Why I track my reading

Yes, it’s possible to let tracking your reading become a performative thing, but showing off to others is not the only reason to track what you read. There are a lot of reasons I track what I’m reading:

• To keep track of what I’ve already read — I read a lot, and can’t keep track of what I’ve read and what I enjoyed
• To be thoughtful about what I’m reading — I try to read books with a wide range of representation and by diverse authors, and if I don’t track what I’m reading, it’s easy to fall into reading mostly white cis male authors because they are published more (and white cis women in the romance world) — I also like to try out new authors, not just read the same ones
• To diversify my reading — by tracking what I read, it’s easier to look back and see trends so I can switch it up if I’ve been reading the same thing for a while (or choose to continue with intentionality)
• To pay attention to my mental state — if I’m not reading, there might be something going on
• To prompt myself to reflect on what I got out of a book by writing a review, and to think more critically about a work — while I’m reading I can get sucked into a story and it’s only when I surface on the other end I start noticing the problems
• To keep myself honest — I can look back at what I’ve read, and use that to truth what I think I’ve been reading — for example, I say I read a lot of sci-fi, but in review I read as much or more fantasy, and my fantasy TBR is longer
• To get better at picking books to read — I can compare what I actually read (and what I DNF’d) with my “to read” list, and adjust future book selections based on what I liked or didn’t like

I stopped keeping track of the numbers of books I read during the year (I add it up at the end to evaluate stats), and don’t participate in Goodreads’ reading challenges. Reading isn’t a competition. I’m not reading to make myself feel smart or “well-read”, I’m reading to enjoy myself and to learn (non-fiction, self-improvement, market research, and story craft). Reading keeps my brain moving, coming up with ideas and connections, and I use what I’m reading as a mental prompt to put thought into a particular subject or pathway.

Why read in public?

But why do I make my reading public? This is to share with other people — I find a significant portion of the books I read through recommendations from other people, directly, on their website, in articles and newsletters, and on social media. I like looking through other people’s websites and wanted the same on mine 😊

As part of the IndieWeb philosophy of owning your content, publishing my reviews on my own website means I won’t lose them if Goodreads shuts down. I wanted to use my own website to improve on what Goodreads offers — and my reading page full of lovely book covers fills up during the year, so I don’t have to wait till December for their “Year End Review” page. I also added extra information that I think enhances the value compared to what Goodreads makes.

My public reading qualms

I do have a few concerns about making my reviews and reading public:

• judgment about what I’m reading — I read a lot of romance, which is culturally belittled and dismissed, so that could affect people’s impression of me — but I am owning what I read because I know how much I get out of reading romance, and maybe I can help dispel prejudice against the genre by writing thoughtful reviews — plus anyone who would judge me based on what I read I probably don’t want to be friends with anyway 🤷‍♀️
• offending other writers — I’m planning to self-publish, and don’t want to offend people who’ll be in the industry with me if I didn’t like their book or posted a critical review — I stopped giving star ratings other than 5’s because anything less apparently hurts authors (though it is a little annoying to me to not have a quick reference of how much I liked a book) — I haven’t figured out the rest, I might make some reviews where I was critiquing storytelling technique private?

See also: When Did Reading Become a Competitive Sport – The Cut