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Do you catalogue your books?

H

headpodd

New Member
Having come back from the bookshop recently, very pleased with one of my new purchases (Bram Stoker's Dracula - always wanted to read it), I was horrifed to discover by chance at the weekend (looking for another book) that I already owned it......

Whilst I could blame this on my age and fading memory, I chose instead to focus on the fact that it was because I am now in a situation where books are taking over my flat and there could be no way I could keep track of everything I own.....

Inspired by this realisation I embarked upon a somewhat tedious but strangely rewarding task.....

Armed with a blank excel spreadsheet, I settled upon the following headings - Author, Title, ISBN, copyright date, edition, edition number, publisher, version and other comments - and proceded to catalogue every single book I own accordingly.......

Some considerable hours later, I emerged somewhat bleary eyed (and to a room looking like an explosion in a library) but triumphant and am now the proud owner of a list of all my books with all the above information in one spreadsheet, easily filtered to view in any way I wish.....

Whilst I have made some very interesting discoveries, and know that I can now confidently approach the bookshop knowing which books I don't need to buy, I can't help thinking I should get out more......

Can anyone relate to this?

:rolleyes:
 
I'm planning on doing this as soon as I'm properly moved in (I'm moving at the mo); not because I have to, but because I want to.

Cheers
 
Catalogue my books? Some time to actually read the blooming things would be nice. :rolleyes:

Actually, if I had the time it is something I would like to do, and have always wanted to do, because I do like to be neat and organised when I get the chance.

Headpodd: I do hope you have floppy disk back-ups in case your computer crashes! :eek:
 
It's not something I've really thought about doing - it would be nice in a way to know exactly what I have but I can't see myself finding enough time to actually do something about it.

I know roughly what books I own and can't see myself buying one I've already got (I'd remember the plot etc) but if I did, then it wouldn't bother me. We own several copies of some books (just looking at my bookcases I can see 4 copies of the same book :rolleyes: ) In series I collect, I have a bad habit of buying the hardback and reading it carefully, then keeping it in pristine condition. I then go and buy the paperback when it is published to read to my hearts content. Add to that Phil and I have a similar taste in books, you get several copies floating about the house.

We don't do this much now as we can't afford it :(
 
Sadly, I catalogue all my books also. This was partly for practical reasons, because I have over 850 books now and needed to know all of them to avoid duplications, and partly just to see how many I had actually accumulated. Even I was shocked by the amount! I am behind the times, and still write all mine in an A4 address book, using the author's surname as the reference letter.

Deeply sad, but somehow rewarding at the same time!
 
I've a freeware cataloging program that I'd like to share with you guys if you're so inclined. Please hop over to this thread for more info.

I'd love to catalog my books in a software that lists everything I have, and also lists out my wishlist. This software should ideally run from my PDA, which I can consult whenever I'm in a bookstore, so no multiple copies. :) Oh, and it has to be free. :)

No such thing that I can find yet. :)

ds
 
I use an excel spreadsheet also it is alot of fun I think. But I have a worksheet for fiction, non, scifi, etc. then on each sheet I have just Title, Author, Read, and Own.
 
Yes I do

I used to make half-hearted attempts with both Excel and Access and ended up adding features I thought I might need instead of adding books!

My books are "double-parked" (yes, shame on me) and finding that one book I just knew I had was a major problem.

Via another book-site I found a site (free) that allows you to catalogue your books. It is one man's labour-of-love, and does lack the "Category" option, among other things, but it does give you the possibility of downloading your library in csv-format and build locally from there, it also has a wish list option. You can decide if your library should be public or private (mine currently is). It used to be connected to amazon.com. amazon.co.uk and amazon.de, but I understand that currently here is some problems with adding books by ISBN, I am not certain whether this just concerns non-US editions or not.

What can I say? For now, it does me fine ... and just in case I get the time or the inspiration to build my own db, I always download a csv-file when I am done editing. And this is not a plug .. I do not know this man from Adam!

Site: www.bibliophil.org
 
I have, at times, fantasized about cataloguing my library, but I am afraid it will always remain a fantasy. (I've got something like 8,000 titles.) I usually avoid duplication by making "want" lists. Once I've filled the list, I can then "forget" about those books.
At any rate, ds's PDA fueled visit to the bookstore sounds good.
 
When I was pretty young (10-14) range, I did catalogue my books. I collected antique children's series and knowing what I already had made it easier to find missing volumes when I visited used bookstores and estate sales. But I haven't done it in years. Too many books -- too little time. :(
 
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