3 Ways to Track the Books You’ve Read (Or Want to Read)
If you’re tired of grabbing a book at the store or library and realizing you already read it or own it, you’re not alone. The good thing is, there are some great ways to keep track of your books.
Knowing what books you’ve read or already own can help you save money when you’re at the bookstore or the thrift store. It can also save you time trekking back to the library when you realize you already read that book. Here are three great resources.
Goodreads
Goodreads is a book site owned by Amazon. Of the site’s many great attributes, it lets you track the books you’ve read. It’s not going to tell you if that book is on your personal home bookshelf or in your Kindle collection, but you will be able to check to see if it’s something you already read. Plus, you can review the books, so you’ll know if it’s a book you want to read again.
Goodreads is a great motivation to read, as well. They have a yearly reading challenge where you can pick how many books you want to read each year, and the site tracks your reads when you enter them into the system.
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a social network similar to Goodreads. It’s free to make a list of the books you have in your personal library, but only up to 200. If you own more than 200 books, you’ll need to pay for an account. It’s pretty cheap; $10 a year or $25 for a lifetime account.
Not only can you track physical books and ebooks, but you can also mark your books “read but unowned.” Give star ratings, so you remember which ones you love enough to read again or suggest to friends.
Google Drive
Both LibraryThing and Goodreads are accessible through apps on your smartphone. But, if you already use Google Drive on your phone, you could make a completely customized list of your books in Google Docs or Google Sheets. The biggest benefit here is that you can create exactly the categories and features you want—no need to wait for a feature to be added to Goodreads or the like.