Book Organization

Okay, anyone who has spent any time with with me (doesn't have to be a lot) knows that I love books. Heck, you can tell that just from looking at my blog. I am the very definition of bookworm. No seriously, you look up the word and I'm sitting next to it (and I'm reading of course).

And I also have inherited the predisposition towards labeling and organizing from my mom ( her labeler is her most treasured possession ;)). So I like to keep lists of what I've read, what I want to read, what I own, what I still need to buy. The past three years I've kept a list of what books I've read and the page counts. It's actually been kind of enlightening. I knew I read a lot, but not quite that much.

But sometimes it's hard to keep track of what I've read when it's just in lists. Kind of like trying to find stuff in Hermione's Magic Bag of Wonder. I can accio what I need, but it's still kind of cumbersome to use. Plus I don't put comments in my lists. So I started looking for sites where I can keep track of what I've read and what I thought.

I use GoodReads.com. It allows me to keep track both of what I've read and what I want to read so that if I look up a book I can tell if I've wanted to read it and if I have read it what I thought. This also means that when I'm looking for books to put on hold at the library, I can go through my To-Be Read list and choose books from there. And I can categorize the books I've read.

A while back I had to take all my books off the shelves in my room so it could be reorganized. So I started a list of all the books that I own. It was a daunting task even then and I had probably between 100 and 150 less books than I do now (yes, I'm almost up to 500 and I started this probably four or five years ago). I've updated it as time has gone on and so I have a comprehensive list of everything.

Recently I've begun to organize the books into specific genres since I'm going to buy a bookcase that is large enough I can have all my books on it, one layer deep, and size won't be an issue. So I started a spreadsheet where the books are broken into genres (Some of which are subsections that I wish existed in real life) and organized by author's last name (or series if the series has multiple authors like the Royal Diaries series). The genres will also be arranged alphabetically. It's a complicated system, but one I like.

My friend Sarah also recently reorganized her books. But she uses a site called LibraryThing.com. This allows you to catalog all the books you own (including the edition which may be important in some cases) and she was able to put her books in specific subsets as well. The site gives you the first 200 books free but after that you need a membership. The nice thing about this site is that any of your friends can see what you own (and perhaps ask to borrow books).

So pretty much, that's all I have. And I would use LibraryThing, I really would. But that would mean I'd have to enter all my books in again and as I mentioned I have close to 500 books. Anyone else use a different system? Maybe a rolodex of notecards with all the books in a card catalog?