I read an awful lot. As I mentioned in a post a long time (this one here) 2017 was the first time I actually recorded every book I read. I’ve stepped it up a little bit this year and finally started rating my books too.
I watch a lot of booktubers (that’s people who talk about books online basically) and they all seem to use a particular website to record and review their books. I don’t. I just simply use a note-taking app on my phone to record everything I feel about the book as soon as I’ve finished it.
Rating books is a personal thing and there are so many different ways to do it. I thought I’d talk a little bit today about the system I’ve got going on at the minute. It’s not perfect, but it’s also not really for anyone else’s eyes but my own.
I’d also love to know how you rate your reading, if at all, and how you keep track of it all!
HOW DO I RECORD MY READING?
I started recording everything I read last year so I’m still pretty new to it all. I certainly haven’t developed a flawless system for myself but I have made something simple and that is easy to keep up with.
Here’s how I do it: I have a specific note on Evernote (a great and simplistic note-taking app. The basic options is free on most networks) where I write down the title of the book and the author. At least, that’s all I did throughout 2017. To mix things up a bit this year I’ve been adding ratings to the books as well.
This system – if you can even call it that – certainly is the most simple way to approach recording your reading. I may adapt it in the future to be more organised, as at the moment its just one long list. But hey it works for me and that’s all that matters!
NUMBERS
The easiest way I’ve found to rate my books is using numbers. I basically just copied off everyone else on the internet and I now rate my books out of five after each read. This includes half numbers too, ie. 3.5/5.
I don’t really know why I took this route but it’s simple enough to get going and, as I said in the introduction, my ratings are just for me. I’m still pretty new to recording what I’m reading and I think its so interesting to be able to look back and remember everything I’ve read throughout the year. It’s even more so now I am able to remember exactly what I thought about the book!
My system works as you’d imagine; 1/5 means I didn’t enjoy the book at all and 5/5 means I absolutely loved it. As for the books that are rated somewhere in the middle, well it kind of changes every time. It’s not a perfect or accurate rating system but I kind of understand myself enough to figure it out. Most of the books I complete stand between a 3/5 or 4/5 rating, although I have been lucky this year and managed to find some awesome 5/5 books.
I rate my books immediately if possible, so that means over time the rating might go up or down depending on my reflections. I think the moment you finish a book is normally the clearest so that’s why I try to do all of my reviews and ratings then.
COMMENTS
Something that I have carried over from last year is comments. Next to the books I’ve read I normally make a couple of comments about how it made me feel, what I liked or disliked etc.
Because my number ratings aren’t the most accurate at times I find these comments really helpful when I’m looking back. I read that much that I normally forget what I read a few months ago, so keeping track of not only the author and title but what I thought about it normally helps jog my memory.
These comments, which will sometimes only be one or two words, will help me should I decide to do reviews in the future too!
CURRENTLY READING
This book has been on my list of ones to look out for for a few months now. I was planning on getting it second-hand when my mam informed me we already had a copy! I haven’t managed to get as far along as I’d like because I’ve been so busy recently but I am enjoying it a lot.
What are you reading right now?
I’m really enjoying making this series as and when I feel like it. The scheduele hasn’t gone to plan so well, but we’re still here. I hope you stick around to see what else I come up with.
If you like my bookish content, check out my Instagram. I normally update this with what I’m reading pretty often.
Speak soon,
Rachael.
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Rachaelic 
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