# NEED "System" to Keep Track of books read



## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

I'm still using a K2.  When I've finished a book, I've been removing from my K2.  My wife and I share the same Manage My Kindle.  We actually like quite a few of the same ebooks.  I'm trying to figure out a way to somehow have a way to know which books I've read..or not.  I guess I could use the collections feature and leave them on the K2.  That sounds pretty simple, but I'm wondering if there's a better way.  Thanks for any suggestions.

Stan


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I just rate it when I finish it and anything that I find at kindle.amazon.com that's rated I know I read. So that would work if your wife doesn't care about knowing.

Or put a note in it when you finish that says "Shastastan read this".  Then if you d/l it again you can check notes and marks.  I think you could also see those notes on kindle.amazon.com.

Otherwise, you're probably going to have to look at some third party product to keep track of everything.


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## Mandy (Dec 27, 2009)

With my K2, I just used a 'Completed' collection and added books as I finished them. With my PW, I just rate and/or review the books I finish.


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## rm663 (Mar 4, 2010)

www.goodreads.com


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## Vicki G. (Feb 18, 2010)

I have a Collection called "Read in 2013".  When I've finished reading a book, I remove it from it's current Collection, usually "Nightstand" and place it in "Read in 2013".  Usually I keep 2 years of read books on my Kindle, delete ones older than that.  Unless the book is tied to other books, such as part of a series, that haven't been read or there are new books still to come.  Then I like to keep the entire series on my Kindle.


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## cshoughton (Jul 10, 2013)

I agree with rm663. Goodreads would probably be an excellent way to keep track. It's off-device, but it's elegant and easy. 

Craig


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

Okay so it's either collections or Good Reads?  I had thought about collections so thanks for reminding me.  It seems quite easy.  I have been removing books that I've read from the "device".  They are in the cloud archive.  I guess I'm stuck with going through the archive to check and start a list somewhere?  Does Good Reads do something in this regard?  Thanks for your input.

Stan

Update:  Did some more research and have just joined librarything. Will probably try the paid version for a year since I have more than 200 books.


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## Pencepon (Nov 14, 2008)

Another option is using Calibre — you can set it up so that you can have titles show up in a different color if you have read the book. In "Look and Feel" you choose the "Column coloring" tab, then click the "+ Add Rule" button — then you can choose the column to change, the color, etc. When you've set the rule, in Calibre's "Edit metadata" area there will be a "Custom metadata" tab where you can say "Read" or "Not Read," and the book title (if that's the column you chose) will change color so that you can see at a glance which books you've read. I'm a constant reader so I really need this and make use of it.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

Pencepon said:


> Another option is using Calibre - you can set it up so that you can have titles show up in a different color if you have read the book. In "Look and Feel" you choose the "Column coloring" tab, then click the "+ Add Rule" button - then you can choose the column to change, the color, etc. When you've set the rule, in Calibre's "Edit metadata" area there will be a "Custom metadata" tab where you can say "Read" or "Not Read," and the book title (if that's the column you chose) will change color so that you can see at a glance which books you've read. I'm a constant reader so I really need this and make use of it.


Thanks that sounds like a good option, too. Using a screen capture free pgm, I copied the "by author" pages from Manage My Kindle". Now I'm adding books to my librarything account through their add books feature. I'm doing it the slow way since there are some books that I don't want to add (manuals, etc.). I'm curious about recommendations based upon books that I've already read. I may try running Calibre side by side with library thing to see which I like better.


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## PG4003 (Patricia) (Jan 30, 2010)

I also recommend Goodreads.  You can enter your books as you read them and keep track of your ratings.  It also helps you track how many books you've read in a year, if you are interested in that type of thing.  Of course since you would have a new Goodreads account, you would have to enter all your books you've already read, which would be time consuming at first.


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

I track my books on Goodreads and I rate them when I'm done. But I don't always have the computer around when choosing a book. I use collections. I have 2 collections for finished books. One called read and one called delete from archives. When I finish a book, it goes into one of those. Once a book is in the read collection I remove it from my PW. If I download it again, it goes into the collection and I know at a glance that I have read it. I did the same with my K2 and KK. They must talk to each other because all read books from previous Ks end up in the right collection. I wish there was a way to see what has been read in the cloud from my K. Then I wouldn't be downloading books I've already read.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

I use Calibre, and when I've read a book I rate it. Rather than adding a read/unread column, I set it to change the title's color once I've given it a rating. I also add "empty books" to Calibre, ones that I got from the library or listened to the audio version. 

