Photo Credit: A Day Dreamer’s World
I know most people on here at least keep a list of books they’ve read. But I think I might take tracking my reading a step further. Or ten.
I began tracking my reading back in 2010 by simply listing out the books I read in a Word document along with the date I finished the book. Nothing too sophisticated. But eventually that grew into something more at the start of 2012. I started using Excel spreadsheets to better keep track my reading during each season. Not only would the book and date be recorded, but also the amount of time it took for me to read the book, the book’s page count, and the book’s series. It is because of this information that I know I read more than ten full days in 2012. I know there are people reading a whole lot more than that, but that’s a fairly significant amount of time if you ask me.
Now I generally have a Word document and an Excel spreadsheet for each season of every year. At the end of the year I combine all of the books into a single spreadsheet and take a look at when I had long periods of no reading and how many books by particular authors I read and more. I also of course have my What I’m Reading page on here that also lists the books I’ve finished.
I know Goodreads is an easy way to track your reading, but I don’t use it much. But what about you, how do you go about keeping track of your reading?
What a great idea! I’m a lover of Excel and Word and record-keeping. I may just begin my documentation of book reading today. Thank you, John! Blessings to you…
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I thought basically everyone did this already.
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Goodreads. A high tech college ruled notebook. My library’s website that tracks the books I’ve borrowed. 🙂
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Love the notebook. I’d probably lose it.
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I used to keep a log of what I read. I did it on paper for ages, then on the computer on a Word table. Now I just use Goodreads. It’s so much easier and I can share my reviews of books easily with others. 🙂
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I don’t write reviews. And I like knowing how long I took to read the book.
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Oh you can do that on Goodreads – you can enter the date you started reading it and the date you finished.
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I’m mean actual reading time.
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Sounds like you want to be very accurate about recording your reading. Maybe Goodreads isn’t for you then. But who knows – some day someone may come up with a site for people who read but don’t review books to record what they’ve read. 🙂
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If the point isn’t to be accurate, then I don’t see the point of tracking at all.
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OK… do you mean you prefer to record what you’ve read in terms of days, hours and minutes then? Because for myself I think it’s perfectly OK to have the number of days it took you to read a book. But each to their own lol. 🙂
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Yes. You can take four hours to read a book over a two week span. The days tell you nothing.
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I just look at my bookshelf. If its there…I read it. What does any of the other info matter? I don’t understand the reasoning behind this list keeping.
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Cause I want to.
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Each to his own. I’d rather be writing or painting instead of listing but that is me. 🙂
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Good.
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I don’t really keep track of my reading much. I am just starting to really get into reading again . I have a ” Book Reviews” tab on my blog now, so I will be using that as I finish each book.
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I use Goodreads. I track what I’ve read, but more than that it keeps my “to-read” list. My to-read list is always exponentially larger than my books I’ve read but that’s okay!
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Always happens that way. Except I usually jero my TBR list less than 20 books. I don’t know what these people do when they have like 80 or something. Makes no sense.
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I just got into Goodreads and I really like that is tracks how long it takes to read the books and whatnot. I know I usually read about two books a week, depending on length, so I have always just kept a mental list. I also have the “shelves” on my Nook organized where I can see what books I still have to read and what I have read recently so that helps too I suppose.
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You have a Nook? Ew. Haha
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I love my Nook, it’s adorable! I do have the Kindle app though on my tablet, so I use that sometimes too.
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Hmm. Did you hear that Barnes and Noble is separating its Nook business from its print? Cause Nook just loses money like no tomorrow. Might as well just use your Kindle app all the time now.
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Ya, I’m waiting to see what happens. I’m going to be very upset if they stop it since I can’t transfer the books to another device. We shall see I suppose!
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You know, forget the Kindle. Just get print!
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I may have to go back! The whole reason I got an e-reader though is because I was tired of lugging around books, as I always have one in my bag, they just get so heavy!
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Blah blah blah. Only one or two wouldn’t be heavy!
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You’d understand if you were a girl, our bags are heavy enough as it is before you add books.
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Nope. Even a hardcover weighs like a whopping one pound. Okay, maybe more than that.
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I don’t track my reading at all. I have a Goodreads account, but I rarely use it. I’m surprised that my anal retentiveness hasn’t thought of doing that before. Never even took it into consideration. Hmm…
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And you read SO much! Hmmm. You need to.
