Keeping track of reading

Do any of you lainons use any methods to keep track of books you read? Something like Goodreads can be nice because you can keep track of different things you've read over time—when, what you thought via ratings and/or reviews, even get automated recommendations, etc. However, it has some flaws—for me, the main issues other than more specific issues with the service itself are the fact that it is not Free Software, and it is hosted on someone else's computer. I find it sort of interesting to keep track of media I've "consumed" over time and my thoughts on it, for my own use or for showing others. But at the same time, it can be nice to be detached from The Wired and not have all of these things logged. I feel as though both of these perspectives would be shared on this site (keeping track of things vs. low-tech avoidance) and was interested in some of your thoughts. For the online option, I think what would possibly be best would be having a self-hosted simple site with these things—maybe a table with information or just a simple HTML page with listings and a short writing about everything (I've seen some things sort of like this in the Ω webring). For a more low-tech approach, one could probably just keep it all on paper in a journal of sorts. For a detached approach, one could use physical books exclusively, keep track of progress with bookmarks/similar things, and simply remember what one has read without having it all put down in one place. So, what are your thoughts on this? Do you do anything like this or have any specific way to "log" things you've read? Are there any other approaches?

if you really can't remember which books you read open a text file and start writing down author,title pairs.

>>6559 I don't think remembering would be an issue per se, but with regard to particular times, I feel like I would forget. It might be good to have some specific dates or something on hand, but maybe that is unimportant.

>>6561 then write the date too...

>>6561 I a bigass latex file using the glossaries pkg. From the .tex file I generate a .tsv, an author as entry rather than the title .tex file (due to an issue I couldn't solve), and a bigass latex table. Zsh, perl and sed facilitate the translations; but like the other anon said, just start a file and expand or change if arises.

>>6564 Ah yes, I am pretty sure I've seen the webpage one before. That's a pretty interesting idea, maybe I'll implement something similar The LaTeX one also looks really nice. Thanks, this simple idea may just work

I have it all in my head. Not very effective ofc, but I really haven't had the need to "keep track". I use two primary tools: my filesystem, aided with a special directory with symlinks to currently reading; and the software I use for reading, which keeps various records. Anyway, for your own needs I would recommend either tiddlywiki, since you're interested in a web-based solution, or, better yet, Org Mode. It has helped me, I have found, to write reviews on the books I am reading, and because I'm too self-conscious to post them in goodreads, I keep them in textfiles in my system.

I just put finished books into "Finished books" folder. This is as much as you can do without commercial proprietary software. Unix programmers aren't interested in making software for knowledge management, they're better off writing another TUI music player or Gopher fork.

>>6569 Org mode seems very cool and I am now intrigued to learn Emacs. I'll probably get DOOM Emacs since I'm coming from Vim and I think the Vim keybinds are probably superior If I did something web-based I'd self-host but I am also fine with offline text files. I've also considered using Git to manage these things. Or alternatively, just ceasing to keep track of the media I consume. It might be "freeing" to do that, but I am still not sure about it.

>>6573 I'm thinking of making a knowledge management system based on a graph database. My goal is to keep track of all my bookmarks, consoomed media and files (e.g. journal notes) with it. Currently trying out TerminusDB, it's like git/github bur for data. I'm curious as to why there aren't more options for personal knowledge management, at least it seemed rather difficult to find any relevant software and everything i did find was proprietary soykaf. Do people really not feel the need to keep track of all that kind of stuff?

>>6558 You can export your Goodreads data to .csv if the cloud/Amazon part creeps you out. Then just keep updating the CSV directly. Doesn't bug me though

I think I might just start writing in a notebook the books I complete and when; maybe I will do the same for other media, I'm not sure though.

>>6603 No, it's easier to write another emacs plugin or TUI music player.

>>6603 I use org-roam for graph-like knowledge management of my personal notes.

>>6558 a .txt file for year with the number of books read and the titles, I don't keep track of the month or the time each book took me beacause I read a book a week pretty consistently.

I use goodreads just like I use lastfm; my problem with data collection is when it's done against my will. If I'm willing to give my taste in book/music to a website, then I think it's okay because I did it consciously. I started using goodreads a year ago because I was mad that I couldn't remember (or barely) books I had read more than a few years earlier. I'm a slow reader so if my memory can only store the last 10 books I read it's absolutely frustrating. What I like with goodreads is that they allow fanfictions so I can centralize everything I read in one place. It also gives me access to other's opinions which is usually very instructive

>>6631 I think I am going to delete both my Goodreads and Last.fm (and RateYourMusic, MyAnimeList, etc.). I think my ultimate goal is to have no accounts (that are not self-hosted).

I do not because I am not an pseud consoomer whose whole personality is based on the amount books he reads.

Where do people read book criticisms written by authors who have more knowledge than random Amazon reviews influencer? I want to see debates of authors who write on same topic, but in opposing viewpoints. Where do people read criticisms of old literature?

i just use a notebook or don't keep track at all, knowing the name and the writer is enough to memorize imo

>>6634 I'd like to know how that goes and if you get a good workflow going. It's just really convenient searching for a book/anime and clicking one button to add it to 'your' database.

>>6558 Right now Im writing a script to keep trak of mangas using csv files and git, when Its done I will share it here lainons!!

>>6880 What site are you querying the data from?

Ups, I forgot to post the script, here it is https://codeberg.org/kobeni/bin/src/branch/main/track And the git log looks like this. https://codeberg.org/kobeni/list/commits/branch/main >>6912 I don't query at all, you need to type the title every time.

