Goodreads

I’ve always been a big fan of keeping lists. Even when I was a little girl I’d keep a log of all my toys. Worse, I’d keep files on my Barbies: name, address, occupation, marriage certificate... yes, I was that weird. I’ve always had this unexplainable need to organise and kept records of everything in several hundred notebooks, hence my addiction to pretty little blank books that I can massacre with my loopy (the Pumpkin’s word, not mine) handwriting.

The only thing I keep track of these days are the books I read, in a girly pink leatherbound notebook embroyded with swans which sounds worse than it is. I love flipping through these books to reminisce and see what I’ve loved and loathed over the years, something I’d otherwise quickly forget.

Nowadays most people do this online, comforting me that I’m not the only nut out there. Sure, it’s not as romantic as a notebook but it’s easy to manage, you can add friends and keep track of what they’re reading but most importantly, these sites are filled with reviews.

I started out with LibraryThing back in 2006 and spent hours (I was a student back then) putting my books on there. Sadly, you had to pay a membership fee so I went over to Shelfari when the time came to renew, seeing as this is a free book cataloguing site where I’ve spent many happy years.

Most of my friends however, have now also caught the bug and have started accounts with Goodreads, making me take the plunge with them because it’s fun to share book related comments like “Why the hell are you reading that!?!” or discovering new titles that my peeps loved. I’m just not sure I’ll add all my books like I did when I transitioned from LibraryThing to Shelfari because we’re talking several hundreds here. Best to start fresh from 2011 onwards.

So what about you? How do you keep track of all the books you read?