How do you keep track of your series?

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I found a free book database program, if anyone is interested in checking it out. It's called BookDB and works on Windows and Mac.

LINK: http://www.spacejock.com/BookDB.html

Here's a snippet of what the program offers:

With BookDB2 you can enter all your books with author, category, publisher etc and print them out in a variety of formats. Why would you need such a thing? Well, if you're always going to book sales and buying bargains only to get home and find you've doubled up, take a printout with you! BookDB2 has a super-condensed print mode so you'll need a magnifying glass, but at least it'll save a tree or two.

BookDB2 also has lending library features. With them, you can add borrowers, loan out books, add multiple copies and so on.

You can also import your catalogue from LibraryThing, which gives you a local, searchable database of your books. Whilst logged in to your LT account, click More (previous known as the 'Tools' link) and then "Export as tab-delimited text". Save the XLS file to your computer and then use BookDB2's 'Import LibraryThing' to read all the data in.

Barcodes: You can use any barcode scanner with BookDB2 provided it sends the data as keypresses.

[Vivian]

I think I'm finally at a point where I've got too many series I want to continue to keep track of here. May look into joining fictfact. I just don't want to have one more site to get obsessed with...

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I hear ya. But, they have made some good mods to the site that allow you to add your books fairly quickly. Still takes a bit of time to get them all over there though. Esp when you follow as many as we do. My list is never up-to-date. I have to make time to go over there and update it periodically. Definitely not a site I get obsessed about, nothing like GR, but it is great for tracking series.

[t'irla ~The Bookslayer~]

I just joined FictFact..mostly for the alerts to when new books in my series are coming out. I am tired of the million stick notes hanging around the laptop to remind me:)...I admit it has been a pain in the neck getting series entered tho..

[Qylie]

I like fictfact but don't like how time consuming it is to make books as read. If you are adding a series you have read most of it takes too long to make which books you have read.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yep, but once up and running it's pretty quick to update.

[t'irla ~The Bookslayer~]

I mark them all read and then go back and adjust the ones I haven't read..much quicker when you have read most of the series. So far I have only added the series I have read and nothing on my TBR shelf..as of yet:)

[Mary X]

I am way behind on updating my Fictfact page. I tend to go weeks w/o updating it and then just update it in one shot.

I have so many books at this point-there are a few series that I have decided to just read out of order. I'm finding that a lot of mystery/thriller, cozie and romance series don't really have to be read in order. It's mostly paranormal/urban fantasy/sci-fi/fantasy that has to read in order.

[Book]

I'm the same way. I update FictFact in fits and spurts. Then I look at all the series I am behind on and get depressed. :( So many books... **sigh**

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

LOL or so many good books to look forward to, already pretested by your friends :D

[Lauren]

I guess I'm a bit more OCD. When I finish a book in one of my series, I mark it as read here on Goodreads and go straight to Fictfact and update it there as well.
I love Fictfact but their site is a bit slow.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Well, I'm pretty fanatical about marking off here at GR and on my lists, but I only do FF every couple of weeks.

[Book]

Sandra wrote: "LOL or so many good books to look forward to, already pretested by your friends :D"

LOL! I stand corrected.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

;)

[Vivian]

I ended up joining and listing the series I want to continue. It reminded me of a few series I started and forgot about, so this could be a good thing :)

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yay!!

[Mary X]

I mark them as read on GR and PBS immediately On GR because I'm doing the Goodreads challenge and if I don't mark it read right away with a date-then it doesn't get counted and I have to go back adn figure out which book I missed. I do it quickly on PBS because I want to remove it from my TBR Pile and see the # go down. Plus, I'm usually posting it there or sending it out in a game.

But I slack off on fictfact. I still lvoe the site though. I wish they had a forum. Although maybe it's good that they don't because I spend way too much time on GR and PBS already.

[Mary X]

I think I will go through and remove some series. I got excited when I first joined and loaded up a lot where I only read 1 book and don't really care if I read another. They just clog up the Next Books list.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

You can choose which books show on your Next Book list. I had to move some of mine up or down depending b/c I did the same, Mary. I added every book, even if it wasn't one I was thrilled about continuing. Don't need those taking up space on my shoppin' list. :)

Yay Vivian! Enjoy!

[Kerstin]

Well, I've finally caved in and joined FictFact as well. I'm still in the progress of adding all my series and there are a lot more than I thought!

[Steph, Serious series addict]

LOL! Yep, it's scary when you realize just how many you've started, yah? Me too.

[Vivian]

I'm really loving that I can see all my next up books on one page. I try doing that here on GR, but I forget to add it to the shelf a lot.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I like that too. Have you noticed that you can edit your 'next up' book order? I had a lot of books on there that I wasn't thrilled about, so I swapped the order, making sure my favorite upcoming series books were listed at the top.

[Vivian]

I did notice that, but I was at a loss about which ones to stick at the very top, lol. I kept seeing a series and saying, ooh, that needs to be bumped up!

