Do you list every book you've read in Goodreads or other sites?

[Rellwood]

Should I add every major book I have read in the past in Goodreads even if I don't currently own them or have read them in the past 20 years?

There are about 200 books in my Calibre Library that I must have at some point listed in Goodreads because there are entries that were created by an old library export from Goodreads, but I have since deleted them from Goodreads. Now I have all these blank entries for books and series I have read but I don't know if I should delete them or add them back to goodreads.

If I add them, then my Goodreads records show my books prior to when I first started keeping track, about 2013, but then I will have to dig back in my memory for dates read and add the various shelves.

Any suggestions? Delete them from Calibre or keep them in Calibre but hold off on adding to Goodreads, or add them to Goodreads and hope they don't throw all my recommendations off?

[DNSB]

No. The only place I keep a list of finished/DNF/whatever is in calibre. After decades in IT and seeing how many people screwed up when using social media, I really don't care about letting other people know what I am reading and when. When I did look at Goodreads, most of the reviews were useless and that's about the only thing I was looking for. Very few people seem to have the same reading interests that I do so the few times in past that I tried a book based on a sizable number of recommendations, I found the books to be between boring and unreadable in most cases.

[Sirtel]

Don't use either Goodreads or any other book site, or social media. Reading is a private activity for me and the only place where my books with their data exist is my calibre library. I don't keep any book data outside calibre.

[Dazrin]

I keep a record for myself using Google Sheets. I do track most on Goodreads as a backup, but I don't keep it as up to date. I use Calibre for transfers, but with me and all three of my kids being avid readers and using the Calibre library, I don't want to figure out how to track there. I like my Sheet.

I did not go back and enter all the books I had read before to either list. Mainly because there is no way I could get them all, so it wouldn't really be reflective of what I read.

[Terisa de morgan]

I track books on Goodreads mainly because there are situations where I'm not near my calibre and I don't know if I own a book or if I've read it. But that's all. My list is private and I don't do reviews, so it's mainly an online notebook.

[Rellwood]

Originally Posted by DNSB

No. The only place I keep a list of finished/DNF/whatever is in calibre. After decades in IT and seeing how many people screwed up when using social media, I really don't care about letting other people know what I am reading and when. When I did look at Goodreads, most of the reviews were useless and that's about the only thing I was looking for. Very few people seem to have the same reading interests that I do so the few times in past that I tried a book based on a sizable number of recommendations, I found the books to be between boring and unreadable in most cases.

My shelves are under a psydonym and my personal name is not even in GR

[Rellwood]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I track books on Goodreads mainly because there are situations where I'm not near my calibre and I don't know if I own a book or if I've read it. But that's all. My list is private and I don't do reviews, so it's mainly an online notebook.

That's why I use Goodreads, everytime I read on my kindle it shows up, so I am able to see acurately when I read a book, and I have a ton of re-reads that I do annually so knowing the last time I read it is important.

[Wiggo]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

My shelves are under a psydonym and my personal name is not even in GR

Then all is well. lol

[graycyn]

Hard nope. I don't even do it in Calibre. Too much work, too much trouble. Further, how the heck would I list all the books I've read since I learned how to read ... some 60 years ago? I remember a fair few, but all? That's, that's, well, heaven knows how many titles. Thousands.

I read dang near continuously while young and in school. Yes, I was the person in geometry, or history, or ugh, social studies, with a novel tucked into my textbook and yes, I did get caught occasionally. Nevertheless, what were the teachers gonna do? My grades were good. Ya gonna punish a kid for reading?

I hate stats, so I never look at them on my Kobo. I don't want my reading to become stat-based, or tracking-based or anything but what it is, i.e. I read what I want, when I want, as quickly or as slowly as I want.

Not a social reader really.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by graycyn

I hate stats, so I never look at them on my Kobo. I don't want my reading to become stat-based, or tracking-based or anything but what it is, i.e. I read what I want, when I want, as quickly or as slowly as I want.

Not a social reader really.

Yes, exactly this.

[Bookstooge]

I do. I've been keeping track since 2000. I keep a journal on wordpress and then I have it duplicated in Calibre so I always have an offline resource.
Helps jog my memory over the years

[Apache]

Originally Posted by graycyn

Hard nope. I don't even do it in Calibre. Too much work, too much trouble. Further, how the heck would I list all the books I've read since I learned how to read ... some 60 years ago? I remember a fair few, but all? That's, that's, well, heaven knows how many titles. Thousands.

I read dang near continuously while young and in school. Yes, I was the person in geometry, or history, or ugh, social studies, with a novel tucked into my textbook and yes, I did get caught occasionally. Nevertheless, what were the teachers gonna do? My grades were good. Ya gonna punish a kid for reading?

I hate stats, so I never look at them on my Kobo. I don't want my reading to become stat-based, or tracking-based or anything but what it is, i.e. I read what I want, when I want, as quickly or as slowly as I want.

Not a social reader really.

This is my opinion also. I read for enjoyment and have no desire to keep track of what I read except what my brain can still track.
Apache

[JSWolf]

I used to use Goodreads but I switched to Storygraph to track my reading.

[DrNefario]

I didn't have a good answer to this, and it's kind of why I gave up trying to use these sites. I've tried with Librarything and Goodreads, but I have too much history. If I don't add them it will constantly recommend books I've already read, but there's way too much to add, and I can't reliably remember all of the older stuff.

I do my own tracking with google sheets, and just accept that it won't cover my whole history.

[Tarana]

Just Goodreads. I participate in a couple of communities that resulted in significant improvement in my choices of books to read.