How I Track My Books

February 25, 2024 nanafark

It's no secret that book lovers often find themselves buried under piles of books they have yet to read or struggle to recall whether they've already read a particular title. Fortunately, there are various methods for effectively tracking your reading and organising your book collection.

One popular approach is to maintain a reading journal. This can be a physical notebook or a digital document where you record the details of each book you read, including the title, author, genre, and your thoughts and impressions. Some readers also include noteworthy quotes or passages that resonated with them.

For those like me, who prefer a more technological solution, there are numerous apps and websites designed specifically for tracking reading habits and organising libraries. These platforms often offer features such as barcode scanning to quickly add books, personalised reading challenges, and the ability to connect with other readers for recommendations and discussions.

I personally use both Goodreads and Literal, which is my favourite.

In case you’re not familiar with Literal —because I bet you are with Goodreads— Literal.club is a free book tracking app designed for all book lovers. You can effortlessly organise and manage your reading list, keep track of books you've read, and discover new titles. What I love the most about Literal is that it fosters a community of passionate readers sharing their love for literature, and its modern and beautiful design.

Features:

1. Personalised Library: Create your virtual library by adding all the books you own or wish to read. Simply scan the barcode or manually add books to your library. Organise them by status (currently reading, finished, want to read) or by genre, author etc., creating your own unique shelves.
2. Reading Progress: Track your reading progress for each book by setting start and finish dates, logging the number of pages or percentage completed, and adding personal notes or quotes as you go along.
3. Book Discovery: Explore a vast collection of books recommended based on your preferences, reading history and community. Find your next favourite read with personalised recommendations.
4. Community Engagement: Connect with fellow book enthusiasts, join book clubs, share book reviews, and participate in reading challenges and discussions about your favourite books.
5. Access Across Devices: Access your book collection using the app on your smartphone and/or tablet, or through the website when you’re on your computer.
6. Bonus Feature (and my favourite): Become a Literal Librarian. This means that you can create new books, authors or works, update book info, upload book covers and help with duplicates and missing information. I honestly love this feature because it helps my perfectionist’s brain a lot!
7. Suggest Features. You can vote on existing ideas or suggest new ones.

Whether you're an avid reader, a casual book lover, or someone looking to cultivate a reading habit, Literal is your perfect reading companion designed to enhance your reading experience and make managing your books a joy.

Here you can find my personal book library, as it is in the app.

And here you can check out my Goodreads profile.

I hope you found this post helpful and let me know what you think about Literal.

Love,
Christina xx