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I'm thinking of signing up and using it solely to record when I've read a book, the date started and finished and probably a star rating too. I'm not sure I would actually write a review though.

I don't write reviews on GoodReads either, I just record which books I read and buy.

 

It's usually possible to change the book edition GoodReads has set as its default to the one that you're reading.  Just click on "Other Editions", locate which is yours, and switch over.  Typing in the ISBN number (if your book has one) is a quicker method.   :)

 

That's true, thanks :). I do do that. But sometimes the edition with my ISBN, still doesn't match the exact page count (ie. what sometimes happens, is that the last page of the book doesn't have the page number on it, and then the number on GoodReads is the number of the second-to-last page). If my ISBN isn't there, I have to add the edition and then the page count does match. Especially for Dutch books I often have to add the edition, it's a hassle but I do it anyway.

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It's usually possible to change the book edition GoodReads has set as its default to the one that you're reading.  Just click on "Other Editions", locate which is yours, and switch over.  Typing in the ISBN number (if your book has one) is a quicker method.   :)

Not only that, but if an edition you have isn't there you can request it to be added.  :)  I did that today with an Audible version of a book today and the new edition was up within an hour.  Sometimes it takes a little longer (if there isn't anyone around) but I've never waited more than a day. I just add any version whilst I'm waiting and then switch editions.  

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So I signed up for an account yesterday afternoon and spent about an hour adding books - overall I like the site but I'm not sure if I'm actually going to use it or not.

 

My main complaint is that some of the books I tried to add either had no cover image or the wrong one, page counts were off (sometimes by a fair amount of pages) and one or two of them had their synopsis in a language that wasn't English.  I know these things may not bother the majority of members but I'm not one of them.  I'm a bit OCD about things like this and although I could add a different edition to the one I own/have read I think it will annoy me too much.

 

I may just stick to an old school method - pen and paper.  I just thought it would be nice to have some kind of online record too.  I do like the fact that you can click on an authors page and see what other books by that author you still have to read.  Same goes for books in a series etc.

 

I'm assuming that similar sites like LibraryThing would have the same problem?

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Autumn, when you search for a book to add, you should see a link to the number of different editions underneath the book's title (click on below image for an example). When you click on it, it will take you to a page (usually multiple pages) with all of the editions. Then you can select your edition from that list. The 'default' book that is shown in the search list is just the one that most members have chosen.

 

However, I've noticed over the years that the book covers of some of my editions have changed. I'm always careful to select the correct edition when adding a book, so it's really frustrating when it then changes. I think it's because Goodreads 'Librarians' can go in and alter any details. I assume they just change the details to match their own edition, which is really frustrating. I'm a Librarian there too, but I certainly can't be bothered going in and changing things back.

 

This is partly why I use paid software (Book Collector) to catalogue my books. I can add my own cover and no one can change it but me. :)

 

I hope this helps.

 

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Autumn, when you search for a book to add, you should see a link to the number of different editions underneath the book's title (click on below image for an example). When you click on it, it will take you to a page (usually multiple pages) with all of the editions. Then you can select your edition from that list. The 'default' book that is shown in the search list is just the one that most members have chosen.

 

I've been searching by ISBN rather than title so I assumed the edition would be the correct one.

 

This is partly why I use paid software (Book Collector) to catalogue my books. I can add my own cover and no one can change it but me.

 

Book Collector sounds interesting. How does it work? Is it a website/online or is it software you download to your own computer?

 

* goes off to do Google search *

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So I signed up for an account yesterday afternoon and spent about an hour adding books - overall I like the site but I'm not sure if I'm actually going to use it or not.

 

My main complaint is that some of the books I tried to add either had no cover image or the wrong one, page counts were off (sometimes by a fair amount of pages) and one or two of them had their synopsis in a language that wasn't English.  I know these things may not bother the majority of members but I'm not one of them.  I'm a bit OCD about things like this and although I could add a different edition to the one I own/have read I think it will annoy me too much.

 

I may just stick to an old school method - pen and paper.  I just thought it would be nice to have some kind of online record too.  I do like the fact that you can click on an authors page and see what other books by that author you still have to read.  Same goes for books in a series etc.

 

I'm assuming that similar sites like LibraryThing would have the same problem?

 

Autumn - its exactly what stopped me persevering with Goodreads - "that isn't my book, it has a different cover!", amongst the other things you mention. I'm quite OCD about such things. I tried LibraryThing and stuck with it - it has over 700 of my books on it - it has more sources of book info than you can shake a stick at so you will rarely end up with a book with the wrong cover or number of pages! I've even found many of the antiquarian books I have, without having to type them in. They also  have sources from other countries, not just UK, so foreign languages are catered for too. Very occasionally my book has no cover - its dead simple to then google for a photo of the cover and import it (takes less than a minute).

