How to Keep a Reading List

Have you ever wanted to recommend a book to a friend but just couldn't remember the title or author? Would you like to see how much you read or how your reading has changed over the years? With just a little effort you can develop your own reading list to help you remember what you read and to create a record of your intellectual life.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper or spreadsheet

1. Set up 8 columns either on paper or in a spreadsheet program like Excel: Date, Title, Author, Year, Type, Rating, Pages and Total Pages.

2. Enter the book into your log when you finish a book. The date is the date you finished the book. Title and author are self-explanatory. The year is the year of publication. The type is the genre (fiction, non-fiction, poetry). The rating column is highly subjective. This is where you grade the book. The pages are the pages in the book, and the total pages column is a running total of how many pages you've read over the year.

3. Start a new sheet of paper or a new sheet on your spreadsheet for each year. As you accumulate years, you'll be able to see a pattern to your reading, both in your selections and in the number of pages read for each year.

4. Add detail to your reading list with a summary or characters column, if you like. This is very helpful if you have trouble remembering specifics about a book.

Tips & Warnings

• Make your reading list a reward for finishing a difficult book. Knowing that you can add it to your list when you're done may be the boost you need.
• If you're in a book club, your reading list can serve as a brainstorming tool when coming up with the booklist for the year.

[vallain]

on 3/4/2008 I used to keep a list of my reading in my college years. Now I track my reading on Amazon. I put a review on for each book I read. Then I can look back through my reviews there and remember what I read. the reviews help others too.