nlbarber

First time I've posted one of these, I think. I used to keep a reading log by scribbling the author, title, and (usually) a grade on a calendar the day I finished the book, then last year got most of these entered into a spreadsheet and moved the continuing log to a spiral notebook. Looks like I made a first attempt at a book log in 1996 and abandoned it, then hit on this system in 1999 and have used it since.

Generally these are books read for the first time--I don't record re-reads, unless I forgot that I'd read it before until somewhere in the re-read. Mostly. The other reason for not recording re-reads is that often those are not a full read-through--I go for favorite bits, or a certain scene, or whatever the mood needs. Grades are wholly subjective and, I'm sure, inconsistent. Sometimes a book that is really a "not for me" book will get an A and a note to not read that author again, other times it will be a D and the same note. I'm not enough of a self-analyst to know why. All comments about how I do this are not absolutes, and are subject to change at my whim...

I'm always reading, so the gaps in dates represent re-reads. Fill 'em in by guessing at titles by Bujold, Lee & Miller, Sayers, Nora Roberts, Balogh, and many others--and often the gap means I'm stressed and needing comfort reads, not new stuff.

Now let's see how bad the formatting looks if I just paste 3 columns from the Excel file in here. 119 entries, but note that I put novellas and short stories from anthologies as separate entries.

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