Happy Friday, everyone! Am I the only person who is a bit freaked out that January is more than halfway over? I’m still trying to figure out my goals for the year! Nothing so grand as resolutions—which I’m just contrary enough to want to break within a few weeks anyway—just thoughts about how and where I’d like to go with my life this year. Now, more than ever, attention must be paid or I’ll morph into a pile of burning sludge over the state of the nation. I need to find a balance between my own life and awareness of what’s happening around me.
It’s along those lines that I’m using this Friday to let you know about a new tool that feeds directly into one of the things I want to improve this year. Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves has created the Rock Your Reading Tracker and it is a big bowl of fun for book lovers. I realize you may think I have some preternatural gift for picking out the best books in the best genres at the best time, but, no, that’s not true. I try and hide my 1-star books in end-of-month posts but there are far too many books I don’t finish because they are wrong on any number of levels. Honestly, as I was going through an online book catalog site recently it hit me that I am a sucker for a great title and an interesting cover. NOT really useful criteria in choosing what to read, but there you have it.
But how to figure out what works and what doesn’t? I have great friends in the book blogging community but when I read their blogs or listened to their podcasts I didn’t have any quick, easy place to save their recommendations. Now there is. Not only does the tracker have a sheet where you can enter books-to-be-read, you can enter who recommended it. And, wait for it…it then tracks the results into an awesome chart of Go-To Reading Sources and No-Go-To. The more you use it, the more you’ll learn about how to pick the best books for you. How slick is that?
Beyond recommendations this tool allows you to track your reading. There is a super-powered spreadsheet where you can enter data on publishers, pages (do you keep trying chunkster books only to never finish? Always need more than a quick read?), publication date (do you do better with new releases or reading backlist after the buzz has died down?), and, even things like diversity—how many books have you read by women? By people of color? International authors? International settings? All of this is already set up with formulas to calculate your data and chart your reading. And if you are an excel maven, you can add or delete categories.
The Rock Your Reading Tracker isn’t just for bloggers. Bookworm, book lover, book nerd. If you’re any of these or just like reading, then this is a wonderful resource. If you’re a fan of Goodreads, it’s like Goodreads on steroids; it will do so much more for you. Who doesn’t love facts? And tracking them? Just think, at the end of the year you can look back and see which of your reading goals you’ve shattered. I already bought mine and am happy to finally be able to note where I heard about a book.
You know you need this, so head over to Sarah’s Book Shelves (click here) for more details and start rocking your reading!
Thanks so much for this – so appreciate the support and that you’re loving the tracker!
I’m so excited to have this; I spent a ton of time playing around last week and I think this is going to be so much fun to have, as the year unfolds!
I am absolutely loving the Recommends section! I’d love to see which choices work best.