Book tracking without social networking

[Apache]

Originally Posted by jehane

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I'll check them out.

Re: GR - I'm using webmail and as soon as I created my account, the GR site actually said they were going through my contacts list to see if there were other GR members there. And I didn't register via one of those buttons, though my email provider is there. That is what disturbed me, that they would do that *before* I had a chance to set my privacy options.

Purple Lady - that sounds like more work than keeping a spreadsheet!

I use them also.
Apache

[Dazrin]

I use Goodreads and a Google Docs spreadsheet. I haven't had any issues with GR trying to hijack my account or anything.

For my spreadsheet, I did make a version that is fairly simple if you want a copy, just send me a PM.

[dordale]

I use fictfact.com and an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my books. I like fictfact because it shows me the order of books in a series so that I can read series in order. I also use fantastic fiction to check the order of series and order of releases of books--fantastic fiction is great, but it doesn't let you keep track of books you've read. In my Excel spreadsheet, I keep track of all the books I've read and when I read them.

[brianca]

I'm a fan of LibraryThing -- not as slick in the UI dept. as Goodreads, maybe, but I find it to be way less invasive.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by dordale

I use fictfact.com and an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my books. I like fictfact because it shows me the order of books in a series so that I can read series in order. I also use fantastic fiction to check the order of series and order of releases of books--fantastic fiction is great, but it doesn't let you keep track of books you've read. In my Excel spreadsheet, I keep track of all the books I've read and when I read them.

Yes! Fantastic Fiction is great for checking the order of books and also to find when a book was originally published. A lot of times the description of ebooks just tells you when that version was published.

[DiapDealer]

I find nothing invasive about Goodreads. I can be as private or social as I want with my account. You still have to explicitly make/accept Friend Requests. You can't be spontaneously made friends with anyone against your will. A private account with no friends would be fine for personal tracking, IMO. Turn off all notifications and you can be as anti-social as you like.

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I also use Calibre to keep track of my library books. I import the library book into Calibre, delete the epub and replace it with an epub containing the words "no text". I then download metadata and use the modify epub plugin to create the book jacket. This way I have the book in my list with a description and rating. I also keep a copy of it in Calibre Companion on my devices.

Do you really need to create a blank epub file? I've not had any problems with just adding the metadata & cover, rating the book and then deleting the epub. The book is still listed in Calibre, its just if you click to open it there is "no available format" of the book to read.

[sakura-panda]

I log into Goodreads using my Facebook account, and since I don't have friends on either site, I didn't have it try to invite anybody for me. I have been a member for a few years, so it might be different now.

I like that I can easily access my Goodreads account both on my computer and with an app on my phone, although I find the app to be not as easy to use to find the next book in a series. (It's not difficult, but it takes a couple of extra steps over the web interface.) I depend on it when I'm looking to see what book is the next one in a series for me to read, even for series that I've reread often and *should* know the book order.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I use authoralerts to notify me when a favored author has a new release. That might work for you if the issue is forgetting to check the web site. Authoralerts has a few holes in it, but it's a useful tool.

http://www.authoralerts.com/

is the website. You create an account and then add authors that you want to be notified about.

Thanks for that, I'll take a look

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Do you really need to create a blank epub file? I've not had any problems with just adding the metadata & cover, rating the book and then deleting the epub. The book is still listed in Calibre, its just if you click to open it there is "no available format" of the book to read.

I need the epub to send it to my devices using CC. I guess I could also use a plain txt file though.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by sakura-panda

I like that I can easily access my Goodreads account both on my computer and with an app on my phone,

I also like that I can just scan the barcodes of my new library book pile each time.

I checked out quite a few book database/tracking type sites a while back, and none had the completeness and accuracy of Goodreads, especially for Australian books.

[Froide]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I need the epub to send it to my devices using CC. I guess I could also use a plain txt file though.

Why do you need a physical book file in Calibre Companion, for an audiobook? You could you have your cake (see lists of and read metadata for all files in Calibre, including audio and visual files) and eat it, too (preserve storage space on your mobile device) by doing the following:

1. Create empty books (book entries with no formats) in Calibre for audiobooks, podcasts, lecture/interview audio files, and even video files (e.g., for books adapted to the silver screen).
2. Populate the metadata for each empty book file. FYI, you can even include in the metadata a url to the online location where you can stream the audio/visual file.
3. Use Calibre Cloud to access your Calibre library via your mobile device.

[BearMountainBooks]

Fictfact as several have said is quite good. They will email you when a new book in the series is out (I forget how you set that up, but they aren't obnoxious).

There's also a sight called Leafmark that is like GR, but without the social stuff. Oh, they have the ability for social stuff, but there aren't a lot of people on there and they didn't go after my email contacts or FB or any of that when I signed up. Not a whisper. If you already have your books in GR, you can port them over (that is what I did.) The only thing that is kind of annoying is that the covers aren't all available so a lot of books have blank covers.

The interface is clean and a lot like GR. You can leave reviews or not, they have half stars if you just want to mark a book with stars, etc.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Froide

Why do you need a physical book file in Calibre Companion, for an audiobook? You could you have your cake (see lists of and read metadata for all files in Calibre, including audio and visual files) and eat it, too (preserve storage space on your mobile device) by doing the following:

1. Create empty books (book entries with no formats) in Calibre for audiobooks, podcasts, lecture/interview audio files, and even video files (e.g., for books adapted to the silver screen).
2. Populate the metadata for each empty book file. FYI, you can even include in the metadata a url to the online location where you can stream the audio/visual file.
3. Use Calibre Cloud to access your Calibre library via your mobile device.

I want to access all my books in one place, so it's Calibre Companion for me. I want to be able to access the books at any time too, so I want them on my device.

[Tarana]

I think you are just not using your brain. It happens to us all. You can set up a separate library of in Calibre for books you have read. You can use a spreadsheet. You can use a blank book. Enjoy!