On the Kindle: Unread books and how to keep track of them?

This week I have been doing one of my regular Kindle checks in order keep track of my unread books (eBooks, audiobooks, library borrows). My method consists of adding the titles of any new acquisitions to a Word document. Very sophisticated and high-tech! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Whilst updating my list, I found myself pondering what to read next. Here are a few candidates:

Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith

In my favourite science podcast, The Infinite Monkey Cage, octopuses have been discussed several times. Not only are they extremely intelligent, but it’s a different intelligence than the human one. How mind-blowing is that? It also raises the question: Did intelligence evolve on earth not only once, but twice? Since evolution and neuroscience are amongst my favourite topics, this book should be a treat.

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

I look forward to see if Such A Fun Age can live up to all the hype, not to mention the Booker longlist nomination. A black woman is accused of kidnapping the white child she is babysitting. The story revolves around the aftermath and the dynamics between the people involved. The reviews say “entertaining”, which is exactly what I’m hoping for.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

I’ve never read anything by John Boyne, but the life story of Cyril Avery, which offers the modern history of Ireland as a backdrop, seems like a good place to start. With an audiobook of 21 hours, it will be a looong journey if Cyril’s story isn’t as captivating as everyone says.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Art of War was written 2500 years ago. 5th century BC. And it is still going strong. The wisdom shared is applicable to other areas than just warfare and I’ve been meaning to read it for ages. Similar to the other audiobooks featured here, it was a sale, which finally made me buy it. I do love audiobooks on sale. ๐Ÿ˜

Jamila by Chinghiz Aitmatov

This one, from the Kindle library, was downloaded with a future Literary Location post in mind. I thoroughly enjoy writing these post since they combine two of my passions: travel and reading. Any guesses about the location?

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I have more unread books than these on my Kindle, but not a lot more. Normally I read the ones I’ve got before buying new ones. I know, that is plain weird! ๐Ÿ˜œ Still, I like to do a list to make it easy to get an overview and to avoid downloads disappearing into obscurity.

Do you keep track of your unread books? If yes, how do you do it? I’ve considered using Goodreads more systematically; that would have the added benefit of keeping track of both read and unread books. But if you have any alternative solutions, please let me know!

40 comments

  1. Glad to hear I’m not the only one with the problem of too many unread books on the Kindle ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜
    A wild guess on the location of Jamila- Kyrgyzstan? Ok, not so wild ๐Ÿ˜I read another book by the same author ‘A day that lasts longer than eternity’.

    • I am thoroughly impressed! I’d never heard of this author until recently, when I looked up books from Kyrgyzstan. Well done getting the location right in one ๐Ÿ‘, I didn’t expect that! ๐Ÿ˜€

    • Haha, I love the phrase “Kindle book anxiety”, I’m sure you are not the only one! Great to hear you enjoyed Such A Fun Age, I really look forward to reading it!

  2. Other minds is straight away going into my kindle library. Digression: I was just thinking about that Oscar Wilde quote you’ve got and I wondered what if we replaced stars with scars, that’s what most of us are looking at anyway. It’s amazing how one letter can invert the feeling of the whole sentence, no?

    • Yay, I hope we will both enjoy Other Minds. Hmm, I think looking at the stars has a more poetic ring to it, but perhaps looking at the scars would work as well. As in looking back at your experiences, also the hairy ones, and learning from them?

        • Ah, I see, that makes sense. Normally, I have, if not an optimistic, then at least a forward-looking view. And when it comes to scars, mental as well as physical – you know what they say: If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. Sounds like a complete cliche, but I’ve always thought there was a lot of truth in it.

  3. Iโ€™ve had a copy of Such a Fun Age for a while too, but Iโ€™ve seen such polarised opinions that Iโ€™ve been waiting for the hype to die down a little so I can try and head into it open minded. Hereโ€™s hoping we both enjoy it!

    • I haven’t seen that many negative reviews, but I’ll try to tone down my expectations. Super high expectations tend not to be the best starting point. Hopefully we will both enjoy it!

  4. I don’t use Kindle and keep track of my unread books on Goodreads under the category of “to read” books. I also write in my notebook the list of more or less famous authors I want to read and their books – that way it is not 300+ books down in my notepad, but just around three or four pages of names of authors and their corresponding books I want to check out in future. And, this is a great list of books! I also love evolution and neuroscience, but have heard mixed opinions on “Other Minds”. On the other hand, its octopuses – a book about them can never be bad because they are such fascinating and unusual creatures ๐Ÿ™‚ The Art of War is also great, and I am sure you will enjoy it.

    • Yeah, Goodreads would probably be the best solution, I just need to get into the habit of using it more regularly. I have noticed the “to read” category, but to the limited extent I’ve used it, it has been a mix of books I own and books I’ve heard of, but don’t own yet. I guess the latter is what you use your notepad for? Oh, I haven’t actually seen any reviews of Other Minds, I just downloaded it based on the blurb. Hopefully, I will get to it soon and I should be able to tell you my opinion. ๐Ÿ™‚ Everyone seems to like The Art of War, I’m definitely looking forward to that one!