>>6558 I like to keep a notepad when I read books, not just for writing down when I read it, but any notes I have about it. It makes you think about books differently imo

>>6919 Yikes. Overengineered as fug, but maybe it's what works for you, I'm surprised you didn't implement pages... >>6564 Academic circles and journals? While many/most authors read others' books, they don't go about publishing their criticisms, since books reviews aren't easily marketable unless you are Bigus Dickus. That being said, I know there is one substack page with a literature tag, purporting to be a collection of actual published author reviewing books.

>>6955 >substack page I have it filtered on my router, along with other blogshit spam like medium, wordpress.

>>6956 A (You) problem. Tower shouters, carrier pigeons, or whatever arcane new thing you might be using can't by it nature be expected to have the same reach. Being an author is a profession, so cutting out any potential readers is shooting yourself in the foot (esp. when you're the seemingly only one to care about privacy, principles, etc.). Given all blog-type site publish on their own to their pages, how is it spam, which you have to receive? >I want x. >Here, have an x, every time there's a new x. >waaah, spam. I'm using hyperbole to paint you in a bad light, but you'r more wrong that right.

I use Bookwyrm https://github.com/mouse-reeve/bookwyrm

I wish that goodreads were more like vndb.org It's imo the best database/knowledge management website and it's open source so could be forked by someone to make a literature database website.

>>6558 Not the most privacy-centric tool but I use Notion to keep track of books I've read.

>>6558 Org mode in the emacs

>>6558 >Do any of you lainons use any methods to keep track of books you read? You could use a CSV or a TSV file, sqlite, a markdown file or org-mode.

>>6558 goodreads is great so long as you only follow/friend people who are into obscure usually old literature/interesting academic topics. My home page is entirely devoted to people reading as interesting books as I do and I love it. Anyone who posts normal person lit or boring takes I unfollow but that rarely happens because I only follow people I find reviewing the obscure books I like. Mostly fin-de-siecle decadent/symbolist works.

I use calibre for managing all my ebooks, and I added a column where I can mark books completed

>>6919 Hey lainon, I really love your script, and it reminds me of the reason why I love this website so much :) Keep up the good work and never give up!

>>7161 Seconding this. I do most of my readings on a kindle, so I just use Calibre to keep track of everything. I added a column to track read books, the date in which I finished them and also a priority column, to rank books by the order I want to read them next (which I tend to ignore).

okay so uh Goodreads UI update is dog water, I've been willing to go offline for my book ratings but I can't find a good software to do that. Does anyone have suggestions? I'd use bookwyrm but I don't want to recreate the hundreds of books in my goodreads bookshelves

I use goodreads to keep track of titles and get some ideas for recommendations, and I use logseq to take notes on what I've read, and I usually include start/finish in logseq's daily journals, so it's all sort of kept track of.

>>6558 Couldn't you use a HTML file or csv/tsv file?

>>8102 couldn't you just use a plain .txt file? Or much better idea, a notebook? do you have any other quality posts like this anon?

Honestly I just spawned a new Discord server with a #book room and everytime I start a book I begin a new thread. It looks fine as old threads can be revived whenever you want.

>>8130 can't tell if you're new, trolling or retarded

Bookbrainz has a collections feature that could help you. It has by far the best work handling system of any book platform, and it's FLOSS. Only problems are it's still in development and not a lot of people use it yet.

>>8139 Well it works, notes archives themselves, it’s free and works on all my devices. I can also easily attach files, pictures etc. I don’t really see a downside so far.

>>8140 agreed, I don't use bookbrainz but I've been using musicbrainz for a while and the interface is really great it really is like kicking dead whales down the beach that not much people use it, and it especially is like kicking dead whales down the beach that open-source book websites like bookwyrm are based on openlibrary instead of bookbrainz

>>8130 I also have a personal discord server. It is best for noting stuff down and stuff like you mentioned. Why install another app when discord does it for you.

I've been reading and hearing about the users on goodreads who use fake identities and swarm tactics to ruin the careers of up and coming writers and it's one more manifestation of technology and the human race having taken a very wrong turn somewhere. If you can't get a major review (NYT for example) you rely on sites like this, and allegedly there are users who's main hobby and mission in life is writing negative reviews and giving one star reviews even of books they haven't read. It kinda reminds me of /b/ and the ugly days of internet hate machine.

>>8150 that works for every website that has reviews, some people are even paid to leave positive/negative reviews. I just don't pay too much attention to it. It just is

>>6558 I use Obsidian Zettelkasten and write a few paragraphs after I finish my books. I like to link them together and see how they connect. I have not added all my books, since it takes time for my to put my thoughts into words, so I've only reviewed about thirty out of the hundredish I've read since the funnyflu started in 2020. I also upload my papers and homilies to my zettel + random notes. I occasionally type my physical notes into it, and let it connect. My physical journal will probably get transferred once it's filled since it's more convenient to have on hand than my laptop.

>>8252 How exactly does The metamorphosis relate to Capital? I haven't read the latter.

Yeah, I use them. Not only the Goodreads though - I use it to get recommendations related to books I like. You can find pretty interesting books in there. I use these sites mostly to save some book recommendation I got from somewhere. Keep track of my reading and get to talk to people. I don't post reviews, but I'm starting to think about doing it. At least on my blog. I think you can develop good analytical thinking skills by doing that.

>>8255 This should explain it.

in a perfect world id be able to use goodreads, letterboxd, anilist etc without getting raspied

>>6558 I just use notepad to list down books I read. I've been thinking of using Excel or HTML to arrange them, mayb if I read more books this year I might do that.

>>8150 I think the way to use good reads is to find someone with opinions you like, and only use their reviews/use them to discover good stuff. I haven't done this yet. >>8252 Very cool. I think my reading should be helping me understand the world and being able to relate different media to different themes with depth is great. Obsidian looks pretty great.