I also use Goodreads. I only add the books I've read to Goodreads. I added my own shelves - 2012, 2013, and now Audiobooks, to track those. 

I also have a paper journal I use to write down books I've read since I got my Kindle. But I tend to forget to update it as faithfully as Goodreads or Calibre. And of course it's just chronological.

I don't use the Collections method simply because I don't want books I've already read taking up space on my Kindle, especially when I may be sorting by title or author. But that's just my personal preference. 

Now if I only read books from the Kindle store I'd just use the kindle.amazon.com site to mark them as read. But since I get books from all over the place, that doesn't work for tracking my books. It took a bit of set-up time for each thing, because I didn't start any of those tracking systems from the get-go, but now that they are set up they don't take much time at all to maintain.


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## chilady1 (Jun 9, 2009)

I track my books solely by using Calibre.  I really love how simple the application is but at the same time the level of customization that can be done per user.

Like you, both my husband and I share books so I have two custom columns (in addition to other columns) that are labelled my name with Read and my husband's name with Read so it appears as so:

Name Read        Name Read

When either one of us has read a book, we put in the date completed and it keeps track of what each of us has completed.  I am sure there are dozens of ways to accomplish what you are looking to do - just my two cents.  Good Luck to you.

P.S. Adding custom columns to Calibre is pretty straightforward and easy.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

My wife does not like to do any record keeping whatsoever. Never has and never will so I'm stuck with it.  That's okay though because she does tons of stuff that I don't want to do like wash clothes and cook.  I'm lucky to have her!  Whatever the final choice is, we will have 2 separate accounts/methods/programs or whatever.  One thing I discovered yesterday is that you can sort books by author in Manage My Kindle.  If it was just me, I would leave unread books on my Kindle, when I first buy them and remove the ones that I have read each time.  That would be the simplest system.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Shastastan said:


> My wife does not like to do any record keeping whatsoever. Never has and never will so I'm stuck with it. That's okay though because she does tons of stuff that I don't want to do like wash clothes and cook. I'm lucky to have her! Whatever the final choice is, we will have 2 separate accounts/methods/programs or whatever. One thing I discovered yesterday is that you can sort books by author in Manage My Kindle. If it was just me, I would leave unread books on my Kindle, when I first buy them and remove the ones that I have read each time. That would be the simplest system.


Do you have one Kindle or two?


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

She has 2 kindles; a paperwhite and a k2.  I think the k2 is just about gone.  She also has her nexus 4 smartphone.  I have a K2, Nexus 10 tablet, and nexus 4 smartphone.  I rarely read on the tablet or smartphone.  She mainly uses her paperwhite and orders books via whispernet.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Shastastan said:


> She has 2 kindles; a paperwhite and a k2. I think the k2 is just about gone. She also has her nexus 4 smartphone. I have a K2, Nexus 10 tablet, and nexus 4 smartphone. I rarely read on the tablet or smartphone. She mainly uses her paperwhite and orders books via whispernet.


Did you know that you can put an e-book on more than one device? Also you might want to go over to Manage Your Kindle and turn off the sync. Both those will help.
Now curiousity what do you mean by the K2 is just about gone? Problems working or is it too full?


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

cinisajoy said:


> Did you know that you can put an e-book on more than one device? Also you might want to go over to Manage Your Kindle and turn off the sync. Both those will help.
> Now curiousity what do you mean by the K2 is just about gone? Problems working or is it too full?


I think we want the sync on in case we want to read a book from out phones while waiting for the doc, etc. I think that sync is only a problem when we would both be reading the same book which hasn't been an issue so far.

Her K2 is acting flaky. The battery doesn't seem to last for weeks like it used to and it doesn't keep the place correctly all the time. It's been around for a few years so there's no warranty left. She has a paperwhite so we are not going to spend any $$ on the K2 at this point. Mine is still going though. I have an oberon cover so I'll be bummed out when mine konks out. I might try to figure out a way with velcro or whatever to modify the cover to fit a paperwhite.

Okay, so far I downloaded and installed Kindle for PC. Then I downloaded all the archives. Now I'm going to see if I can get them on Calibre.

Wow! Was that ever fast. Now I can just to edit metadata and add a 2 columns (1 for me, 1 for wife). We can just put X's in the columns for books we've read. Thanks to all!

