5 Ways to Organize your Book List

Once upon a time I was a professional organizer. For real. It's a thing. There is something so lovely about going through someone's space and taking complete chaos and turning it into a room that is calming and useful. Now, while I don't claim to have a completely organized house (mainly because I err on the side of laziness and procrastination at times), I do enjoy keeping a good list or two! Combine a list with a book, and you've got something good going. 

I'm going to share with you 5 different ways you can organize your books and reading lists. Oh, one more side note... when I told my hubby a few minutes ago that I was writing about "places to keep your reading lists" (fulling meaning digitally) he responded with "like in the bathroom?" Haha! I had no words. Still don't. But no, this is not like that. Thankfully.

Moving on...

I have tried many different approaches to keeping my reading lists organized and hopefully this will give you a few ideas you've never tried or that sound helpful to you! 

1. Amazon. This just feels entirely too obvious. But if you have an Amazon Prime account, create wish lists. I have a wish list for myself, for each of my kids, an educational list, and a book wish list. Whenever I hear of a good book that I don't see available at the library, or if it is one I think I'd like to own, then I put it in an Amazon wish list. Makes it easy to add it to my cart or Kindle when I'm ready. 

2. Overdrive/Libby. I can't get over how awesome it is to be able to digitally borrow books and audio books these days from the library. We happen to move a lot, so I collect library cards like other people collect sea shells. It works to my advantage when borrowing digital content. First you need to download the app, put in your library card info for the branch you use, and create a login. Once you've done that you can search for items and add them to your wish list. This is great because once you've finished a book just hop over, check your wish list to see what is available, and either read/listen to it in the app or send it over to your Kindle. It's magic. 

3. Trello. This app is fantastic for tracking and organizing pretty much anything. There is a slight learning curve to it, but it is easy to catch on. I've created book lists in Trello of Potential reads, Currently Reading, and Finished Reading. The great thing about Trello is you just drag and drop your titles around. I use this more with the books I'm tracking for the kids and our homeschool than I do myself right now, but if you keep a lot of your life in Trello, this may be an easy next step for you. 

4. Kindle. So I have literally have nearly 1,000 books on my Kindle. No joke. I used to subscribe to a daily email that sends out cheap and free book deals on Amazon. It's slightly addicting. Needless to say, I realized at one point there was absolutely no way I was going to keep up with all of these books, so I unsubscribed. But I didn't know what to do about my gigantic and overwhelming library. Unfortunately, Kindle doesn't have a good way to mark that a books has been read, so I created categories for my books that included "To Be Read", "Done Reading", "Christmas", and "Kids". I also created a category for books I would actually recommend to other people since so much of what I had downloaded was fluff or mediocre writing. I put every book into the "TBR" category and as I finish them I change the category into the "Done" pile. It's helped me keep track of books since I don't remember titles and covers as well with them being digital as I do with physical copies. 

5. Goodreads. And last, but not least, Goodreads. Can't have a book organization post without bringing out the big guns. Goodreads allows you to create an account, track books you want to read and have finished, leave reviews, follow other people's reading lives, and create reading goals for yourself. It also links to Kindle, so if you tend to read through that then it can automatically update Goodreads for you. I enjoy the community feel you get from Goodreads as well as the reviews. These people take their books seriously! 

There are obviously other options that are simpler such as a good old excel file, bullet journaling, etc., but these 5 are the ones I find myself utilizing most often. 

I'd love to hear what your current method is and if there is anything you would add to what I've posted above! 

Don't forget to take some time out today for a nice cup of tea and a good book!