Musing Monday: Lists

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about recording your reading…Do you keep track of what and/or how many books you read? How long have you been doing this? What's your favorite tracking method, and why?If you don't keep track, why not?

Great Question! If you want to play along go here and join in.

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I have been a reader for most of my life. I have been a collector of books for most of my life. I have been a library user for most of my life. But it wasn't until just a few years ago, when I started reading series mysteries and/or suspense novels with returning characters, did I begin to keep track of them.

Interestingly, the mystery novels are the only ones I "list". I started doing it, so that I if I was ever at a yard sale, or used book store, I could pick up the "very next one in line" of the many, many mysteries I want to read. (I only read a mystery novel every 3rd or 4th book mind you, and I have to read them in order, so this could take me forever, as the list is quite long.)

On the Library Thing, I have cataloged over 426 books. I have these in my home along with probably 50 more that I have purchased over the last year.
And this does not include my "children's library closet". (now that the idea of listing all my books, or all my books read has taken seed inside my brain...who knows what I'll be doing with my free time this year. Making lists? )

Because I wanted this list of mystery books with me....it is in a little notebook that I have carried around with me for the past 3-4 years. Needless to say it has gotten pretty beat up. And because I grew up knowing nothing of the techo-revolution, I still keep my notebook/list by hand. Kind of.
I did print off lists of books by author and then stick them in the notebook.

And I have a color-coded system.... yellow highlite means I own them, blue means I've read them.

Let me show you.......

First, the front of my notebook, with sticky note attached. The sticky note has the name of a book I want to look for.

Inside cover

scraps of paper with new authors and books that "might" make it into the notebook, if they are worthy. (the trouble with that, is there are always new books, new authors I hear about. I end up with many scraps of paper)

First page

Notice these are in ALPHABETICAL order.....

Middle

Some of my favorite authors!!! The Bloodhound mysteries....great!

At the end is a list of books that one of my book-clubs has read since the beginning of our group. It began typed and then I just started writing them in.

And that is how I list some of my books. Old-school. LOL

and here we are at the end of my notebook with more scraps of paper slipped in!