Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Did you guys keep track of the books you read before you joined Goodreads? This week I hit 1000 books read, and I know the only reason that wad possible was because I have been tracking all the books I've tread since I was 10. I kept a little notebook and would make a list of each year's books. When I joined Goodreads in 2012, I added all the books from my notebooks.

If you didn't keep track, when you joined Goodreads, did you add books you remembered reading, or did you just start tracking from scratch when you joined?

I just started from when I joined but as I come across books I have read I add them if I am in the mood too lol! But I created a good reads account for my 10 year old who is an avid reader just for the fact that I want her to have a life long list of books she has read!! So fun!!!

No I didn't track them, when I was younger I could remember what I'd read! Then in my 30s I started to forget which ones I'd read, especially w prolific authors, so I wish GR had existed back in the 80s & 90s!! When I joined, I didn't sit down and intentionally find all that I'd read before. When I come across books that I know I read, I mark them "read" (w a guess at the year), but there are hundreds I've missed.

I track only since I joined GR. I added some old reads I remembered (I don't remember most of the titles, it was easy to track popular books but not so much for the non-english ones).

I tried to add old readings, but it was too difficult. I did my best but has happened that suddenly I find a book that I had already read and it's not on my list. With graphic novels, I didn't add any, because I am planning to add them when I reread them

I didn't track anything before GR. I added some of my favorites since I was confident in my ratings and memory but the other ones I don't add since I barely remember them at this point.

I didn't track my readings before GR, but noted with a pencil on the first page of the physical book I owned the month and year I finished it. When I joined, I tried to remember read books and added them, as well as all the physical books with the date.

I know there are a lot of books I read when I was a teen (e.g. Danielle Steel was my jam at the time haha), but I don't really want to add them because I can't remember what happens in them.

I wish that I would have thought to track books read before Goodreads but unfortunately that didn't happen. I joined in 2012 and love that I can check to see if I have read a book or not. It has saved me from purchasing a book I've already read before. That said at 58 there is no way to remember all books that I have read and have started a book here and there only to realize that I have already read it before. Kelly, love the idea of starting an account for your child. It will definitely come in handy down the road.

I didn't track, but I have a really good memory for pointless things, so I remember a lot of the books that I read pre-Goodreads, and what I thought about them (nothing specific usually, but enough for a star rating).

I didn't track before Goodreads but have added some books, as they occur to me. Sometimes I can't remember if I just saw the movie or read the book, too!

I did not track before Goodreads. It was one of the reasons I joined though.
I do add in books I have read before if they are on lists that I want to read or pop up in the recommendations, especially if I do not an on re-reading them.

I have been tracking my books since 2000 . The ones before 2004 I put in store, but have the dates I read the books since then. When the books before I joined GR's come up I add the date I read them from my list, but I still keep my own list in case something happens to GR

I was thinking I should keep my notebook still too, just in case.

I usually indicate that I read them, and I'll put the year if I can remember (or find some sign, like the course outline for my children's lit class) of when I read them, but I won't give a star rating unless I have a very strong memory of what I thought of the book.

I should probably do something a little less GR reliant too. Hmm

I only keep track of the books I read since I joined, I have a terribly imprecise memory when it comes to dates so I just count the books I read when I didn't keep track of them as "lost".
Considering my memory a backup list is a great idea :)

I started keeping track of my books read in 2011 and added those books since I joined GR (joined GR in 2014). Books that I own and have read before that are added/will be added with read before 2011.
I just wish I could get a list from the library with alle the books I read from there and with the dates. But since that was before 1995 I don't think that is possible.

I kept my books on an Xcel spread sheet, starting in 2007. When I joined GR in 2014, I transfered them and stopped using it.

I was able to add books that I remembered reading before 2007 and estimated the dates read. In fact, I just added The Last Days of Pompeii just the other day because I remembered the event of it being read to me.

During part of middle school and high school, I also kept an excel spreadsheet of the books that I had read. Originally on Goodreads I only tracked the books that I had read since joining, but since then I looked through my bookshelf (as I was moving) and added in all of the books that I knew I had read/finished growing up. I don't know the dates that I read the books, nor did I give them a rating, but I definitely wanted to add them to my 'read' list to acknowledge the time I spent reading them previously.

For people who are concerned about "something happening to Goodreads" and losing track of your books, just login in using a web browser using a computer (not the app) and go to the My Books page, and use the import/export tool. You can then "export your library" from goodreads. The tolol saves an excel file of all your good read information to your computer. I do that every few months. It take 30 seconds.

Ooh, I will definitely have to do that.

I used this feature last year to list all my books in one massive spreadsheet and linking them to possible prompts they could go for. Such a time saver compared to browsing my TBR 52 times to find candidates ;)

Ooh, you guys are full of great ideas!