Musing Mondays (March 30)

(Musing Mondays are hosted by Rebecca!)

This week, Rebecca used one of my suggested questions! (Thanks, Rebecca!)

Do you keep track of what and/or how many books you read? How long have you been doing this? What’s your favorite tracking method, and why?If you don’t keep track, why not?

Well, you’re all gonna think I’m nuts by the time I get done answering this! But, I had to ask what others did for record-keeping, as I’m curious! I’m also looking to maybe improve on the way I do things, myself, so I might get some help this way! LOL.

Yes, I track how many books (and which books) I’ve read, and I’ve been doing so since about March 2002, when I first joined the Yahoo! group, Book-a-Week. The group “required” that every member keep a reading log of what books they’ve read in order to dish out the prizes at the end of the year (a bookmark to those who’d read the goal number of books: 52). That goal no longer exists, but the group still asks you to record your books. Mind you, I no longer do it just because it’s a group mandate — I’ve seen the extreme benefit of tracking what books I’ve read, and I will continue to do so!

No longer do I have to wonder when I read a certain book, and what I thought of it — or, wonder whether I even did read a certain title! LOL. Age has a funny way of messing with your memory, eh? LOL. I now just have to go back to my book journals, and I get my answer(s) within minutes!

Originally, I had just a paper journal where I recorded the books I read: title, author’s name, my rating, the date I finished reading the book, and the page count. Now I do that, AND I keep online records (on my blogs), too.

And, yes, I said blogs… plural! LOL. I’m completely nuts when it comes to tracking… don’t ask me why I have records of the same thing in so many places, but I do.

I have my 2009 Reads page here, at Should Be Reading.

I have my monthly “books read” posts at my other blog, MizB’s Yearly Reads.

I have my Reading Challenge pages (each challenge has its own page) at my Challenged2Read blog.

I have reading logs at both of my online book groups, Book-a-Week, and 75_Books.

And then, like I mentioned, I have my paper journal: one of those hardcover mini-books that you get with a stationary set (comes with the photo-frame holder, a couple of pencils, an address book, and the journal).

See? I told you I was completely crazy when it came to tracking the books I’ve read! But, like Rebecca said, when you mix my love of list-making with my passion for books, I just cannot help myself! LOL.

Now, where I’m looking for help is in this: For the past 7 years, I’ve had one method for how I record the books in my paper journal… I record just the basics in the front (as I mentioned in purple, above), but in the back half of the journal, I’ve given each book their own page, and I write a mini-review so that I can jog my memory of what the book was about, and what I thought  of it.

(the inside of the front part of my book journal)

Recently, I bought myself this gorgeous new book journal, and I’d like to do things a bit differently inside of it… but I’m not sure how to combine my old stuff into one format. I don’t want to put the reviews in the back any more, but I do want to keep them… I want to have one page that just lists the books read (kind of like an index), and then have the rest of the old info follow that. But, the difference also is that I want to use the same journal for a few years in a row, instead of starting a new journal every January, like I’ve been doing. Any ideas?

((Click here to see my old posts about my Book Journaling!))

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PS ~ Definitely check out my previous blog posts, today, as I have a contest link where you can win a book, and I have a couple of reviews!

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