Why would you need a service to keep track on what you read? I have a text file with a list of book and some notes about every book. Works perfectly for me.
Because I can see what my connections (close and not-at-all-close friends) are reading.
Because I like it and have been using it pretty much since 2013.
Goodreads works perfectly for me as it was intended to be used: a nice book database
If it's worth remembering, you'll remember you've read it, and if you want to refresh your memory what better than to reread?
If it’s not worth remembering, you won’t remember if you read it or not — so you could waste time rereading a forgettable book until you realize. ;)
Having a couple notes about the things that stood out to me at the time is a great way to remind myself how I felt about books I’ve long since stopped thinking about.
On the flip side, I can enjoy a book more than once. This is a definite plus.
On the flip side, I have a firm belief that every book worth reading changes you at least a little, so even if I don't remember it consciously, it has had an impact on me.
I did try writing notes at some point, and stopped after the first attempt. That was several years ago and I never read those notes :)
Same with books. I've had plenty of times where I'd start reading a book and then a chapter in recall it. It's just nice to have a list.
This next section isn't meant to be shitty: but what's the purpose of even keeping track of that? I've read hundreds, maybe thousands of books over my life and don't have a list of them anywhere, nor can I see a use for that.
having a list in notion reminds me to continue.
in addition having a list of books I want to read (ghost library in japanese?) reminds of the things I don't know yet or haven't read which in turn helps keeping the reading habits.
It was the list of books already read that didn't make sense. I hadn't considered it as a motivator to pick back up the habit.
For me these lists (which I regret starting far too late in my own reading career) now cover about 9000 items.
For me the prompt to starting the process was noticing that I was again and again giving a chance to really terrible authors. That had to stop. And it did.
As a natural feature of clearing out those lists when I finish a book, you create a book read list. I don't have much use for this but it is interesting to review the stats on say author nationality.
I really should start a notes file or spreadsheet to log my collections of things; I'm at a risk to accidentally buy doubles of e.g. video games now with all the cross platform releases and promotions. Play them though? Nah, I got a backlog and I prefer my 10 year old comfort games.
I’ve always seen GoodReads as more of a social network than just a list of what one’s read because you’re right, the latter is well replaced by a document.