How do you keep track of what you've read?

[mvccd1000]

I usually read around 100 books per year, and I know there are some here who read even more than I do. How do you keep track of what you've read so you don't end up buying or borrowing a book only to discover on page 7 that you've read this one before?

When I began working out of the country in 2004, I started a spreadsheet so I could keep track of the books I read during my travels. I had columns for Last Name, First Name, Title, Copyright Date, Date Read, and Rating. (This way I could sort the titles of series authors into the order they were written; can you imagine trying to figure out which of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels, or Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch books was written first if they were sorted by title?)

I'd rate each book as I read it (1-5, with 5 being the best and 1 being, "I hated it and probably didn't even finish it.&quot When it was time to order new 1-cent used paperbacks from Amazon, I'd sort by the 5s and look up additional works by those authors so I'd know I was ordering something I'd like.

I've noticed that since I got a kindle for Christmas in 2010, however, I've neglected my spreadsheet. All of the books I've downloaded on kindle show up on my Amazon account, and I can rate them there (the same as my spreadsheet; 1-5 stars). Unfortunately, it's not so easy to sort by the 5s on Amazon... I think I need to get busy and type all of those into my spreadsheet so I can sort and shop again.

My spreadsheet is currently stalled at 752, last updated in September of last year. For anyone interested, my top 10 authors for the most "5" ratings are:

Michael Connelly (19 "5s", 2 "4s", 1 "3&quot
Lee Child (10 "5s", 3 "4s", 4 "3s&quot
Harlan Coben (7 "5s", 8 "4s", 2 "3s&quot
Robert Crais (7 "5s", 6 "4s", 2 "3s&quot
Jeffery Deaver (7 "5s", 9 "4s", 3 "3s", 2 "2s&quot *
Barry Eisler (7 "5s", 1 "4&quot **
Nelson DeMille (6 "5s", 5 "4s", 3 "3s&quot
Vince Flynn (6 "5s", 5 "4s", 2 "3s&quot
Brian Haig (6 "5s", 1 "4&quot **
Marcus Wynne (5 "5s", 2 "4s&quot **

*Goes to show that even the good ones have duds; Jeffery Deaver has almost as many 2s and 3s as he does 5s.
**Eisler, Haig, and Wynn are the only ones with no duds; everything is a 4 or a 5.