If any app developers are reading this, here’s a problem that I’d love for them to solve. Too many reading lists! Maybe this is a problem that only people who mainly read library books have, but surely that’s a pretty big group? And I think this has also become more of a problem for me since I stopped using GoodReads – but with the recent proliferation of book-tracking websites and apps, I know I’m in good company there too.
How many reading lists – lists of books I want to read – do I have? Let’s see. Pre-GoodReads (so before about 2010 for me and pre-2007 for the earliest members), I kept lists of books I wanted to read in a Word doc, or before that, on pages of my physical journals. There are probably books that I’d still like to read on those lists that I haven’t captured elsewhere, so I’ll designate all of those as list #1, even though the content of those lists is not that retrievable. I stopped using GoodReads regularly about three years ago, but, out of curiosity, I revisited my want-to-read list there. It’s got 303 books and with even a quick skim, I see lots that I do indeed still want to read – so that’s list #2 and definitely one I would like to have integrated with my other lists.
Probably my most important want-to-read list is the one I keep on my library account at the public library. The Vancouver Public Library provides a few digital “shelves” for patrons and the one they call “for later” is what I use for my want-to-read list. It’s the go-to list I consult when I finish a book – because I know all the books on it are available to me for free either in physical or digital form, even if I might have to wait in a hold queue for a while. List #3, though #1 in importance and currency. My for later shelf currently has 636 books on it and I see that I made the earliest addition to it on August 9, 2011. That makes sense because it’s about a month after I moved back to Vancouver – so that date is when I was settled enough and had a piece of mail addressed to me, allowing me to get a new card for the Vancouver Public Library system. I don’t recall if I used a list like that at the library where I lived before moving back here.
Another relatively current want-to-read list I have is on the app I now use to track the books I actually finish, which is called Reading List. I’ve got 38 books on that list – no idea to what extent they do or don’t overlap with any other want-to-read or could-read lists I have. But I do like this app and the reason that I’ve added 38 books there is that it’s often the list I find easiest to access when I come across a book I want to read. Unlike my public library list, I don’t have to log in, nor do I have to find and open any kind of separate document, such as I might keep in my notes app or on a Word doc on my computer. List #4.
Another place I document books I want to read is Amazon. I have just over 100 books on that list – again, no idea how much they overlap with other lists, and as with the others, at least some of these titles will be ones I’m no longer interested in reading. The books on this list are more likely to be ones that I wanted to buy at some point (or have bought) or that I couldn’t find in my public library system. List #5.
I also used to use Library Thing, before I started using GoodReads. I’ve got 38 books on my to-read list there. List #6.
I think that’s it. I mean, of course I have the odd book title in an email message or physical or digital note here and there, but those are the main lists I would like to be able to integrate – and what I’m most keen on is integrating my library “for later” shelf with my lists on GoodReads and my Reading List app. However, as far as I know, my library does not offer the service of allowing me to download any of the “shelves” lists they provide. GoodReads, LibraryThing and Reading List do allow import and export. Amazon also has a “send list to others” feature that, with some steps in between, would probably allow me to get that list in a CSV format. So, perhaps the stumbling block to maintaining one integrated could-read/want-to-read/to-read list is that my library doesn’t allow me to export my lists. It also doesn’t have a way for me to import my other to-read lists to check which of those books they currently hold. That’s something I would have to do one by one.
Since my public library is my main source of reading material, it therefore makes sense that the for-later feature they offer has become my default could-read list. I’m not in danger of ever running out of ideas for books to read, so in a way, none of this matters very much or interferes with my reading pleasure. It does irritate my desire to be integrated and organized, however….it also means that my sense of how many books I have on my ultimate big list of books I’d like to read, because I know the number is not the cumulative total of all my lists. In practice, I have added many of those to my for-later shelf in my online library account. I think I’ll ask my library if there is a way I could download this list or whether this is a feature they could add to their system.