 

At first glance it doesn't look as "nice" as GR but it has more features and functionality that I would use. And to my mind it is far better at finding the right copy of your book to add.

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I opened a Good reads account about a year ago after I got my Paperwhite Kindle. This was about the time of the big software update where Goodreads was added as a seperate button on the newer Kindles. It asked me when I set up the Kindle whether I wanted to open an account and so I did. I don't write reviews or anything like that on the site, about the only thing I use it for really is to catalogue the books that I have read and to set challenges for myself and track their progess. It is useful for that, although there are other ways of course, like good old fashioned counting. I have set up folders on my Kindle for each year, so when I finish a book I place it in the folder relating to that year. That to me is an equally good way of knowing what you have read - assuming of course that all the books you read are on Kindle. Goodreads is really just a way of sharing that with others that you know.

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At first glance it doesn't look as "nice" as GR but it has more features and functionality that I would use. And to my mind it is far better at finding the right copy of your book to add.

 

Yeah, LibraryThing is definitely not as pretty and overall I do like the look and feel of GoodReads and it seems relatively easy to use.  I'm just put off a little at having missing/wrong covers and wrong information etc.

 

I don't write reviews or anything like that on the site, about the only thing I use it for really is to catalogue the books that I have read and to set challenges for myself and track their progress. It is useful for that, although there are other ways of course, like good old fashioned counting.

 

I'm not planning on using GoodReads for anything other than cataloguing books either so if I can get over having to have the correct edition (cover, page count etc.) then it would still work for me in that sense. It just would have been nice to have everything matching.

 

I have set up folders on my Kindle for each year, so when I finish a book I place it in the folder relating to that year.

Totally off topic I know, but one thing that annoys me about my Kindle is that when you place a book in to a folder it doesn't just appear in that folder but in the main list too (do you get what I mean?). Anyone know if there is there a way around that?

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I've been searching by ISBN rather than title so I assumed the edition would be the correct one.

Yes, that should be how it works, but that's where I think the meddling librarians come into it. Too many people have the ability to edit a book's details.

 

Book Collector sounds interesting. How does it work? Is it a website/online or is it software you download to your own computer?

You've probably Googled it by now, but briefly, it's software that you buy and install on your computer. It also comes with a 'cloud' account, so you can upload your collection to their website and therefore access it from anywhere and share it with others. Here's my page. You can sync your books between various devices (computers, tablets, phones, internet). There's no forums or interacting with others--it's solely for book cataloguing. It allows you to enter a huge amount of data for your books, and you can view graphs relating to your collection. Athena uses the software too, and if you look here, you can see some examples of graphs.

 

Importantly for book cataloguing, there's also an awesome barcode scanner app that pairs with the software. You can use your phone or computer's camera to scan the barcodes of your books straight into the software, which will then search for the appropriate book and populate the data for you. It's much, much quicker (and much more fun!) than typing in each ISBN manually.

 

The software is fun to use, but it can become very time-consuming if you have a lot of books and (like me) become a bit anal about wanting to complete as much information in there as possible!

 

I've just seen your recent post and noticed the bit about page numbers. I've noticed that Book Collector doesn't always get this right. I'm not sure if it depends on how recently the book was published (and therefore how much information it can find online for it), but sometimes the page number will come through as '0' (or it will be empty), and you'll have to populate the field yourself.

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Yes, that should be how it works, but that's where I think the meddling librarians come into it. Too many people have the ability to edit a book's details.

Ah okay, I thought I was doing something wrong there for a minute.

 

You've probably Googled it by now, but briefly, it's software that you buy and install on your computer. It also comes with a 'cloud' account, so you can upload your collection to their website and therefore access it from anywhere and share it with others. Here's my page.

Yeah, I googled it earlier and had a bit of a browse round the site but thank you so much for leaving a link to your page as it's really difficult to get a sense of what it actually looks/works like just by reading the 'about' pages.

 

Not going to lie, that looks seriously AMAZING! I take it you have the Pro account then?

 

The software is fun to use, but it can become very time-consuming if you have a lot of books and (like me) become a bit anal about wanting to complete as much information in there as possible!

I can see how it might be quite time consuming - I love the fact that it's online and on your computer though. Brilliant idea!

 

I've just seen your recent post and noticed the bit about page numbers. I've noticed that Book Collector doesn't always get this right. I'm not sure if it depends on how recently the book was published (and therefore how much information it can find online for it), but sometimes the page number will come through as '0' (or it will be empty), and you'll have to populate the field yourself.

Okay, page counts are something which I am really OCD about. You see I don't go by the figure on the last page of the book. For example, quite often books actually start on page 8 and the first 7 pages are taken up by title page, copyright, dedication pages etc. so I don't actually count that as part of the book and deduct those pages from the overall total. Same goes for blank pages in between chapters and pages that just have 'Part 1' etc. written on them. (Told you I was OCD!!) So the fact that you can populate this field yourself is my idea of heaven!

