Weekly topic for discussion - How do you use book tags?

[Jonetta]

When I first joined Shelfari and then Goodreads, I wasn't really sure what the purpose of these tags were beyond want to read, currently reading and read. After participating in group discussions and having my TBR shelf swell to enormous proportions, I'm now really grateful that I started using them. Here are some examples of why.

My NetGalley books grew out of control last year. I am slowly but surely making my way through the list, made easier because I have them tagged as "NetGalley ARC" and can easily retrieve the list.

I also tag my books by genre so when I want to see my books in the romantic suspense category, I can easily see those series I meant to continue and forgot about.

Those Kindle freebies are also tagged and one of my goals is to read at least one of them each month. The tags make them easy to access.

From time to time I win giveaways. As these books are mostly contributed directly by the author, I give them higher priority in my reading plans. This year's goal is to read all of them.

These are some examples of how book tags make my reading life easier. I have seen many interesting tags and sometimes wish I had thought to use tags that describe the story type (i.e., friends to lovers, love triangle, tortured hero).

What are some of the types and ways you use book tags?

[Janeiowa]

I've not ever used tags, but your suggested uses has made me consider doing so. [ I've kept a spreadsheet on my laptop with my books, where I got them (library, or Kindle or Nook or own (meaning paperback) or the digital library I borrowed from, rating, author and a brief annotation for a number of years as my way of keeping track of what I read.]

I'm interested to see how others use tags.

[Jonetta]

I use Goodreads tags to track my sources (library, NetGalley, author's, purchased/owned).

[Heather L]

I don't use tags to keep track of sources, but do shelve books by genre, group reads, featured authors, First Read books (books won from GR), and also have some shelves for favorite individual authors. It makes it easy to go to - for example - the Nora Roberts shelf and see what I have, what I've actually read, and when I read it. I have also seen people shelve books by location (state/province, country, continent). There are times I wish I had thought of that, LOL.

[Barbara ★]

I do a lot of reading challenges and my shelves now reflect what most tasks require. I have difficulty remembering what a book is about, never mind where it took place or what cover the cover was so I create shelves for everything. These shelves are strictly to make finding a book for a specific challenge quicker.

I have over 11,000 books on my TBR so searching through looking for a pink or yellow cover would be crazy so I now have shelves for each color. As well as other things on the cover such as animal, building, fire, etc.

I have shelves for all the genres I read; for all the US states; countries around the world sorted by continent; based on fairy tales, second chances, etc. Basically anything a challenge task could ask for.

I have over 3000 books in my apartment so I actually have 2 TBRs - own and need. That way I know at a glance whether I have it or not.