I've been thinking of logging my books for a couple of years now and I decided that 2008 was the year to do it. The other challengers have provided some helpful advice on many of the different options out there, so I spent the month of January investigating the software and have now decided to go with BookCat. It provides most of what I require, and especially the Canadian price, which is helpful for insurance reasons. I even ordered myself a CueCat barcode scanner to assist me - they are cheap and fun to use! I ordered mine from LibraryThing for $15 plus $5 shipping. They are cheaper on eBay but they wanted about $18 to ship to Canada. LibraryThing was much better priced and I rec'd it in less than 2 weeks.
So I started today with my TBR's and I've logged all my contemporary, romantic suspense and paranormal - the count is at 112. I still have anthologies, historicals, regencies and tons of harlequins to do. I had guesstimated that I have 300 books in my TBR. I think that figure is low - I won't be surprised if I'm closer to 500. I will take the opportunity to cull some of my TBR's - I've noticed that people tend to give me books when they find out I'm a reader. Some I'll never read, but hey if I can get a buck credit at the UBS, I'll take it! Also, the Free Book Friday Book is usually one that I don't want or a duplicate so it's time for them to go!
I'm anxious to get the TBR's done as quickly as possible, and then as I read them, I will transfer them either to my keeper database or the non-keeper database. I've already logged about 30 books in the non-keeper DB - I wanted to take them to the UBS today. My keepers will be a huge project so I'm not setting any deadline now but hopefully I'll be off to a good start by summer.
So how about you... do you log all your TBR's and Keepers? Or are you closing your eyes to the pile and relying on your memory (like I was!!)?
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
TBR
I was logging them in on Shelfari but the number got so high from just the loose books laying around that I've decided to close my eyes!
The D2K Paranormal Junkies 2008 Challenge
Logging
I use a good old spreadsheet, one for TBR and one for Books read. Started doing this in '06. Last year I started jotting down notes about each book. Found this helpful when folks ask about a particular read.
My TBR is a little different because it's anything I hear or read about that I'm interested in reading, not necessarily what I physically have possession of.
I tried Shelfari too but this is really double entry. And I ultimately want to own my lists so my Shelfari bookshelf is a bit out of date. I'll get around to it.
PatriciaW
Readin' N Writin' with Patricia
Ownership...
That's what I was looking for in a database and I found Shelfari and fictiondb, at this point in time, do not have the capabilty to allow to download to excel etc. I only found BYRON and BookCat had that. I went with BookCat because of the price, the report writer and the Internet search capabilities. We'll see how it goes.
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
A couple of years ago I
A couple of years ago I started a spreadsheet with my read books, but I am thinking I wouldn't mind doing one of my TBR, right now, some are shelved in my read with an empty entry and others not at all. Hmm, maybe my 2008 project.
Cady
TBR--The Born Readers
I've got a mish-mash...
of places for my book lists.
On my website (which started out strictly as a Sailormoon trading card site and is now a bit of a lot of different things) I've got a page for my books (keepers), one for the anthologies with novella titles & authors, and one for my category romances.
I try to keep them updated, but sometimes I fall behind. That's when I go searching through all my various shelves & cases for my keepers and check lists. Tedious, but I get to play with my books.
As for my TBR ~ and again I emphasize try ~ I list them all on MS Word. Works for now, but I really do need to do something a little more organized.
I remember Kathy D talking about BookCat last year and, while I never did more than look at it, now that you're talking about it as well, I can see that, eventually anyway, that I'll be going that route.
Yeah, those are my attempts at organizing my extensive books.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
kalyko ~ Reading: One of life's little joys and a much needed reward!