Just want to add that you can customize your Calibre screen via Preferences. I like to keep everything on the screen rather than scroll if possible. Because I have CRS, I found it helpful to click on Edit Metadata to be able to read the story summary which helps my lousy memory. YMMV


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Shastastan said:


> I think we want the sync on in case we want to read a book from out phones while waiting for the doc, etc. I think that sync is only a problem when we would both be reading the same book which hasn't been an issue so far.
> 
> Her K2 is acting flaky. The battery doesn't seem to last for weeks like it used to and it doesn't keep the place correctly all the time. It's been around for a few years so there's no warranty left. She has a paperwhite so we are not going to spend any $$ on the K2 at this point. Mine is still going though. I have an oberon cover so I'll be bummed out when mine konks out. I might try to figure out a way with velcro or whatever to modify the cover to fit a paperwhite.
> 
> ...


Other tip: YOu do not have to download all the books to Kindle for PC. You can make collections and just put the covers there without downloading.
You are welcome.
I at times suffer from CRS too.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

I just took the time to do the downloads from Amazon to Kindle for PC yesterday.  Now I can load books from Calibre rather than having to on online to Amazon.  Might help when the server is down,  I do all my buying via the pc or tablet since I like the color feature for than even though I have whispernet.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Shastastan said:


> I just took the time to do the downloads from Amazon to Kindle for PC yesterday. Now I can load books from Calibre rather than having to on online to Amazon. Might help when the server is down, I do all my buying via the pc or tablet since I like the color feature for than even though I have whispernet.


I do not understand what you mean by buying via PC? Do you download then hook up to a USB?
What color feature?
I buy on the PC and just send to kindle.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

I do what you do.  My K2 is just whispernet.  I rarely shop books from it.  It doesn't have color.  Sure is nice to have all these choices.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

Shastastan said:


> I just took the time to do the downloads from Amazon to Kindle for PC yesterday. Now I can load books from Calibre rather than having to on online to Amazon. Might help when the server is down, I do all my buying via the pc or tablet since I like the color feature for than even though I have whispernet.


Unless you added some plug-ins to Calibre, you won't be able to send books you sent to Calibre from Kindle for PC to one of your other Kindles. They're coded with DRM specific to Kindle for PC.

I too almost always book-shop on the computer, sometimes from my phone if I'm out & about and see a notification about a free book that I want to get while it's free and before I forget (pesky CRS).


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

Meemo said:


> Unless you added some plug-ins to Calibre, you won't be able to send books you sent to Calibre from Kindle for PC to one of your other Kindles. They're coded with DRM specific to Kindle for PC.
> 
> I too almost always book-shop on the computer, sometimes from my phone if I'm out & about and see a notification about a free book that I want to get while it's free and before I forget (pesky CRS).


Thanks. We each take care of getting our own books and I don't send them to others except when I buy one as a gift and then it goes to my wife's kindle. I understand about Calibre and DRM. Seems to be a good book/file manager though.


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

I keep my "read" books in a Collection called "Books Read".  But since I also read DTB's, I have an Excel spreadsheet showing all books read, my rating, and a brief synopsis of the plot (I'm getting older and want to make sure I haven't read something before  ).  The spreadsheet currently goes back to 2004 with a tab for each year.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

spotsmom said:


> I keep my "read" books in a Collection called "Books Read". But since I also read DTB's, I have an Excel spreadsheet showing all books read, my rating, and a brief synopsis of the plot (I'm getting older and want to make sure I haven't read something before ). The spreadsheet currently goes back to 2004 with a tab for each year.


I've been discovering that getting older may have at least one advantage---- The tv reruns reveal some things that I must have missed on the initial run. 

I've been thinking that I might be able to save money on **** purchases if my memory gets worse since it will be like reading them for the first time.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Shastastan said:


> I've been discovering that getting older may have at least one advantage---- The tv reruns reveal some things that I must have missed on the initial run.
> 
> I've been thinking that I might be able to save money on **** purchases if my memory gets worse since it will be like reading them for the first time.


Now what was the name of that book I just finished reading and need to review?


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## LDB (Oct 28, 2008)

rm663 said:


> www.goodreads.com


That's where I was going.


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## Shastastan (Oct 28, 2009)

Calibre is working out well.  I like the add empty book feature, too.


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## Toby (Nov 25, 2008)

Besides keeping a written record - notebook, pencil/pens, I keep my finished reading books right here at the Book Klubs. Scroll down to the bottom. Tap on Sept. & record your books. I've been doing this for years now, ever since it was started here. All you have to do is to tap on the Modifying tab, to add your books. Then, I add a pic of the front cover to the bottom of my post.


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