from other media I intend to follow-up on.

Goodreads and Bookly

Ennio Morricone.

“Look how amazing and smart I am!” 💀

I use goodreads but i’m not a massive fan of it. However i do also keep track by writing the books i’ve read and my thoughts about them in a notebook i have purely for this so if i ever do decide to leave goodreads for good i’ll already have my old books recorded on paper. i did try storygraph but ended up deleting it as i didn’t like the fact you couldn’t sort books into shelves like you can on goodreads. i guess i’m not doing that when i’m writing them down but anything i have about books i’ve read online i want to be able to organise them into categories so if someone asks me for a book recommendation i can find them 1 through my carefully curated shelves

I’d definitely advise it, also seeing when books were written, helped me realise I wasn’t covering as many classics as I’d have liked.

I really enjoy his books and have a few still to read in my backlog. There are very few authors where I’ll finish their novel and think to myself that if I was to write a book, I’d want it to be exactly like that. Bone Clocks, Cloud Atlas and 1000 Summers all gave me this feeling. (Unfortunately I have zero writing talent!). Utopia Avenue was quite hit and miss but good all the same.

I’m also a big fan of the other David Mitchell!

If you are interested in science, there are so many out there that are engaging and fascinating whilst being informative. I love Mary Roach.. start w Stiff: what happens to your body after death. David Quammen nature essays, Oliver Sacks, about the brain, or Jon Krakauer...real life events told in amazing prose. I too am a lover of fantasy novels, tho!

I have a notebook in which I write down titles, dates started and finished, a quick summary, and quotes. I like looking back through it and I like the idea of my kids looking through it to see what I found interesting at the time.

[removed]

How do you format it? Like a page per year or what? I like your idea.

I've been putting off Moore's JERUSALEM for a year

I'm the same way. I usually have to put some kind of soft music on in the background or else I get distracted because there's too much silence. Sometimes it can be tricky to find the right music or the right ambient sounds, but once you find something that helps it's a good feeling for sure.

[deleted]

So much better than goodreads imo

So many here saying "the smell", and I don't disagree, but tbh I also love the smell of a new book. Cracking the spine for the first time, fluttering the pages so there's air between them - also probably for the first time, running your hand over the raised ridges of an embossed cover... it's all glorious.

There's much to love about books, but old or new, the smell is definitely a big one.

I loved A Book of Form and Emptiness. One of my favorites I’ve read recently. I’m definitely going to read more

Thanks for the advice :) I'll try to stay away from the classics for the time being and read some contemporary stuff. Btw, how do you know about Premchand? Are you from India?

that's why my recommended reading order is:

• begin the firs 52 chapters
• read Avellaneda's Quixote
• then Cervante's second part

Leave it to Canada for their classic canonical novel to be about bear fucking.

I still think it’s the worst Salinger novel but a “worst Salinger novel” is still like a 10 for your average writer. Franny & Zooey + Raise High the Roofbeams and Seymour are godlike. I sympathize with Holden more and more as I get older though

[removed]

I am about your age too, and I'm happy that tracking apps exist now because it means I no longer pick up an interesting looking book at a library or used bookstore and get a few dozen pages in before I realize I read it already. I guess if you purchase and keep every book you read it's easier to keep track of but I don't have the space or money for that.

I use Goodreads just to track what I read already, and sometimes add books to my to read list when someone makes a recommendation or I read a review. I ignore all the social and recommendation parts of it.

[removed]

Like The Metamorphosis, the main character feels alienated by the life around her. Which leads to her seeking out sexual relations with a bear. (as in this infamous passage)

It is intended to be a meditation on loneliness and companionship, I presume.