The Infinite Saga of the Book Tracker
Here are three facts about me:
- I love books.
- I have an almost OCD level need to have a robust book tracker.
- I have a raging case of ADD (with a bonus side of squirrel).
Every year, perhaps multiple times a year, I get the urge to become the ultimate organized book reader. I will track the books that I read, I say. I will write down my thoughts of each book, I tell myself. I will highlight or otherwise share quotes that I love from what I read, I promise.
In an attempt to fulfill said promise, I trot myself to the Interwebs and do the thing I might love even more than reading: rabbit holes. Let's jump down this first one and see what lurks.
cue spooky music as I fall gleefully down a digital hole
APPS! I like apps, I tell myself. I have many (too many). Let's download them all: Fable, Bookmory, Storygraph, Bookly, Margins, Litsey...you see where this is going. With each app I have to add or import all of my books, usually from Goodreads. You'll notice I did not include Goodreads in that list. More on that later.
Then it's organization station. I start sifting through and figuring out how the app works and the first stab of dissatisfaction pricks.
- This one doesn't allow you to enter quotes.
- This one doesn't let you track by percentages.
- This one is ugly.
- This one doesn't have any social aspects to it (as if I'm social anyway).
Did I forget to mention that I am both the Princess and the Pea and Goldilocks all rolled into one? Sorry.
If anything can be considered a universal truth (aside from the two most obvious: a man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife and never get involved in a land war in Asia), it is this: no app will ever be perfect.
I know. I know. Metallica said it best, Sad, but True.
If I were to rank the most useful of the apps I have cozied up to, it would be this:
Goodreads, there it is. My dark mistress, living the life as the spawn of the Dark Queen that is Amazon. Goodreads has some very good things, in fact it might have ALL THE THINGS. But it is so clunky. It is like a dog park. A veterinarian I once knew referred to dog parks as dens of sin and iniquity. That is Goodreads.
My Goodreads had become so unwieldy I deleted the whole thing yesterday and started fresh. I had 770 books in my Want to Read list. I can't. I just can't.
So, I will be soldiering on with the three listed above. If you like spreadsheets however, I do have some suggestions for you. Perhaps that's a later post.
And, hey, if you're feeling saucy, join me on Goodreads and we can commiserate the clunkiness together. Below is a link to my profile...I think