I also noticed a thread in the GR feedback group requesting a next-in-series feature here. It would be nice if everything could be available in one place :)

[Steph, Serious series addict]

LOL! :D
Ah, that'd be sweet!

[Kerstin]

Steph wrote: "LOL! Yep, it's scary when you realize just how many you've started, yah? Me too."

Quite scary, I'm currently at 101 series. Didn't think I was reading that many, lol. I also realized I have quite a few series of which I only read #1 and then somehow never got back to read the rest.

That's me by the way: http://www.fictfact.com/user/Kerstin

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I tried to add ya, but it said, "Sorry, we can not find that user or that user is private."

I'm http://www.fictfact.com/user/StephB if ya wanna add me instead.

[Kerstin]

I realized I did have a private profile, fixed it and added you :)

[Steph, Serious series addict]

Yay! :D Thx, Kerstin. Last ck I have something like 180+ series, creepin' up though, lots left to add. It's pretty clear why I started a series group. LOL! Can't get enough of 'um. :D

[Vivian]

Wow, you guys make me feel like weaksauce, I think I only added 50ish and that was more than enough for me. I guess if I added all the firsts I don't plan on continuing there'd be some more, but still way under 100.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Vivian, you made me curious, just went and checked, 274 series.

However, that includes lots of mysteries & romances from way before GR. Always been a series girlie, no matter the genre. LOL

[t'irla ~The Bookslayer~]

wow thats crazy..I have only 73 but I don't have alot of mine listed..only the ones I would like to know if another book comes out....too much work to much work to add them all

[Lauren]

I only have the series that I will definitely continue reading. If I read one and don't plan on continuing, I remove it from the list. I have 80 series in various stages of completion.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

I have more to add and am interested in my total #. But, I agree, Lauren, it's probably best if I narrow my list to those series I want to continue. But ... I keep coming back to wanting to know how many I've read. LOL! Once the list really starts to scare me, I'll probably knock off those I don't intend to continue.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Quite a lot of mine are completed series, there would only be a handful that I wasn't going to continue. But you're right I should probably cull those.

[Vivian]

It depends on if you want fictfact to be a complete (or as complete as possible) reading history. I don't really need it to be since I only joined to keep up with series I want to continue.

I understand being a serial reader though. I think I started with Babysitter's club in elementary school and haven't stopped since :)

[Steph, Serious series addict]

True. I'm stuck between wanting it to be as complete as possible and not wanting to see just how many I haven't completed.

[Josie]

Oh so true! I didn't even realise I was starting so many series until the 'SOS Love or Hate @ First Sight Read'. It says I've read at least 8 a month! 8!! How am I meant to keep up with that? No wonder I have so many incomplete series. I'm hoping that won't continue for every month though...

[Kerstin]

I hear you! Though I haven't started too many series in the last couple of months, I have a stack of firsts lying around at home I'm planing to get to in the near future... I just can't stop myself.

[Steph, Serious series addict]

"I just can't stop myself." That's me in a nutshell! :D

[Lauren]

Vivian wrote: "It depends on if you want fictfact to be a complete (or as complete as possible) reading history."

Exactly. I use Goodreads and Shelfari to keep a record of my reading history. I use Fictfact to keep track of the next book in the series that I am reading.

[Mary X]

When I signed up for fictfact-I wanted to list every series book I ever read. Now I realize it's really better for current series that I'm actively reading and want to track. A lot of the series I added are trilogies that are done and don't really need to be on there. They were added in the excitement of joining.

[Lis]

For the last couple of years it's been this little paper notebook that's held together with lots of tape. But out of paranoia of losing said notebook, I started tracking books on GRs. Then I finally joined FictFact and it has been great for tracking series.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

I am quite late to this discussion but I must say that Fictfact really helped with the series I follow. I'm not as OCD as some of you but I do have a spreadsheet to keep track of reading challenges. Normally I only do like 2 reading challenges and it is not so bad but multiple ones are hard to keep them straight.

Maybe someone already mentioned it before (I apologize if you did 'cause I did not read all 4 pages of posts)...but you can save your list from Goodreads in Excell. I know I would die if Goodreads ever crashed or something. It saves all the important info on books you've read and even your reviews and stuff.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/import

(Just use ''export to a csv file'' on the right side of the screen).

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Thanks for that Valerie, pretty sure no one else has mentioned that.

[Valerie ~ Val Hall ~]

I try :)

[Judithe, Soap Operas never end....]

LOL...I have GR, the PC "backup" and another copy on Google docs...just in case!

[Midu]

This is me
http://www.fictfact.com/user/Anomander

[Elle]

Hello!

I hope people don't mind me adding them on fictfact. I think I have like 2 friends so far...

I'm http://www.fictfact.com/user/DelorisPea

And I hope I can join in.

I normally stick all things that look interesting to my fictfact list hence a lot are not started! Gotta get reading!!

[Judithe, Soap Operas never end....]

Added you, too!