This week's Booking Through Thursday question:
Do you use any of the online book-cataloguing sites, like Library Thing or Shelfari? Why or why not? (Or . . . do you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking to?? (grin))
If not an online catalog, do you use any other method to catalog your book collection? Excel spreadsheets, index cards, a notebook, anything?
Woo-hoo! A BTT post on time for once!
I have bought a lifetime membership to Library Thing, and went through and got completely up to date, and then haven't even visited it for nearly 6 months. I have meant too! Maybe when I have holidays at the end of January I will be able to get more on top of things over there again!
As for Spreadsheets....do I have spreadsheets! Yes indeedy!
I actually have two workbooks that I use for books. One is Rosario's fabulous yearly Excel spreadsheet in which I list all the books I have read this year. You can then get graphs which show you which types of books you are reading, what the settings are, percentages of rereads to new reads, which year your most copyrights are from, as well, I am sure a few other things! You can see an example of one of Rosario's spreadsheets here.
The other Excel workbook is less technical than Rosario's spreadsheet, but it is in effect my personal catalogue.
On the first page, there is a list of all the books that I have read or that I own and am yet to read. The kind of information held on that spreadsheet is the date I bought a book, the date I read it, if I borrowed it from somewhere where, and if I have lent it to someone who (so I know who to chase up if it doesn't come back!), the ratings I have given the books I have read, what number book it is this year and whether the author is Australian or not.
The second page is my TBR list of all the books I want to read. It includes what number in a series the book is so that I can be sure that I am reading the series in order, as well as if it is available from the library or not. At the moment the list stands at about 2000 items, although I must confess that if I think that an author's books sound interesting I will add most of them straight away, so that figure is probably a little bit inflated!
The third page is my library books page. What books I have out from the library, how many times I have left of renewing them, and their due dates. This is what I use to help me decide what I am reading next.
The final page is about series. It is a list of all the series I am either reading or finished, along with an indicator of whether there are currently books out in the series that I haven't read yet, or if I am waiting for the next book...or perhaps I have completely finished the series. This is probably the page I use least.
Aren't you so glad that this question got asked??
I adore LibraryThing. My username is 3M3m.
ReplyDeleteGosh - you're organised. I have a TBR list in a table taken from LibraryThing - another use I'd forgotten to mention in my post. But my list of books I'd like to read is very unorganised - I just jot them down in a notebook. I use our local library's on-line catalogue (yes that is of course the correct spelling! if you're not American that is) to keep track of the books I've borrowed.
ReplyDeleteWow! You are one organized reader.
ReplyDeleteBooksplease, I wish my library catalogue (!) would do that for me. If it does, I haven't worked out how!
ReplyDeleteChris, another word could be anal! LOL!
3M, thanks for stopping by!
You are way more organised than I am! Such lists as I keep don't get beyond title, author, and genre. But after this BTT I am determined to find the money for LibraryThing - it sounds great!
ReplyDeleteI *wish* I could be as organized as you!
ReplyDeleteActually I do it somewhat similar. My spreadsheets are neatly numbered too. Cataloguing feels easy that way.
ReplyDeleteBooking through Cataloguing
You are a very organized person. I need to be like you ;) I'm always behind on organized my books, sometime.
ReplyDeleteIt probably one of the things why I like reading your reviews. You write what is in your thoughts and go deep into it :)
Never use Library Thing, but maybe I should? *shrug*....thanks for visiting my blog. Happy BTT!