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I probably should, but my time is currently crunched beyond belief. I don’t know if I’d be able to keep as detailed records as you, but just keeping track of the amount I read, and the titles, would be useful.
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Literally takes me a minute to put books into my stuff. Don’t even say time is your reason for not tracking. You have a freaking blog.
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Which I haven’t updated in a week I think. But I see your point.
Btw, my manuscript got rejected by the agency that had it. But she was very nice about it and said she loved the premise. So there’s hope!
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Oh well. You’ll never be published.
Just kidding. I was going to ask you about it a few weeks ago but I figured you’d just let me know. And I didn’t want to ask and you tell me they were pretty rude about it or something. How many queries have you sent?
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About 8 or 10 I think. My spreadsheet is at home on my computer so I’m guessing. I have another two I just sent out last night, and I have a list of about 20 agencies to look into. There are fewer places that represent middle grade, so I have to troll the books and websites just to find a few. Takes time.
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Oh. That’s not very many. I know you can’t just send a million at once, but I thought like every month or two is when authors send out more.
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You’re right. But I tailor every query to the agency I send it to and that takes time. I have tomorrow off so I’ll be working on sending a bunch of them. I just haven’t had time recently. The two I did last night were the first in two months. I just started querying in February or March.
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Hmm. I never wanna deal with that.
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Yeah it sucks, but oh well. I’m not super upset about the rejections anymore because I’ve come to expect them. I read an article that said don’t give up until you’ve queried 80 agents. If nothing happens, then an overhaul may be in order. I don’t know how true that is, but it’s probably another reason why I’m not freaking out. I still have a long way to go.
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80 is ridiculous. Forget that. I’m just going to give up now.
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Don’t give up. You’re already published. Hopefully an agent will find your book and contact you about it.
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Blah blah blah.
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I thought you wanted me to be optimistic and encouraging? Isn’t that my job?
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Eh.
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I can tell you how many books I read during 2012-2013. One. Pretty bad, I know.
I don’t write it down but I could probably name off all the books I’ve read this year and about how long it took me to read each.
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One!? 😲 that’s like….no. Read right now! Go find the book that’s on your coffee table or dresser or bookshelf and read it. So is this year at least a little better than that?
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I was going through a lot those years. I even quit writing from 2010-2013. I spent my time painting because I was upset and I always paint when I’m upset.
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No to painting. Yes to writing. 🙂
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Well I definitely write more than I paint now…but painting is a huge stress reliever for me.
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Good to hear. 🙂 you should write a post about your painting since I just looked and saw a quote for today and no writing stuff!
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I’m trying to work on my novel. Haha
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Well how’s it coming along? Even though I think I told you to stop writing a little while back. Haha
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It won’t freaking leave me alone. I swear I want to throw it out the window but I’m pretty sure it would just boomerang its way back in. I’m rewriting it for the third time.
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Hahaha that’s nice. At least you’re doing something with it. Wait, so is this not the one you told me about? Cause I thought you were still writing that one? Or maybe I’m mixing people up.
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I don’t think I’ve told you anything about any of my novels…that I know of.
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Hmmm. I’m imagining things. Novels!? How many have you written!?
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All together? Many. I’ve written 11 that I can think of off of the top of my head. And I have several works in progress.
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Holy crap! You’re 22, right? I think that was on your bio. Tell me about your favorite so I can get excited to read it.
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Yes I’m 22. Haha I started seriously writing when I was 12. Most of the ones I’ve written are super cheesy mysteries that you or anyone else will never EVER read. My favorite is the one I am currently rewriting. 🙂
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Then tell me about that one!
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You wouldn’t like it. It’s not a mystery. 😉 Ha! You’re really going to make me explain it? it always sounds stupid when I try to explain it.
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Yes! 🙂 I don’t care. Just tell me.
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Fine.
It’s about a girl (good start, right?) who basically has lost everything. Her mom left when she was a baby, her older brother joined the marines, and her dad is killed in a drunk driving accident when she is 20.