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That Book Collectorz layout looks very attractive. For recording the details though, any database software is only as good as its source data. However, this, in their FAQ would worry me: "100% sure you selected the correct book and you’re still seeing errors in the data? Then please use our Core for Book system to report the error to us and our content managers will fix the problems as soon as possible."

 

If they could marry their design to the online worldwide sources LibraryThing uses (where that kind of thing just doesn't happen), I'd buy it like a shot. Perhaps the perfect book software doesn't yet exist, so 1 way or another, compromise is necessary.

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Totally off topic I know, but one thing that annoys me about my Kindle is that when you place a book in to a folder it doesn't just appear in that folder but in the main list too (do you get what I mean?). Anyone know if there is there a way around that?

If I think you mean what I think it is you mean, it doesn't do that for me :unsure:.

 

Yes, that should be how it works, but that's where I think the meddling librarians come into it. Too many people have the ability to edit a book's details.

I'd been wondering about that! Good to know.

 

You've probably Googled it by now, but briefly, it's software that you buy and install on your computer. It also comes with a 'cloud' account, so you can upload your collection to their website and therefore access it from anywhere and share it with others. Here's my page. You can sync your books between various devices (computers, tablets, phones, internet). There's no forums or interacting with others--it's solely for book cataloguing. It allows you to enter a huge amount of data for your books, and you can view graphs relating to your collection. Athena uses the software too, and if you look here, you can see some examples of graphs.

 

Importantly for book cataloguing, there's also an awesome barcode scanner app that pairs with the software. You can use your phone or computer's camera to scan the barcodes of your books straight into the software, which will then search for the appropriate book and populate the data for you. It's much, much quicker (and much more fun!) than typing in each ISBN manually.

 

The software is fun to use, but it can become very time-consuming if you have a lot of books and (like me) become a bit anal about wanting to complete as much information in there as possible!

I am honoured you mentioned me :blush2:.

 

I love Book Collector. Kylie is right in that it can be time-consuming, if you want to record a lot of information. The program allows for User Defined fields, which means you can make up your own categories, if you want to. I've added a lot of them, for example, a textbox where I can add if the book is written in 1rst or 3rd person (or a combination of those), the gender of the author(s), if the book was written by 1 author or multiple authors, the gender of the protagonist(s), if the book is a debut novel, the rough amount of page numbers (ie. less than 100 (x < 100), between 100 and 200 (100 < x < 200), between 200 and 300.. etc.). You don't have to add any of this stuff, though, but it's what I like to do (I have mostly added these things for the more recent purchases, I have to go back and add more details for some of my older books, you can multi edit though :) ).

 

I've just seen your recent post and noticed the bit about page numbers. I've noticed that Book Collector doesn't always get this right. I'm not sure if it depends on how recently the book was published (and therefore how much information it can find online for it), but sometimes the page number will come through as '0' (or it will be empty), and you'll have to populate the field yourself.

I've noticed that too, sometimes it's wrong or just says '0' or empty. I make it a point to check the page number of every book I enter. That said, often I find GoodReads gets it wrong too in the same cases. But I'm not one to go and correct other people's editions most of the time. But in Book Collector, I just add / edit it myself, I find Book Collector a lot easier to use than GoodReads to be honest. But maybe that's just me. 

 

Yeah, I googled it earlier and had a bit of a browse round the site but thank you so much for leaving a link to your page as it's really difficult to get a sense of what it actually looks/works like just by reading the 'about' pages.

I think there is a demo you can try, if you're curious.

 

Not going to lie, that looks seriously AMAZING! I take it you have the Pro account then?

I know you asked Kylie, but I thought I'd add I do have a Pro account. I buy a yearly subscription (but you don't need to do that if you don't want the updates of the program). I personally find it totally worth it and I like supporting the developers as I love Book Collector, but I can see that some people might consider it a lot of money whereas GoodReads is free (but has nowhere near as many options). I believe I bought my last yearly upgrade on Black Friday, which is just over a month from now (although the company is based in the Netherlands, last year and the year before they had a Black Friday sale).

 

What's also handy about Book Collector is I have the accompanying app on my phone (also costs a bit of money but again so worth it in my opinion) and if I'm out in a book shop or something I can pull out my phone and check if I already own a certain book. It's saved me many times! I know you can ask the same to GoodReads, but not without an internet connection, and the only place I can use wifi is at the library, I don't use 3G (or 4G) so if I'm anywhere else CLZ Books (the name of the app) is great. You can find the information online too, as Kylie said.

