All About Books discussion

Hi everyone!

Wondering, has anyone tried to keep a track of the non-fiction topics you've read?

Thanks in advance!

As a rule, I don't normally read non-fiction but I would like to broaden my horizons and read some memoirs and biographies this year. I plan on tracking them by creating new shelves.

@Julia...if you plan to read more memoirs of recommend When We Were The Kennedys. I read it last year and thought it was great.

I don't read to much non-fiction either and only record it on my "read" shelf on Goodreads

From the very beginning, back in 2007 when I joined GR, I shelved every book both those I have read and those I might read on shelves that concern the books' content. I also shelve books by where they take place. I do this so I can find them.

So yes, I can track my non-fiction books! No problem. I read lots and lots of them. I adore biographies, both non-fiction and those of historical fiction. What is good about the historical fiction ones are that a good author will get you inside the head of the protagonist, and hopefully this will be correct if they have done a thorough analysis of the character! Unfortunately some books of historical fiction are pure garbage.

I have tons of great biographies. Julia, just check out my bio shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

There you can choose which people interest you. I do not use a strict definition. Any book which is about a real person is registered that way. It can be hf or biography or autobiography. I like following people who have lived through historical events. I want to know how history has shaped people and cultures, not a bunch of dates and names, which soon filter out of my brain anyhow. You can also see in the list which books I have read and my rating and there is even a column of the reviews, if you are interested in how I reacted to the book.

I like keeping track of my books.

Erica, I loved that one too!!!!

Thanks Erica & Chrissie for the suggestions and sharing!

Matt wrote: "Hi everyone!

Wondering, has anyone tried to keep a track of the non-fiction topics you've read?

Thanks in advance!"

I am not a big reader of non-fiction so I just lump all the nonfiction topics together. So my answer is "no". However, if I was going to do it I would create specific shelves such as Chrissie describes.

Leslie, borrow from me if you wish. Nice you like my shelving. It isn't all correct b/c some shelves I didn't add in the begiinning. WW1 and WW2 , for example, I added later so most such books are just under history.

This is awesome. Thanks guys! I'm curious, why do you think you like to keep a track of your books like that? Chrissie, I took a look at your shelves and it's super organized and nicely arranged by different topics. Why do you think you like to do that? What does it do for you? (i'm doing some research around book tracking so I'm very appreciative of this convo!)

Matt, I do it because most of the books there were originally books I wanted to read. I have been a member since 2007. I have so many I cannot keep track of them all. When I feel like reading a book about France I go to the France shelf. Also, I can be talking to someone about a book I have read and cannot remember the title or the author's name. So if I know it was a book set in France or about health or about a relationship I can go to that shelf and find it. :0)

I've read only a few biographies; most of the nonfiction I read are science books.

Ah, so it's more about categorizing what you've read so you can find them again, if needed. Does having a bookshelf with so many books recorded do anything else for you? Like, is there anything else you like about having such a robust shelving system and recording every book you read?

Anyone else, feel free to chime in, too :) I'm trying to understand the reasons why it's worth building organized shelves and tracking reading.

Matt wrote: "Ah, so it's more about categorizing what you've read so you can find them again, if needed. Does having a bookshelf with so many books recorded do anything else for you? Like, is there anything e..."

Oh, well if you are more interested in organized shelving rather than nonfiction shelves, I'll chime in. As Chrissie said, I also use my shelves to help me find books by how I might remember them so I do extensive cross-shelving.

For example, I recently read Bel-Ami which I shelved under guardian (for books from the Guardian newspaper's list of 1000 novels everyone should read), french (because it was written originally in French), classics (because it was written before 1925), kindle (for obvious reasons) and social-commentary (because the novel dealt with society). I could have also put it under humor (since it was a satire). I also am pretty anal-retentive about making sure the reading dates are correct so I can also use GR to find the book by when I read it.

Regarding why I do it (or even have an account here on GR), I love lists so recording my books is a way to combine my love of reading with my love of lists. It's fun for me!

I am just like Leslie, except that I do like non-fiction very much. There is another thing. I think we are both on GR since we like talking about books with others who are like-minded. If you read tons of books it is hard to keep track of them all. Cross shelving helps you find a particular book and makes it easier to talk about them so you can help others who are interested in the book as a possible read. Quite simply, we enjoy helping one another. I know I trust ordinary readers' opinions more than literary critics'.

I created a lot of shelves on goodreads for my non-fiction but I haven't separated out read and unread in those. I've read books in all the sections I've created though:

art
biography
botany
entomology
herpetology
history
mammals
maps/mapping
natural history
nature field guides
nature writing
ornithology
science/technical
travel

It certainly helps when looking for particular books on my shelves and I always find it interesting for some reason to see the distribution of subjects. I also split down to some book series, so my New Naturalist and New Naturalist monographs have their own shelves as well.

I wonder at times about splitting my history book shelf, though I need to put some thought into how to divide it (ancient empires, medieval, China/Asia, exploration are possible splits I could make).