Features | Keeping Track Of Your Reads When Offline

Features | Keeping Track Of Your Reads When Offline

• Monday, 20 July 2015

Whether book bloggers or just avid readers we all know Goodreads is a great tool for keeping track of our reads online, and I'm sure many of you are taking part in their reading challenge this year. But what about when the computer is switched off? 

This year I made the decision not to participate in the Goodreads challenge. Whilst I am still updating the site when I finish a book I'm also keeping a note of all the books I read throughout 2015 with the intention to count them up when the end of the year rolls around. Of course being a blogger I also need to store notes for reviews here at Blogger's Bookshelf and keep a track of my Netgalley shelf - two other things I would also usually do on my laptop... Of course a laptop isn't always to hand when that perfect word for a review or a brilliant idea for a new blog post strikes.

With many people also making the effort to switch off and take a little downtime away from technology, especially over the summer months, this got me thinking that perhaps some of our readers may also be keen to find new ways of recording their reading habits and making review notes whilst offline. So today I thought I would share a quick look at how I've been keeping track of my reading this year!

1. The Jar Of Stars

As I'm not using the Goodreads challenge to tally up my reads this year I wanted to find an alternative way to keep track of all of the books. Although I considered just keeping a list within my planner once I saw this star jar idea from Priscilla (you may recognise her as The Readables on YouTube) I knew it would be the perfect way for me to keep track of all my 2015 reads.

Not only is it a pretty way to do the job but it also allows me to record my re-reads, something which I wouldn't ordinarily do on Goodreads. This was important to me as my only personal reading goal for 2015 was to re-read five books, as I can usually never find the time for them. I decided to colour-code my stars by rating and also designated a colour for the re-reads. So far this method has worked really well for me and I can't wait to count them all up at the end of the year!

2. Book Mark Pad & Book Journal

For keeping track of books I'm planning to review, or may potentially review, I have a word document where I make notes and begin to form the final sentences. Whilst this does work well for me and provides a great starting point when I sit down to type up the posts, it isn't always practical to reach for my laptop. As I like to read in the evenings when I don't have the word document to hand I always end up making these review notes the next day, however sometimes the perfect word just pops into my head whilst reading and I know I won't remember it by morning. For this reason I find it handy to have somewhere to make real pen-to-paper notes which can then be transferred to the computer at a later date.

For ebooks I like to use my Paperchase book journal which has pages specifically designed for reviews, including space for the title, author and notes. For physical books I've found that my bookmark pad (kindly gifted to me by Ria) definitely comes in handy! It's sort of like a mini version of a book journal with sections for the title, author, date started, page number/notes and date finished. It's perfect for noting down page numbers you want to remember or any quick shorter notes, plus it obviously also functions as a bookmark which is always useful!

3. Planner Pages

Although I'm not using my planner (which if you're wondering is an A5 ARC) to list all of the books I've been reading I do use it to keep track of review books, and have a page dedicated to Netgalley. Here I list each book I have received for review, along with the release date and tick boxes in columns labelled 'read' and 'reviewed'. This is a simple way for me to have an overview of my review titles whilst away from the website and helps me to make sure I'm working to share my thoughts around the same time as the book is published. I haven't personally used this method for any other books but I also think it would work well for tackling a more general TBR list.

How do you keep track of all the books you've read? Do you rely on technology or keep your own written lists?
Don't forget to let us know in the comments section below!