Jack Baty

I don't take many notes while reading, but I still like to record when I read a book and maybe a short note about why I enjoyed it (or didn't).

Right now I do this in four places: my wiki, Goodreads, Literal, and my private notes. This isn't sustainable.

The easy answer is Goodreads. It's the big one and is where everyone seems to be. But it's unattractive, cluttered, and slow. It feels too sales-ey. I don't like being there. Also, too many reviews are really just thinly-disguised grabs for attention.

Literal is much nicer. Clean, airy, and pleasant. It's one of the places where the anti-Goodreads crowd ends up. But it's kind of empty, and maybe a little too airy. And I still can't change or remove editions, which bugs me a little.

I like the idea of having all of my book notes in the wiki, but it's lonely there. It doesn't feel nearly as much like sharing as it does on Goodreads. Sometimes I consider that a feature. Other times it feels like a waste of time. Adding books is more work there, too. Too much work? It's probably the best option, though.

Logging my books privately is no fun at all and I'll probably stop doing it.

Oh, and I forgot that there's a fifth location: books.baty.net. This is just a static list showing the book, author, date, and rating. No reviews or longer notes. No social aspects. No “feed”. It doesn't try to be anything but a simple record. It's lonely there, like the wiki, but for some reason, I'm OK with it. I wish I'd pick this one. Maybe I will.

Still noodlin' on all this.