HI Kalyko
Yes, KathyD uses this one too. I was actually leaning towards BYRON - but it is pretty pricey, however, you do have ownership. Then fictiondb looked good - a very pretty site. But you log your books on their site - plus the prices don't show up unless you put them in yourself. Well, with 2000+ books that really isn't an option for me. So I checked out LibraryThing - but again you are on their website so BookCat was starting to look pretty good. I like it cuz the database is on your computer so if you don't backup you could lose your DB. Not a problem for me - I'm a backup queen - I have a large database for my family history and wouldn't dream of not backing up regularly. I like that I can use the barcode scanner - I'm not sure if you can with BYRON and I can choose where to search for the books. I prefer the Cdn prices so I always search at Amazon.ca. If it's not there I will use the others. So far I've logged 220 books and I've only had to enter 5 manually. They were old Harlequins (some 1975) and none of the search areas had any record of them. I'm very pleased - and my CuteCat barcode reader is so much fun. You can also export the info into text files so it will be easy to manipulate in excel. Later I will see if there's a way to date my reads, if so I may be able to scrap my current excel book list and pull something off the database. But that's 6 month's away yet.
BookCat offers a 30-day free trial which allows you to enter 40 books to get an idea of the DB and the reports you can run. There is lots you can do. I downloaded their HELP in a .pdf file - it's over 200 pages and includes a tutuorial. The price isn't bad for the DB - around $40. I'll post here if find any problems
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
New tally - 291 books logged!
Well, I finished all my Harlequins tonight so that makes a total of my "logged" TBR at 291 and I still have lots more to do! I have about 180 harlequins to read! I guess I better get busy!!
BTW my TBR shelf is starting to look quite good - I even dusted!
I must say for anyone who is thinking about doing this and have a ton of books - the barcode scanner works like a dream. It took me a bit to get just the right angle and to figure out it's likes and dislikes. ie Harlequin books - it likes the barcode on the inside cover better than the back of the book. On other books, the back usually works but if not the inside does. Since I did all 180 harls this evening once I got into a rhythm it went very fast.
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
I use book DB by spacejock
I use book DB by spacejock software....no limits to the number of books you can enter....and it's free! It also supports bar code scanning....
Hi Ellejay, I've been so
Hi Ellejay, I've been so busy the last couple weeks, i've not had much time to spend on the blogs...or reading either for that matter. I've only got one completed book waiting to be blogged. The lack of reading is really kind of bothering/worrying me.
I'm excited to hear you now have BookCat and are enjoying it. I love that library program.
TC,
Kathy D
Hey Kathy!
Yes - I'm enjoying BookCat too. I've logged about 320 books now, and I still have alot more to do -and that's only in my TBRs! I've haven't been reading as much and I've been slow to blog the books I do read. I've got a lot going on right now at home, so I need to focus on that and just come by and visit. I'm going to try to do at least 1 book review a week until my life settles down.
I'm glad to hear that everything went well with the new puppy. Sounds like you've been hit with the dog show bug. My oldest sister has boxers and was into showing them also. She doesn't show them as much now but still attends all the dog shows. They are coming down in early April - there's a big show in Chilliwack then. She involved with Boxer Rescue and at one time had 6 boxers in her house!
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
I'll be really interested
I'll be really interested to know your final tally of books.
With this new site, i can't tell who's absent for longer than normal periods anymore. Are you experiencing reading withdrawal yet? I sure am. But like you, i have alot going on in my life right now as well....and this site being what it is now...it's much easier to be away and not be missed...so i find that much more relaxing...no guilt/pressure this year...so that's a plus.
LOL I definately seem to have been bitten by the Dog Show bug. Matter fact, i just signed up for Dogshow Handling classes today. The crappy thing is they are in the city, which of course you know is a two hour drive one way...and the classes are every sunday for 6 weeks, starting March 9th...with a Fun Match at the end of April(like a dogshow, but not with real judges). I'm excited and nervous about them. Nikki will only be 4 months old...but in my mind, she'll get socialization and show training in one...and if she's to young for anything, i just won't do it with her yet. So hopefully she'll/i'll like it.
I go thru Chilliwack again in April(my apts. the 11th)...i'll have to check and see if the dogshow coincides with that. Yup...a big bug got me i'm sure.
