I’ve been keeping track of the books I read for some years now. This blog has a record of them going back to 2005. In pre-blog days, I kept a note of books read in my diary. I still do this, although in the last couple of years or so this method has become a lot less comprehensive as I’ve started using GoodReads for the recording process.
I realised the other day that this record is very incomplete, due to its focus on books I’ve finished. I don’t really record all the other things I read, and I certainly don’t keep track of every book I skim through or read bits of.
I also realised that thanks to my ereader I dip into a lot of different books a lot more these days – this is mainly because I can carry them around everywhere I go.
The books I dip into tend to be “business” books, books I read to give me ideas on how to do things, how to improve my skills, and for information. I also always seem to have at least one poetry anthology on my ereader at all times.
This is my current Reading List:
I’m sure there would be a way to get the ereader to tell me what books I’ve had loaded on it all year, what bits I’ve read, and for how long… I have no qualms about wiping the ereader “slate” clean; I periodically delete all the titles I have on it, and start afresh. I’m not one to keep my entire library on my ereader – it’s on my Macbook. I usually take novels off the ereader not long after I’ve finished reading them.
The other thing I do with my reading is to write down phrases or sentences that appeal to me for whatever reason, as I read. I often make a note of my thoughts/responses to whatever I’m writing down. Of course, I don’t keep these notes in a single spot. And to make matters worse I go through a fair few paper notebooks every year so it’s all scattered. Why don’t I use a device to record all these quotes and sentences? There’s something about using a fountain pen to write them down that I utterly, utterly enjoy. It’s funny that I have been able to almost completely give up on paper for reading, but I still love paper for writing.