So she moves to Alabama to live with her dads brother and his wife at their stables and winery. (Oh and did I mention she has horses? Well she does) So of course she meets a guy and falls for him. She also meets another guy who is a little rough around the edges but is always there for her…. why am I telling you this? This sounds terrible. 😛
…long story short she gets engaged to the guy she falls for, he turns out to not be so cool, she is betrayed by her cousin and fiance…blah blah, nothing is going good. She breaks it off with him, realizing the feeling she had for him weren’t that she thought they were. (And she is also in love with the other guy who left just before she was to marry the other guy) Then she finds out her mom didn’t leave and that her dad kicked her out and her brother had been hiding the fact that her mom had been trying to contact her for years. She gets in touch with her mom and is ready to move again to be close to her, but the other guy comes back and she is torn between him and her mom/stepdad/sister she didn’t know she had.
See? Sounds like a train wreck to me!!! I promise the story is better than that. I just have a really bad headache right now and staring at the screen isn’t helping. 😦
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Hmmm. It sounds like A LOT is going on! Take a nap. I never really have headaches but I always nap and they’re always wonderful. 🙂
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Like I said, it sounds terrible. And it’s actually going to be two books. Haha I know, I was just trying to fit all of it in with as little words as I could.
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And I can’t nap. I have too much writing to do. 😉
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Right! Then get off your phone! 🙂
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I’m on my computer. And I am busy writing. You just got done telling me to write. Now you’re saying no? Confusion.
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Oh. No. I just assumed you were using your phone for WordPress. Okay. I’m going to shut up now and leave you to your writing.
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I only do when I’m not at home or outside and don’t have my laptop.
I love how my comments on your posts always turn into million comment long conversations.
Until the next post… 😉
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It’s my awesomeness. 😉 okay. Now I’m done. Haha
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Oh wow, you are really detailed when it comes to tracking. Great idea though with all the spreadsheets and data. You could really compile an interesting record of your reading. The only reading I ‘track’ is I keep an old comp book to write down any book I’ve finished from the library. Been doing that since I was 12. I have almost 800 entries in the book, and this doesn’t count the books I only half finish, or the books I own. It’s strictly for library books. Books I own, well unless I plan on getting rid of them, I don’t see a point in writing it down.
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I feel like I’d be less organized if I just wrote everything down. And my handwriting is complete trash. So that too.
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I use Goodreads simply for the fact its easy and it recommends books you might like based on what you’ve read which I think is pretty cool.
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Well I’ve written about book recommendations and I don’t like them. I never recommend books to anyone. And never take recommendations seriously. So that part doesn’t really entice me.
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Usually I buy the books I read, so I keep track of everything with a personal library app on my phone. This is easier now that I’ve started using a Kindle for some of my reading because it keeps track of everything, including books from the lending library. I should try something with a Word document though.
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Me too. I buy all my books. But my favorite thing about my tracking is knowing exactly how long I’ve spent reading.
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I use an excel too! But I use goodreads as well!
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But you read like a crazy person. So you have to use something.
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Oh! Good idea! I think I might start to keep track of what I read. I’ve never really kept track before…
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You should! May even encourage you to read more than before
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I keep a “reading journal” in which I jot down mini reviews (nothing more than three sentences) of the books I read. I started doing it in 2010, and it’s become quite the habit.
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That’s an idea.
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I’m just amazed at how hard core you are, look at you, you Excel whiz, you. I try and use my Einstein like brain which is why I am starting to mix my authors and my titles. I’ve bee banned from all libraries because I shout at the librarians by informing them that they don’t know what they’re talking about. I mean everyone knows Dracula wrote Frankenstein who created Bram Stoker.
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Ahahaha yes. Everyone knows that.
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So you’ve been talking about me with my local librarian? I feel exploited
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Nope. I never talk to librarians. They’re mean. Soooo when you finish replying to the million comments, go look at my last tweet. It was just a couple minutes ago. It was a comment someone just left me. These are the people we both hate. Haha
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I also keep an excel sheet. I track the number of books and pages I read monthly and yearly. I also track in a notebook how many days it takes to read a book, but I don’t keep that on my spreadsheet. I’m more interested in page counts.
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I actually don’t really look at page counts. I have the average time it takes to read a book (hours and minutes) and then the average page count for the books I read. So I guess I do keep track but I’m not looking at it like I am the actual reading time. Interesting.
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I’ve never been able to keep up with my reading. Nothing I have tried seems to work. It’s like trying to keep up with breathing.
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Excel spreadsheet!
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[…] On this day in 2014 I published Tracking Your Reading. […]
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