Musing Mondays 3-30-2009

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page.

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about recording your reading…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? (question courtesy of MizB)

I have kept track of my reading very sporadically over the years. I would get into big "lists mode" - where I would have to record everything that I was reading, or every book that I owned by certain authors - or I would decide I was only going to read books off of certain lists (award winners, bestsellers, etc). Like I said-very sporadic.

Then, a few years ago I started keeping track of what I read in an excel spreadsheet - here are the results. Starting in July 2006 - read three books for that year. . . Then 2007 I read 28 books. In 2008 I read 43 books - I also started blogging in August of last year - and joined book challenges, so that increased my reading. Then, this year I have taken off - I have already read 34 books and hope to finish two more before the end of the month. This spreadsheet lists the title and author, as well as number of pages (or hours if it is audio) and the year it is published.

I also am currently keeping track of the books that I own by about 20 different authors - from Stephen King to Nora Roberts. Each author has their own spreadsheet - these lists have all the books that the authors have written - and then it is noted whether or not I have it and if it is hardbacked or paperbacked - that way I know where to find it if I need it.

Then, I have a spreadsheet that keeps tracks of all my challenges that I have joined and the books that I have read (or want to read) for each of them. When a challenge is completed (or failed, as the case may be) it is moved to a new tab of that spreadsheet.

I also have a list of all the ARCs that I have requested or received - this sheet has different tabs for books that I have found from different bloggers as well as books that I have won. I may not be as OCD as Rebecca says she is - but I appear to be well on my way!

It has been really wonderful to find a group of people that have reawakened my passion for reading, and have introduced me to so many wonderful books! Thank you blogging community!