Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge: Organize Thy Books!

Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelves is hosting this mini-challenge and I thought I would chime in my organizational skills.

How do I keep up with what I have in my collection?  I have a Goodreads account that I am slowly updating with all the books I have sitting on my shelf waiting to be read (it is going to be so long once I am done updating it!). I also need to finish updating that account with all the books I’ve read. I have a notebook, started in 2003, where I keep track of all the books I’ve read. On Goodreads, I have most of the books read in 2010 added, but I still need to add a few and then I would like to add those read from 2003 – 2009. I also need to add my reviews that I’ve written – this is going to be a huge task that I hope to make a big dent in this afternoon (it’s about 1:30 PM EST right now, so I have the whole afternoon to work on it!)

In addition to Goodreads and my books read notebook, I have another notebook that I keep in my bag that lists books I want to read. I need to add some of these books to my Goodread account. I have marked in the notebook which books I own, which is another think I need to go on Goodreads – mark the books I own.

Bookshelves organization?

Physical Bookshelves. 

I am fortunate to have tons of bookshelves in my house. I have a section for books that I’ve received to review and I have a section for autographed books. The rest of the shelves (with my books on it as opposed to hubby’s books) are a mix of books waiting to be read and those that have been read that I want to keep. I do have a section for historical fiction and a section for hardcover fiction, and the rest is where all my fiction books are. I probably have close to 250 books on my bookshelf right now – and about 150 still need to be read.

Online Database (GR, Excel). 

My system needs some work. As I stated above, I need to update Goodreads with my TBR list, and also add some tags – wishlist, book owned, review book, etc.

I did start a Google Doc for the review books I get (just started it today, so only put in those books I have to still review). I think this will be very helpful.

One thing I have been doing since I started receiving books to review is that I use a small desk calendar to keep track of book reviews, guest posts, etc. I find this helps me see what’s coming up, what I need to start reading and what I am going to be reading next. Once I receive the book, I put a check mark on the calendar, to indicate I have the book. I also put a sticky note on the book, indicating when the review is, who requested it (author or publicist) and when I received the book – this is more for those books I get that don’t have scheduled review dates.

After reading some of the comments on Jenn’s post, I added a tag to my gmail account – review request – so that I can easily keep track of all communication of requests. Thanks to Dee at e-Volving Books for sharing this!

Thanks Jenn for sharing your ideas and hosting this mini-challenge!