That being said I only back it up when I think about losing it, maybe once a year. It is the list of books that I have read.
I read about a book a day. This depends on the size of the book and how much I get done in my REAL life. I read about 300 pages. I don't speed read, but I am a fast reader. If I was reading technical journals I would not read this fast. I would also not retain very much information.
I don't join book clubs, because by the time they have the next meeting I will have read another 20 or 30 books and I will have forgotten which character was in what book and maybe mix up the important points.
I prefer paperbacks because I carry a book almost everywhere I go. I can vacuum with a book. I do dishes and dust with a book. I read while my husband drives. He doesn't talk a lot so this works for us. If he has something to say, I stop reading and when he runs out of things to say I pull the book back up. Hardbacks are hard on my wrists when reading in bed and it is hard to keep them out of the bath tub, where I do a LOT of reading. Plus, if I damage a hardback, it will be much more expensive to replace as I mostly read library books.
When we lived in California, I lived close to about 5 libraries. At that time, they didn't buy a lot of paperbacks for the library. They relied on donated copies. Once I had read all the ones that interested me, I went on to the next library. When I had exhausted all the libraries close to me I started buying books at a used book store.
If I brought home a book that I had read before from the library, I just put it back in the pile to be returned. If I BOUGHT one that I had already read, I was furious. Lee kept after me to set up an Excel file to keep track of my reading. I was reluctant because I had been reading since I was 4 and how do you know where to start. Plus, I was not very good on the computer, except for email and Google.
He talked me into it. I just kept a notebook by the bed and wrote down the author and title after I finished a book. After a while I added the genre and then I started rating the books. If I HATED a book I wanted to know not to purchase that author again. If I LOVED a book, I wanted to search for that author. Sometimes I would give an author another chance for an iffy book, but there are a lot of books and I usually quit them after two not-so-good ones.
If I happened upon a book I had read that wasn't on my list, I added it in, but at this point, the books not on my list are so old or they are classics and I don't need to add them. So there are maybe 50 books or so on my list that I didn't read in the mid-nineties when I started keeping track.
As of yesterday there were 6447. I finished one last night and I'm half-way through one today, but they are not added into the file, so they don't count , yet.
I often told young, voracious readers in the library to start keeping a list. I wish I had done so. There were always a few older readers that would come in with their tattered notebooks held together with a rubber band and loose pages falling out. I would try to encourage them to use an Excel file. It is so handy. It alphabetizes by author and by title within the author. I print out a new copy every 100 books or at least when I go to buy books at the used book store. I LOVE it.
My current scheme is to get on the library website. I go to Advanced Search and look for paperbacks with 2012 as the publication date. Then I request all the ones that interest me. When I don't have enough to keep me busy, I go to the used book store to catch the ones that are older that I missed. GOTTA have the list for that!
I went to the book store yesterday and brought back all the books I had finished to trade in. I made a pile of the books I wanted and then alphabetized them by author. Then I went through my list and ended up putting back about five books. Good thing I had my list! If someone asks me about an author, I can look them up and tell you which are the best authors and which are their best books.
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