Friday, May 16, 2008

Keeping Track of the Books

The Lovely BonesImage via WikipediaDoes anybody, besides me, remember how I was going to keep a list of all the books I read this year? I started the list here, and then never went back to it. I have been keeping track of the books I've read, though. I added a Facebook application? add-on? What do they call them on Facebook? Anyway, it's called iRead, and it seems to work pretty well. I can search for the book I'm reading, and it finds it for me. I can add it to my 'shelf' and say I'm reading it, and then when I finish it, I change it to 'read it' and can add a review if I want.

I tend to be horrible at reviewing books. I either liked it or I didn't like it, but explaining why? I have a hard time with that. For instance, I just finished reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It wasn't something I was aware of, though I have to wonder where I've been because apparently it's a pretty popular book. The only reason I read it is that Beth read it, and she said it was really good. Now, Beth doesn't read much, so if she likes a book, I figure it must be really good, so I want to read it, too. So I read it, and I just thought it was strange. I wasn't all that impressed.

Currently I'm reading David Baldacci's Split Second - because Jeffrey listened to it and liked it. He doesn't read either, but he's just recently discovered audio books and is really enjoying them. On iRead, you can read other people's reviews of the books you're reading or thinking about reading. It looks like most people liked this one, though those who reviewed The Lovely Bones liked it, too. So you can't really go by what other people think, I guess.

Mostly I'm just using it to keep track of the books I've read. It even reminds me if it's been a while since I added a book, saying that I'm reading it. I get an email asking if I'm still reading that book, just in case I've forgotten to change the status.

The sad thing is that it shows I've only finished 11 books so far, and that's for all of 2008. I've just been spending too much time blogging and not enough time reading. Somehow, I don't think that's going to change...

1 comment:

  1. I find it hard to find the time for reading also. I'm reading Odd Thomas right now and it's really good.

    ReplyDelete

I love your comments! Keep them coming.