Pony required - how best to track and journal reading?
April 4, 2019 6:51 AM Subscribe
Heroically overcoming Too Much Internet, I've been reading more in the past eighteen months. But I need a better way to track and note-take - a way that works with my laziness and tendency to read in bed.
What I currently have is a google sheet to track title, author, and a few category details. I'd like to have one document which contains both a filterable list and tabbed pages for notes on each book. I would settle for a filterable spreadsheet where I could take notes in one cell with the notes automatically wrapping.
What I don't want is a long word-type doc where I have to scroll to see my notes on each book.
I feel like I need some kind of weird tabbed Word doc, but I am not sure how to set one up.
I will be taking notes on one book at different times, so I'd prefer not to use, eg, a google form.
Right now I can't make docs do this - the closest I can get is a spreadsheet with a big cell for notes that does not wrap as I type, which is very distracting.
Paper notes don't work for me and I am the world's worst underliner/marginal note-taker. I have a mac laptop.
What do you use? Is there a way to make google docs provide this?
What I currently have is a google sheet to track title, author, and a few category details. I'd like to have one document which contains both a filterable list and tabbed pages for notes on each book. I would settle for a filterable spreadsheet where I could take notes in one cell with the notes automatically wrapping.
What I don't want is a long word-type doc where I have to scroll to see my notes on each book.
I feel like I need some kind of weird tabbed Word doc, but I am not sure how to set one up.
I will be taking notes on one book at different times, so I'd prefer not to use, eg, a google form.
Right now I can't make docs do this - the closest I can get is a spreadsheet with a big cell for notes that does not wrap as I type, which is very distracting.
Paper notes don't work for me and I am the world's worst underliner/marginal note-taker. I have a mac laptop.
What do you use? Is there a way to make google docs provide this?
It might be overkill, but I use the AirTable app on my phone to track my sewing patterns. I have categories set up that make sense for the medium, and can easily filter and access my stuff through the web interface too. You could even add covers if you’re a visual rememberer.
posted by itsamermaid at 7:15 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by itsamermaid at 7:15 AM on April 4, 2019
Have you tried OneNote?
posted by icy_latte at 7:39 AM on April 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by icy_latte at 7:39 AM on April 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Based on the functionality you're describing, I wonder if making a Trello board just for the books you're reading would suit your needs. There are a lot of different ways that it could be set up, but it's flexible enough that I think it could be configured to fit your needs.
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:42 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:42 AM on April 4, 2019
On a similar note, Airtable might also be worth investigating. It's like a spreadsheet tool and a database tool and a project management tool all in one, so there might be some functionality options there that would fit your needs.
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:46 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by helloimjennsco at 7:46 AM on April 4, 2019
I have not used The Guide myself so cannot actually tell you whether this is actually useful or just looks like it might have the features you want, but saw it as a recommendation for writers keeping notes on the books they're writing, so it might also be acceptable for notes on books you're reading.
posted by Caduceus at 9:17 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by Caduceus at 9:17 AM on April 4, 2019
I do this in Evernote.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 10:20 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 10:20 AM on April 4, 2019
Would Goodreads work? I'm not sure how long your comments are but you could put them in either the review section or comments section of each book. You can export your list into an Excel spreadsheet, which will include all of the details of the book including your review.
posted by lyssabee at 10:23 AM on April 4, 2019
posted by lyssabee at 10:23 AM on April 4, 2019
Goodreads would also support tags for your categories, and you can set everything to private if you don't want any social aspect. The utility of this option really depends on the length/kind of notes you make though. You can keep running notes in a review, or if they're short, in reading status updates.
If you want to go the tabbed Word doc route, Scrivener can provide something close to that. It's meant for long writing projects like novels, but I've used it both for that and for note taking in college. With Scrivener, you have "Projects" rather than single documents, so your reading document could be set up something like this: you make a new blank project for Books 2019, then for each book, you have a separate subdocument where you can keep your notes for each book. There's an outline view along the sidebar, or you could use a corkboard view that replicates index card notes. Scrivener also supports tags and categories IIRC. I'm not sure I'm explaining it well, but you can give the software a whirl in a free trial and see if it works for you.
posted by yasaman at 11:31 AM on April 4, 2019
If you want to go the tabbed Word doc route, Scrivener can provide something close to that. It's meant for long writing projects like novels, but I've used it both for that and for note taking in college. With Scrivener, you have "Projects" rather than single documents, so your reading document could be set up something like this: you make a new blank project for Books 2019, then for each book, you have a separate subdocument where you can keep your notes for each book. There's an outline view along the sidebar, or you could use a corkboard view that replicates index card notes. Scrivener also supports tags and categories IIRC. I'm not sure I'm explaining it well, but you can give the software a whirl in a free trial and see if it works for you.
posted by yasaman at 11:31 AM on April 4, 2019
My "books and reading" notebook in Evernote is something like that. Each note is tagged with title, author, genre, and personal genre (Sad Detectives, Drunks, Catholics, Not Like Other Women Writers), quotes, comments, and the year. I've just started using google keep at work and I would imagine it could be set up similarly.
