That sounds really nice! I've mostly been thinking about digital ways of storing data, but after reading some of the ideas in this thread I'll seriously consider some nice analogue options too.

Yeah totally, I'm really enjoying reading the thread and seeing how differently people approach even the concept of tracking! Super interesting how people vary in their preferences and habits.

You raise a good point around the purpose of tracking, I guess that's another one where people vary.

Wow, 20 years! That's a pretty nice gift from your family friend.

I guess by now you've used multiple notebooks? Or do you just use a line or so per entry?

Nice, thanks for sharing! Got to love some spreadsheet magic, pretty neat they update that on a regular basis to incorporate new functionality.

Yeah, I think what you've described can be really helpful for a lot of people... I like the idea of being able to put books into a queue sort of, because I'm forever finding things I'd like to read and then forgetting!

Thanks for sharing, I'm sure your clients must have really appreciated your efforts, it sounds like you went above and beyond.

I'm interested to hear you're enjoying StoryGraph too, like a few other users have mentioned. I think I'll check it out as a potential options and have a play around with it.

I like the sound of your challenge too, what a great idea! Enjoy your literary journey around the world.

Yeah I know exactly what you mean and it's something I want to be really conscious of... I think going overboard on tracking, one would run the risk of sucking a lot of joy away that comes from the fuzzy/organic nature of reading.

I really like your perspective for sure.

I think given the times we live in, a lot of people these days have a (quite unhealthy) impulse to quantify everything. I don't want to indulge that impulse too greedily or have it become a chore... one of my favourite bits from Ralph Waldo Emerson is a nice reminder to not get caught up on obsessively tracking/monitoring:

“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”

Wow yeah, I'm sure you'll get some awesome insights if you diligently keep on top of it like that. How do you find inputting the data, is that easy enough and not too taxing?

Ah I see, that's too bad!

I just had a quick Google and I saw there are nice Export options at least, so you could quickly generate a .csv file if you ever wanted to backup/migrate your data and use a different tool. It sounds like you've put a lot of effort into it!

Yeah I think that act of submitting some notes or a summary as you describe is a nice opportunity to sort of reflect on a book and mentally put it back on the shelf.

It's funny you mention that particular insight you had, it's great to challenge your reading habits that way. I am toying with the idea of also tracking things like an author's gender/home country to see what type of literature I'm consuming in that sense too.

Wow okay cool, Storygraph looks really interesting! That's definitely an option I'll consider, thanks for sharing. Those additional features around sharing with friends looks really nicely implemented.

Have you found the suggestions to be pretty decent?

I must say I agree with you on Goodreads... One thing that really, really annoys me way more than it should is the seemingly endless drove of cringeworthy/low-effort "quotes" put on there by people themselves. It's always painful to try and find a memorable passage from an author/book and it's sandwiched between Tumblr-level musings.

Feels good to get that off my chest, phew.

Yeah, does that integration work pretty well?

I've got a bit of a penchant for self-hosting and I'm curious to see if other people use open-source/proprietary tools.

I see your point about a simple solution though, nice to keep things clean and easy that way.

Yeah, really satisfying being able to see those at a glance that way!

Nice one yeah, I've dabbled with Goodreads here and there in the past but I've never used it consistently.

I'm interested to hear why you wouldn't recommend the site to newcomers now?