Tracking our Books for Reading and Reviewing.
The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. With Jennifer’s permission, I (Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer) relaunched the hop on February 15, 2013. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
Book Blogger Hop for June 12th – 18th:
How do you keep track of books you will be reviewing or reading?
(submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)
Reading on my Kindle
Okay so… several years ago, probably around the same time I started my blog on Blogspot, I put together an excel spreadsheet to list all the books I’d reviewed, where I posted my reviews, and when I published them for the first time. This spreadsheet slowly grew to include other things, such as a page to track the ARCs I was requesting from NetGalley and Edelweiss, and another page for approved ARCs I had downloaded, and the expected release dates of these books, which also has a place to note if I’ve sent feedback to either of these two sites.
Now, that last page is sorted with the publication date from newest to oldest, so that’s how I keep track of which ARCs I should be reading, starting with the one that’s next to be published. This wasn’t always the case, and I used to read ARCs in the order I received approval, but then I found I was either publishing reviews long before the books were released, or I didn’t get around to them until long after they were in stores. I prefer it this way, I think.
Then, earlier this year, I found this really fancy spreadsheet that Kal @ Reader Voracious has been using, which she generously allows people to download for their own personal use. It has all sorts of cool stuff like automatic charts and graphs and stuff – all already set up and all far beyond my excel skills. It also included 12 sheets with a calendar for each month of the year! This is turning out to be a really useful tool, and I thank her very much for this. I’ve done some tweaking of this as well, to make it even more appropriate for my own use.
My Reading Print Books
Generally, there is no rhyme or reason regarding my reading of print books. I will pick up whatever I think I’ll be in the mood to read. Trust me, I have lots to choose from, so I’m never at a loss for materials.
That said, if someone sends me an ARC or uncorrected proof copy of their book, I will try to put it on the top of my reading pile, but… only if it strikes my fancy. Of course, thankfully not many people are willing to ship books half way across the world to me, which is a good thing. Even so, there are always a few very enthusiastic authors who will do anything to get their books into the hands of reviewers. Even with them I try to discourage their sending me physical copies of their books because I know they’re probably going to end up spending more in postage than they would get in profits from selling at least ten copies! Despite this, while only a handful authors have sent me their novels I haven’t read all of them. Several of these unread books just haven’t attracted me enough to read them. There were a couple books I finished and wrote reviews for, and a few I started reading and couldn’t finish reading (but I did write to those authors and apologized). And then, there are the handful of books that authors mailed to me, that I read and enjoyed, including a few that I absolutely loved!
My Back-up Plan
In addition to my excel sheet, I also keep track of the books I’m about to read through my Goodreads “to be read” list! That way, if I’m traveling abroad and I finish one of my books on my Kindle, I know what book is next on my reading list.
And… that’s it!
Thanks again to Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer for this blog hop, and Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews for this topic!
The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog 
Oh I love this! What a cool prompt, I’m going to have to start doing this.
I have most my books catalogued on LibraryThing’s app- at least my print books. I think if I ever took a look at how many e-books and kindle books I own that I haven’t read yet I might hyperventilate haha.
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Nice blog
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I am addicted to my spreadsheet. I couldn’t blog or track any reading without it. I have it set to backup to Dropbox regularly because I’m terrified I’ll lose it! It’s got so many years of data… It’s getting to be a bit unwieldy, honestly.
I don’t do a great job tracking my own TBR, but that’s okay. I use Goodreads but it’s a mess. That To Read shelf always gets out of control so quickly!
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Great topic, I love hearing how people organising their reading commitments 🙂
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Your spreadsheet is next level!
I have had spreadsheet I have been using since 2004 to keep track of what I have read. At one stage I used to keep track of what I had acquired and where but I stopped doing that a while ago.
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Not mine, really, but yeah, it is next level.
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Hi! Someone linked you on my Facebook group, Book Blogger Buddies. This sounds so exciting. For one thing, I am a voracious reader (343 books read so far this year). Also, I am a HUGE user of spreadsheets and I would like to add your linked one to my reservoir of resources. How can I join the next Hop?
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Just follow the links to the Blog Hop on the Coffee Addicted Writer’s page. She’s the host. https://www.coffeeaddictedwriter.com/
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I have never really kept a record of my books except on Goodreads. You are quite organized Davida. I very seldom get physical books sent to me as I live in Canada and there seems to be really high postage to mail packages here.
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Thanks. But… does it really cost that much for postage of books to Canada? I would have thought that it would be almost the same as if it was within the US. Shame!
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I wish it was. That is one of the reasons I can’t enter a lot of giveaways unless they are ebooks, which I don’t mind. I can make the print bigger so I can read them. 😃📚
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Bummer. I hear you!
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And I thought I was organized!
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I’m sure you are!
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I organize my reading of ARCs by publication date too (or blog tour date). I always try to post a review on publication day.
And isn’t that spread sheet awesome?!?! It makes my Uber-organized heart so happy 😁 I’ve recently started using it and am already finding tweaks I can implement to fit the data I need 😊
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Yeah, it is awesome! I’ve also learned some Excel tricks through it – like the “count if” thing that will count the different types of blog posts.
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