June 03, 2010 
DG&B 
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time keeping track of all the books I’ve read. I’m pretty sure I’ll never again be able to recall everything I read in high school and college, and as I read more and more submissions, books just slip from my brain. We do a book club here at work, and I’m often surprised when I read the coverage I did—I’d say I forget about a good third of the books.
But now there’s an app to help me remember! The BookLover app lets you keep track of the books you’ve read, what you’re currently reading, and what you want to read. It’s really simple, but seems pretty helpful. If anything is keeping me from buying the app, it’s that “currently reading” section. I’m afraid every book I start but don’t finish will live there forever, quickly eclipsing the books I’ve finished!
Do you need help remembering the books you need to read? Or are you all elephants?
I keep stumbling across books on GoodReads that I haven't read in years, so I usually use that to keep track.
It also connects me with other people who've read it and their reviews. I'd be afraid of the "currently reading" tab, too, lol. If a book's not doing it for me, I won't always finish it.
Thanks for introducing me to this app. I'll have to check it out!
Yeah, I do have problems remembering if I've read a book or not. However, I keep a written list of books in series that I need to buy to fill it in and then I read in the correct order. When I finish a book I place it on my 'read' book shelves. Books I have not read are arranged on my 'to be read' bookshelf and arranged in series order and by author. My reading tastes can be eclectic so I browse the 'to be read' shelves and select whatever appeals to me at the time. Once read it goes on the 'read' shelf.
One of the last papers I wrote for college was to list all of the books I read, both for school or pleasure, and my impressions of those books. It was a very cool project and my professor said he really enjoyed my paper. But it was somewhat challenging remembering all of the books, poems, short stories (and plays, because I was also a Theater major) I read over those five years.
My book club uses Good Reads as a way to communicate about our club activities and I've started using it to keep track of what I've read. I was able to make a facebook tab that links to my Good Reads profile and I also have an iPhone app for it. Very handy!
I have a terrible time remembering what I've read — I totally need this app. I used to list the books on my sidebar but stopped because now I find I want to be a little more private with what I'm reading (another reason I don't use Goodreads to keep track).
I'm an elephant. My wife is a goldfish that has been a "parasite" to my memory. I am trying to make her get this app now because we own probably hundreds of books and I have to be the one to remember which ones she already owns.
I always forget what I have read, especially series books if I haven't revisited them in a while. This year, my friend and I are doing a 100 books challenge and we blog about them. At least this way, I can just look back at my blog…for this year.
I'm sure i forget plenty of books but why would i need to remember them all? oh my god is there going to be a test?! 😀
I don't have a problem remembering what I've books read. I do, however, forget what happens in the books I've read. Even though I can recall whether I've read something or not, I still think it's worthwhile to catalog them using an app.
Marissa
I am totally in love with Goodreads and use that site constantly, not only to keep track of what books I have on my shelves, but also to read other people's reviews of things I think I might like to read. I would otherwise absolutely lose track of interesting new books–just because I want to read so many of them.
(I'm annathepiper on Goodreads, anyone else there, please feel free to come find me!)
Weirdly, I just blogged about this site called Shelfari.
http://maxmunro.blogspot.com/2010/06/shelfari.html
You can add a list to your blog too, like they have here:
http://blog.shelfari.com/my_weblog/2009/09/index.html
GoodReads is the only way I can remember everything that I've read AND want to read. I love it. At first, I wasn't sure if I'd really use it. Let me tell you, though, I actually DO! All the time. Every time I hear of a book I want to read I'm clicking over to add it to my to-read list.
I'm fifty, so the brains getting fuzzy about more than just books I've read. Cool app though!
I have a hard time tracking just the books I own using Google Books, let alone the books I've read. I can't count the times someone has asked me if I've read a book, and I say, "Yeah, but it's been so long that I've forgotten everything about it." And these days, my to-be-read list is so long that I rarely have time to go back and reread books I loved!
I'm not sure my brain can go back over forty years…
I tend to remember arcane details about characters and basic plot lines, but forget the titles and authors' names. I've taken to writing them all down, along with my 'to read' and 'would definitely read this again' lists.
I use Library Thing for this because it makes it easy and I like seeing whose libraries are similar to mine. However, YES, everyone can see how few books I actually read in a year, and my "now reading" has a lot of dangling titles from eons ago…
Actually, when hearing of my mom's troubles with memory (specifically of the books she finishes in a day or two), I decided to create an Excel file listing all the books I've completed. I started this list in highschool and have maintained it, and even added books I suddenly remembered having read waaay back when. For someone without an iPhone or other app-ish device, it's quite useful.
Yeah, that's why I joined GoodReads. But I created two additional shelves in addition to "read" and "currently reading" – "maybe-later" and "put-back". The former is for books that I had to return to the library unread but am still interested in; the latter for ones I started and am not really interested in trying again.
I've joined Shelfari for the same reason. Perhaps I should look at GoodReads or BookLover instead. Does one of these methods to track your reading have an advantage over the other?