TC,
Kathy D
I started logging my books
I started logging my books at the end of last year. I am using both a spreadsheet and Shelfari.
Tiffany
BJBC
My Shelfari Page
logging
I have my books logged in at Shelfari and fictiondb and then I have a personal list of all books in house that gets updated periodaclly
Christa ~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Challenge Blog
My Shelfari Page
July's MEMBER OF THE MONTH
Hi ElleJay, I went on
Hi ElleJay,
I went on LibraryThing to check out the CuteCat scanner you mentioned, however, cannot find anywhere that this is available for purchase. Can you please let me know where you went on the site for this? Thanks for your help.
Here's the link for CueCat scanner...
I found it difficult to find to - you have to go thru their "store". Here's the link: http://www.librarything.com/cuecat
I was very pleased with their delivery time - about 2 weeks and it was shipped to Canada.
On the same page are some excellent instructions one of their members wrote. I found it very useful. I just scan in the barcodes to my database then download the book information using the websites they provide. I always use Amazon.ca first because they provide the Canadian price, however, if it's not there then I use other sites and then override with the CDN price.
After you scan a few books you'll get into a rhythm and get to know the little foibles. For instance, I find it scans best on the bar code on the inside front cover on Harlequins. But on other books I can scan the backcover.
I'll look forward to hearing how you like it.
~ ElleJay - Team member of Novel Obsession
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the pleasure is having lots to do and not doing it!
I'd gone searching
I'd gone searching for that little gadget the other day myself and couldn't find it anywhere on the site either. Was in hurry mode and planned to ask later, but completely forgot about it. I'm glad you asked the question Michaela.
Now i'm curious Michaela...do you own BookCat? or a different library database?
TC,
Kathy D
I use shelfari
but I havent used it to its full extent...right now I just put in the books I have read over the past few years.
Terri
Got Books?
ElleJay
You've started in on quite a job. I love having all of my books recorded. It really helps out when making lists and figuring out what to read.
Thanks for the info.,
Thanks for the info., ElleJay. I have never used a book database program before, however, have been thinking about it for a while. To this point, I have been cataloging my books in an Excel spreadsheet. It would be a huge step to change everything over to a new program, and I would hate to lose out on potential reading time, however, there is a large convenience factor once everything is automated. Your comments are very convincing!
Kathy, I am definitely interested in your thoughts, too! Karen once told me you have a cool program that you use to track your books ...
EJ, sounds like a great system ...
with the actually physical number of my books, I don't think I'd chose to enter them by actually having to touch each book .... though if I had to, I think the bar code scanner would be perfect .... does Book Cat work on PDAs?
because fictiondb already have the books listed and all I need to do is simply click to put it on my bookshelf, I find this the easiest for entering books ..... they have a mobile version of the site for me to access their database and my bookshelf, so I can check it on my web enabled cell phone or from any computer .... I can update it from anywhere too ....... yes, right now you can't download your database, but they are working on providing that ability and that should be available soon ... and because they keep adding the new releases each month to their database, it's a great resource as well for creating wish lists etc. ..... plus you can tag your books both with public and personal tags for easy sorting ... and you can rate and review them for the membership
no matter what system you go with .... logging books in the 1,000's is an enormous task ..
I bet you're feeling pretty good though, now that you've started and have made progress!
~~ KatherineT ~~ I'm a Harlequin Addict, and I'm proud of it!
~~ Quiet Canadians ~ 2008 Book Challenge Blog
Michaela, I have the same
Michaela, I have the same program ElleJay just bought, BookCat, and "i love it". I've had mine for several years now.
Tammy's also now bought and enjoying BookCat, and there are a few more people considering it here. There are many things you can do with it, but ElleJay would be the better person to ask, cause i just use the basics...and she appears to be far more adventurous(braver lol), trying everything else out, than i have been so far.
Kathy D