 

Okay, page counts are something which I am really OCD about. You see I don't go by the figure on the last page of the book. For example, quite often books actually start on page 8 and the first 7 pages are taken up by title page, copyright, dedication pages etc. so I don't actually count that as part of the book and deduct those pages from the overall total. Same goes for blank pages in between chapters and pages that just have 'Part 1' etc. written on them. (Told you I was OCD!!) So the fact that you can populate this field yourself is my idea of heaven!

Oh wow, you're even more OCD about page counts than I am! I applaud thee haha. I add any 'reading guides' or 'Q&A with the author' to the page counts, but I remove excerpts from page counts as I never read them. It does bother me on occasion some stories don't start on page 1, but I don't remove those numbers from the page count. Roman numerals are something I never worried about before, until recently when I bought and read a book where a larger part of the book's page numbers were in Roman numerals and so I wanted to count those pages.

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Totally off topic I know, but one thing that annoys me about my Kindle is that when you place a book in to a folder it doesn't just appear in that folder but in the main list too (do you get what I mean?). Anyone know if there is there a way around that?

I'd like to know about this too - on my last Kindle, moving them into a folder did just that - but it doesn't work on the Paperwhite and it drives me mad!

 

Yes, that should be how it works, but that's where I think the meddling librarians come into it. Too many people have the ability to edit a book's details.

They ought to be able to add it as an 'alternative cover for ISBN 978XXXXXXXX - they've done that for me before now. I haven't noticed if covers have changed after I've added the right one. I'm scared to go and look back at my old books now!  :hide:

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 Totally off topic I know, but one thing that annoys me about my Kindle is that when you place a book in to a folder it doesn't just appear in that folder but in the main list too (do you get what I mean?). Anyone know if there is there a way around that?

 

I don't get that. There is probably something in the settings somewhere. I will have to have a look around and see what I have done which is different to you.

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If I think you mean what I think it is you mean, it doesn't do that for me.

I have all my unread kindle books in a folder called 'to read' but the books all still appear on the main/home screen under the list of folders I have.  Not quite sure how else to explain it unless I can take a screenshot or something.

 

I think there is a demo you can try, if you're curious.

 

I saw that actually, and am thinking of downloading it at the weekend and having a play around on it.  Although it's very reasonably priced I need to figure out if it is something I am going to use long-term.

 

Oh wow, you're even more OCD about page counts than I am! I applaud thee haha. I add any 'reading guides' or 'Q&A with the author' to the page counts, but I remove excerpts from page counts as I never read them.

 

I know, tell me about it. I don't know of anyone else who does what I do with regard to page counts, but I was really hoping that if there are any other people out there who do what I do then I'd find them on here!

 

I'd like to know about this too - on my last Kindle, moving them into a folder did just that - but it doesn't work on the Paperwhite and it drives me mad!

 

The weird thing is I'm pretty sure at one time or another moving them into a folder did remove them from the home screen as it was easier to keep track of my unread books, genres etc. but all of a sudden it seems to have changed.

 

I don't get that. There is probably something in the settings somewhere. I will have to have a look around and see what I have done which is different to you.

 

I have an older keyboard version of the Kindle so I don't know if it's something to do with that.  I don't think there are any settings on the actual Kindle itself that can be changed but I didn't think about looking at my Kindle settings on my Amazon account.  It would be great if it is something simple like that because the way it is at the moment is super annoying and with 700+ books on my Kindle it looks a bit cluttered.

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I found it in Settings - Device Options - Personalise your Kindle - Advanced Options - Home Screen View (Display recommended content from store and enable reading lists) - I switched this option off and now as I move them to 'Read 2016' they're vanishing from the list.  :)

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I found it in Settings - Device Options - Personalise your Kindle - Advanced Options - Home Screen View (Display recommended content from store and enable reading lists) - I switched this option off and now as I move them to 'Read 2016' they're vanishing from the list.  :)

 

Janet, I don't have that setting.  I go into Settings and I have Registration, Device Name, Wi-Fi Settings, Device Info, Voice Guide, Send-to-Kindle Email, Device Password, Parental Controls, Device Time, Social Networks, Popular Highlights, Public Notes, Annotations Backup and Personal Info.  No Personalise your Kindle option.  My Kindle is an old Keyboard 3rd Generation so maybe it's not an option on my Kindle, but I could have sworn that it never used to happen.

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There might be a forum on Amazon that you could ask in?

 

Decided to have a look at the online Users Guide for my version of the Kindle and it looks like the only way of doing it is by sorting items on your home screen by 'collections'.  This then only shows collections and individual items don't show up.  Tried it and it does actually work, although for some strange reason there are two books that are still showing on the home screen even though they are part of a collection.  Annoying, but I can deal with two books being listed.... much better than the 714 that were there!

 

Thanks for the help!

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