I know writers are often nerdy in ways that non-writing readers aren't. I haven't been able to find a way to successfully keep track of my reading that would also allow me to search my notes when I want to find a book.
So, I built an Access database for my books. I love it like I love The Princess Bride. Maybe more. Tonight I'm spending a portion of the evening entering details on the books I've read recently, and eventually I might start adding books I've read in the past as well.
Here's a quick screen shot of my data entry form.
I chose Access because I wanted to be able to write a summary/review of each book to remember my thoughts and Excel was just too clunky for me. AND, this way I can create reports, search it for keywords, sort by any parameter I want, and even add tables to expand on the data if I want.
You can see the types of fields I'm keeping track of and I fill in whatever I can. Bonus, when I'm ready to query, I have a separate list of agents correlated to books they represented etc. There are two fields not represented here: a one sentence summary (or pitch) of the book so I can practice writing those darn things, and my review/notes section.
See? I told you I was a nerd. :p
Do you keep track of what you read? How do you do it?
Edited: July 31, 2016
No, that's awesome. I just read to read and keep track of it on Goodreads, but knowing the agents and publishers would be hugely beneficial.
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