    • Yes, exactly! Depending on how many books you own, it isn’t too difficult to get an overview of the unread ones on your shelves. The electronic books, on the other hand, easily disappear into obscurity. I think it makes sense to use Goodreads, I’ve told myself several times, I need to use it more regularly. So far it hasn’t worked! ๐Ÿ™„๐Ÿ˜†

  5. I’ve only just started taking note of all the digital books I now own and need to read but otherwise I let my bookshelves scold me on a daily basis to serve as a reminder of everything I haven’t read hahah I do plan on making an even more precise reminder of those unread books so I can make a plan on how to get them read though. But man… time…

    P.S. The Art of War is indeed a nice, short, and sweet classic worth checking out. Hope you enjoy it! ๐Ÿ˜€

    • Yeah, digital books are more difficult to keep track of, especially if you have various sources, so they aren’t all in one place. Haha, I know, book administration isn’t the most fun thing to do. But I think it’s a matter of finding a system that works for you without too much fuss and then just getting into the habit. Glad to hear you liked The Art of War. I often like short books, it’s an art in itself to be able to express what you want to say in a limited amount of words. ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. Keep track of unread books? What on earth is that? What on earth do you mean? IS there such a thing?? Are you an alien, stargazer? WHY WOULD YOU DO SUCH A THING??? The normal thing to do is, oh! Cheap ebook! Click to buy. That’s it. Then just keep doing it and make it a habit. That’s THE & ONLY system LOL oK on a serious note. I don’t keep track. Hardly. Ok, no. NEVER. I have many unread, soon to be read books LOL So kudos to you for doing it and having a high-tech system to help you with it. I’ve read Such A Fun Age, and honestly, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it as much as many other readers. Just not for me I guess. I couldn’t even write a review of it LOL Jamila looks intriguing. Really couldn’t tell the location from the pic though. I’d do Art of War too! ๐Ÿ™‚

    • ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿคฃ Oh dear, I got it completely wrong, haven’t I! Hahaha, love the alien theory – and can’t rule it out! See, I’m quite good at the browse and click part. But just leaving it there, is where I go wrong. I love the more random “download and let’s see what happens” approach, but I just don’t have it in me! Sorry to hear about your experience with Such A Fun Age it makes me a little worried as well, since we seem to have sort of similar taste in books. Anyway, I will go into it with an open mind. Thanks for stopping by, loved your comment! ๐Ÿ˜

  7. I use Goodreads for all of my tracking and use a disciplined approach to labeling my shelves consistently. I also use the personal notes section to indicate what books I own and the format (in my Audible library, on my Kindle or books I purchased and own and reside in folders on my desktop). I donโ€™t ever buy or download a book without updating Goodreads simultaneously! It works.

    FYI, I use Goodreads to help me create my Saturdays at the Cafรฉ post each week. I just click on the to read shelf and it lists it in last added order.

    • Yes!! I knew there had to be bloggers out there with a super organised approach to book tracking. It sounds like you have a lot more experience with Goodreads than I do, I’ve barely scraped the surface. ๐Ÿ™„ Your approach sounds efficient and I agree, the key must be to register shortly after you buy a book to avoid tedious multi-book updates from time to time. Yeah, I can see why your approach is convenient for weekly update posts. I’ve told myself before about getting organised at Goodreads, maybe this time it’ll actually happen! Great advice, Jonetta!๐Ÿ‘

  8. I have a John Boyne novel to read in one of my boxes and I think it is The Heart’s Invisible Furies (I know it’s an orange cover anyway). I try to keep up the books I have on Goodreads. I try to change them from ‘MyWishlist’ to To Read when I finally have them. I also leave a lot of books in Little Free Libraries and bring some in at a secondhand charity store but I don’t really note down when I don’t have them anymore. I don’t really like that idea :-).

    • Sounds like a good idea to use both MyWishlist and To Read to be able to distinguish between books you own and books you would like to read but don’t own yet. I have never been sentimental about getting rid of books, but now where (almost) all my reading is electronic, I don’t have to. Except for library books of course. Thanks for the input! ๐Ÿ˜€

  9. I have over 100 unread books on my kindle. Oops. It’s the daily deals that do me. Especially when they’re 99p Philippa Gregory ones!

    • Haha, I can’t resist daily deals either, that is how I acquire a lot of my audiobooks! Ever since I got my Kindle, I have been in awe about being able to buy a book for the same price as a cup of coffee!

  10. Love this list of unread books, Stargazer. I use Goodreads, but Iโ€™m not as fastidious about it as I wish I were. I could stop buying books and read the rest of my unread shelf, so I need to take note of that! ๐Ÿ˜‚

    • Yes, I guess Goodreads really is designed to keep track of books. So far, I’ve mostly used it to look up books and see their ratings. Hahaha, I like the idea of reading my books before buying new ones, but I’m sure most readers would think “where would be the fun in that?” ๐Ÿ˜

    • Haha, after a while you can do a treasure hunt on the Oasis and discover long forgotten treasures. You might also do a game as in choose a random number and read the book with that number, when sorted by date. Lots of possibilities! ๐Ÿ˜

  11. I keep track of my unread books on Goodreads. I have sooooo many. I try to keep the ones I want to read at the top of my kindle screen and about once week, I scroll through the top of the ones I have downloaded to make sure something doesn’t fall off the screen. It doesn’t really work well, but it makes me feel good.

    • Ah, that is interesting. When I first got a kindle, I used a similar system, i.e. tried to keep the ones I wanted to read first on top of the screen. But I gave up, because despite of my efforts, books still disappeared into obscurity! For most people it probably doesn’t matter, but I like to have an overview. From the replies to my post it sounds like Goodreads is the way forward. I just need to remember to add my books. ๐Ÿ™„๐Ÿ˜ Thanks so much for stopping by, it is really interesting to hear how other readers keep track of their books.

      • When I do my weekly stacking the shelves post, I make sure that I have added everything to my Goodreads shelf, but I occasionally miss something.

        • It makes a lot of sense to do the update in connection with your weekly stacking the shelves post. I don’t do similar post, but I think – as Jonetta suggested – it might be an idea to add books immediately after buying; then it’s done!

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