I used to use a similar tagging system on a private wordpress.com blog, but I felt that Evernote worked better offline.
posted by betweenthebars at 11:46 AM on April 4, 2019
I used to use a similar tagging system on a private wordpress.com blog, but I felt that Evernote worked better offline.
posted by betweenthebars at 11:46 AM on April 4, 2019
I wonder if anyone but me uses John Heideman's Notes-Mode these days. It's a free add-on module for the Emacs text editor. It relies on Perl and cron to re-index notes every morning. The mode uses categories, create however many you like, and you can navigate backwards and forwards in time within a category. It's a great way to organize a collection of notes and observations. I use it to make accessible notes on books, plants, words, quotes, music, and a catch-all journal. The individual notes are just text files organized in a date-based directory hierarchy. I hesitate to use commercial software with proprietary formats for this purpose, though I use commercial software for less crucial purposes when I need to. My directory of notes was started in 1999. What commercial software from that era is still effective and usable today? Perl and Emacs will be around, I think, as long as I need them!
posted by Agave at 6:08 PM on April 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Agave at 6:08 PM on April 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
Similar to the goodreads suggestion (but better and not entangling you in the Amazon empire), I've been tracking my reading list for over a decade on LibraryThing. It's got a better tagging system than goodreads and is an all around great tool. It displays your personal in a customizable and searchable spreadsheet that autofills most of the item information based on isbn, and will let you track custom tags. Each individual item page has fields for your own notes/reviews/etc.
posted by libraritarian at 6:08 AM on April 8, 2019
posted by libraritarian at 6:08 AM on April 8, 2019
There is a reading app made by the same people who made Marvin called Gertie. It keeps a journal of all books read, when you started, when you finished, where you were, and any words looked up. It also makes it stupidly easy to highlight and add quotes to your journal. All sorted by book, even if you delete the book from Gertie after reading it. I adore it, and have been using it exclusively for some years now. My biggest gripe is that they seem to have stopped working on it. If Marvin would do the same thing, journal wise, I would go back to Marvin.
Note: This is an excellent way to track things for lazy people who read ebooks, like me.
posted by routergirl at 9:53 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Note: This is an excellent way to track things for lazy people who read ebooks, like me.
posted by routergirl at 9:53 PM on May 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
It really sounds to me like the ideal solution is the kind of bibliography management software that academics use.
The good news is that (1) there are a lot of options, (2) the best ones are free and cross-platform, (3) there is a large and active userbase across a lot of disciplines using the same tools, so tutorials, flexibility and simplicity are standard, (4) you can automatically load in metadata with an isbn or google books page, (5) you can have one big flat library of references and also make temporary folders for different projects (6) you can include files and standalone notes within each reference and the software will automatically store them, and (7) you can sync your stuff in the cloud if you want, again for free up to a certain storage limit. Probably other things as well.
It's honestly a lot simpler than it sounds and I would not consider it overkill for doing what you describe. I recommend checking out either Zotero or Mendeley (the screenshots are helpful to look at) and experimenting with adding books and notes.
(Later, if you really want to go wild with it, you can use your notes to make a sort of digital commonplace book via the Zettelkasten method -- but that's by no means necessary!)
posted by rollick at 5:49 AM on May 4, 2019
The good news is that (1) there are a lot of options, (2) the best ones are free and cross-platform, (3) there is a large and active userbase across a lot of disciplines using the same tools, so tutorials, flexibility and simplicity are standard, (4) you can automatically load in metadata with an isbn or google books page, (5) you can have one big flat library of references and also make temporary folders for different projects (6) you can include files and standalone notes within each reference and the software will automatically store them, and (7) you can sync your stuff in the cloud if you want, again for free up to a certain storage limit. Probably other things as well.
It's honestly a lot simpler than it sounds and I would not consider it overkill for doing what you describe. I recommend checking out either Zotero or Mendeley (the screenshots are helpful to look at) and experimenting with adding books and notes.
(Later, if you really want to go wild with it, you can use your notes to make a sort of digital commonplace book via the Zettelkasten method -- but that's by no means necessary!)
posted by rollick at 5:49 AM on May 4, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ProtoStar at 7:07 AM on April 4, 2019 [1 favorite]