It is a truth universally acknowledged and known that Suchita Agarwal uses a Google sheet to organize her reading efforts. But, why and how that began is a story she would like to tell you today.
I have a lot of thoughts when it comes to the books that I read but I dislike sharing those thoughts publicly. My favourite nightmare is I will say something semi-critical of a book and the author will read it, despite my not using any trackable hashtags or tags or mentions, and then they’ll feel bad. Yes, I have given too much power to myself and not enough good sense to them. Here we are nonetheless.
Sometime in 2017, I read a string of books that made my blood boil and I had to find an outlet for it. I opened a Word Document but I was so angry, I could only write 3 lines to encompass my disappointment with a highly anticipated book. Seeing those 3 lines in an otherwise empty document was even more irritating so I opened a Google sheet. I thought this way, I’ll be able to access the sheet from my phone too and if through the day, I had more thoughts, I could easily add it.
That is how my sheet – Books Read – was born. It now has 7 years’ worth of data in it. For some entries, there are essays (like Metamorphosis or the Divine Comedy) and for some, there are not even two lines because they failed to engage me that spectacularly.
It’s a fun thing for me to do and here I’m going to tell you how it has helped me in my reading journey:
- I was going through a phase where I wasn’t reading much. Seeing so few entries in my sheet reminded me I needed to focus more on reading and less on binge watching Netflix shows.
- It helped me compare different reads from my list that ultimately makes me a better reader and writer. It has also sharpened my storytelling skills.
- At one point, I thought I was spending too much on books so it served as an expense account as well. At the end of the year, I added the cost (yes, sometimes I use sheets for their intended purpose i.e. crunching data) and had a fair understanding of how much budget I needed to park next year for book-purchasing expenses.
- In 2022 I realized I hadn’t read a lot of Indian authors in 2021 so the sheet became an easy way to ensure that I would read more desi books.
- Similarly, in 2021 I realized I had read less fantasy books in 2020 so I added a column for genre to remedy that.
- This year, because I have devised a rating system, I have a column for that. It helps me to filter out books as per the ratings and see if there’s a pattern that emerges in similarly rated books. I use this pattern to see if a book should be added to my TBR.
- Sometimes reading my thoughts makes me want to reread a book. Like this year I reread The Song of Achilles and next year, I may reread The Sense of an Ending.
- Sometimes, when someone talks about a book I have read, I go back to my sheet to refresh what I had thought and compare it to their thoughts. Seeing someone else’s perspective always gives me a kick.
What new column will I add in 2024? Maybe a means to organize my KU reads? Maybe I’ll join a book challenge and I’ll have to add prompts – who knows?
All the above may sound like I take my reading too seriously but this is actually fun for me. There is nothing more relaxing than being able to admire my sheet at the end of the year and revisit previously read books through the thoughts I have written.
Do you have special place where you save your thoughts on the books you read?
This post is part of Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.
Header image: Photo by Ylanite Koppens
tales of Suchita 
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