I wasn’t kidding when I said I would take a huge step back in reading from last month. When I look at it though, I think I just read an unusual amount last month and August is a more normal reading month. My intention was to spend a little more time with some of my other hobbies, but instead I got super fixated on updating book data on a book tracking app (more on that in a bit). Here’s what my August looked like in reading. I started daily progress tracking a couple days into August so I could get a more accurate look at my month. In case it’s not obvious yet, I love data.
Some highlights from my reading this month…
I delved into my non-fiction TBRs more. I’ve had a handful of memoirs on my TBR and my audiobook “discovery” last month meant I could get into some other books I otherwise might not have started. Of course I’m still a little spacey when listening to audiobooks but better than nothing! My favorite non-fiction (debatable) of the month was Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights. 100/10 narrator and it was an amazing audiobook. I say ‘debatable’ when calling it my favorite non-fiction this month because I’m not wholly convinced everything in the book happened or if it happened the way it was described. Some pieces that felt rather outlandish was the 13-story treehouse and his motorcycle excursion across Europe. 13-story maybe to a kid, perhaps? The scale of things always seems so much larger the younger you are and maybe there are some very generous folks out there. I still don’t know though, but it all seemed very fun.
I continue my attempt at the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. You’ll notice that I’ve been attempting to read Cyrano de Bergerac for, like, ever. Perhaps I should give some of the classics an attempt in audiobook form. It’s such a huge mental shift from the usual fiction books to plays or classics but I so want to keep giving these a shot! I keep finding myself getting sleepy any time I read these- not because they’re boring but because I have to use so much thinking power to figure out what’s going on. I’ll finish this… soon…
I DNF’d my second book of the year. I hate DNFing books and I don’t think it’s because of the book. I can be more of a mood reader than I think I am sometimes. The book I DNF’d this month was All That is Mine I Carry With Me by William Landay, which honestly sounded very interesting but the narrator felt like a drag. It was also taking a bit of time to get to the point so 25% in, I decided it wasn’t worth it. Maybe I’ll give it a try again some other time. It joins Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes in my little DNF pile. I’ll see how I really feel about them on a second attempt.
I discovered and deep-dived into a new book tracking app! This is reading adjacent but did steal quite a bit of my reading time this month. I primarily use The StoryGraph for all of my book tracking but recently stumbled upon the Hardcover app. I love the way it’s designed, however the book data has a long ways to go. I found myself spending a ton of time cleaning up book data for the authors/books I’ve read and I’ve barely made a dent. I quite like it though and hope that it’ll replace Goodreads (GR). GR has become such a prominent player in the book community, but I’ve been trying to support smaller applications that have put out a better product than GR. Until that happens, I’m still having a lot of fun juggling my reading stats across 3 apps. Here’s how I use each app…
- The StoryGraph (TSG) – looks very simple up front but works extremely well. Everything is smooth, though it takes a little bit of effort to get used to the editions if that’s not something you’ve previously used. I track my daily progress, owned books, and update data as a volunteer librarian. They have rather robust librarian tools which include a book ticket system, so sometimes my brain just wants to research and update book data and that’s all I’ll do! I also get these lovely wrap-up graphics in my booklogs from TSG. It’s by far my favorite for book tracking!
- Hardcover – fantastic UI but a little buggy and book data still has a long ways to go. They have a librarian program and one can pay to get the same access as well, but I do think that could be a factor in the book data issues. I have some thoughts on that but I do recognize that these smaller apps need the financial support to progress so I understand the decision. I track my daily progress, some owned books, and attempt to fix author and book pages as I go. I did spend hours in my first week as a user with librarian access cleaning up a lot of data for my read books. Hardcover aims to fill in that social aspect of GR as well and I think it can do it!
- Goodreads – unfortunately can’t get away from GR just yet, but I use it for the bare minimum. Track when I start and stop reads, that’s it! And I read on kindle lots so it being automatic is part of it too. Sometimes I find myself looking up the ratings while I’m browsing in a bookstore, but that’s something I’m trying to stop altogether.
I could probably dig a lot more into book tracking and the bookish apps out there, but I’ll save that for another time. Zach has heard plenty of my rants and comments this past month. I just want one extensive book database where one can find all the information about all the books out there! Is that so much to ask? Yes, apparently it is. I never paid attention to how non-standardized books and book information is, but it’s been on my mind a lot this year.
Anyway, back to actual books.
I’m still working on reading down my physical TBR, but I’ve put off a lot of my usual movie and TV-show watching time in favor of reading so I think September is going to be a lower book month. More balancing my hobbies and less obsessively reading… I think. I haven’t had any fall-in-love reads this month so maybe if I run into one in September, that’ll change things. Until then, back to the books! I just started Anatomy by Dana Schwartz yesterday evening. 1800s, Scotland, elements of romance and mystery? I’m intrigued.
