Why I Log All the Books I Read to My Kids

I enjoy tracking things and my reading is one of the things I track the most.  As well as our spending, miles I run, water I drink, steps I take, and exactly which calendar days we've been on vacation (like how we were never on vacation over the 10th of any month until last June).  I like keeping track of things I've done.

So of course it makes sense that I track the books I read to my kids.  I didn't start this until Luke was somewhere 18 months - 2 years but since then, I've tracked every book I've read each of them as well as how much time I spend reading to them.  I enjoy reading with them and it's motivating to me to see both of those number grow over time.

When I started tracking the books I was reading with Luke, it seemed natural that I'd log them all on Goodreads since that's where I log my books.  I started with just his absolute favorites - Little Blue Truck might have been the first.  Then that slowly ramped up into them all.  That means that if you follow me there, you frequently see me adding picture books.  Maybe not what you are looking for but those updates are more often than myself adding new books!  I can knock out 2 dozen books to them in the time it takes me to read one (although, not every book I read them is new, especially lately we've been rereading a lot of our favorites that we own).

In light of that, I've come up with why I clog up my Goodreads with so many kid books (I've logged over 2,500 to date):

1) Track Them Numerically
Back when I first heard of "1,000 books before kindergarten" I remember saying "there is no way I could read him 1,000 different books by then".  Turns out I had read him 1,300 different one by the time Luke entered kindergarten which I know because I've logged them all.  Now Sam is well on track to hit that, at least (his current count: almost 600, with more than 3 years before kindergarten).  I find it hilarious and exciting to see that I've read SO MANY books to my boys.  There are plenty of parenting things I get wrong, but this is one area I feel like I get right.

2) Track Them for Titles

A long time ago, when I was 8-10ish, my Mom gave me a notebook to keep track of all the books I was reading.  I still have this although I wasn't super great about tracking them all.  And I was out of the picture book stage by then so it was mostly early chapter books (I know Babysitters' Club make an appearance there).  I wish I had titles of every book my Mom read me although writing that all down for 6 kids...I understand why she didn't.  (Smartphones make all this tracking so easy now.)  But someday, if my boys remember fuzzy details of some book I read them, chances are slightly better I'll be able to figure out what it was.

Also, as we work on reading every single Berenstain Bear book (we've read over 200 and STILL that's not all of them), this is an easy place to look when I don't remember if we've read something.  We've read a lot of books, I can't remember them all!

3) Rate Them
I've gotten in the habit of scanning books and adding them to the boys' list as shortly after finishing a reading session.  I almost always rate them right away.  Sometimes we really enjoy a book and I see that it's over 4 stars on Goodreads.  That makes sense.  Other times we really enjoy a book and I see that it's poorly rated.  That makes less sense.  I am more generous with stars on picture books than my own books.  Maybe because there's less impressing to do in the 5 minutes it might take to read one vs. hours I can spend on mine.  But it is helpful to see a general, overall opinion. 

4) Find More Books
My sister has also been logging all her kids' books and I automatically add to my library list anything she gives 4 or 5 stars to.  She finds a lot of good ones! (And sometimes we just trade picture books to save each other library holds - also very helpful!).

5) To Be Notified of New Picture Books
Goodreads sends me an e-mail at the end of every month of new books coming out the following month of authors' I've previously read.  Adding picture books means new books of every picture book author gets added to that e-mail.  It can be a very long e-mail.  There's been a lot of picture books we've enjoyed and I don't know how I would keep track of all the new releases without this.  Although, it's not perfect because when I write posts like the Summer Picture Book lists, I am often surprised when Amazon shows me related titles to books I'm linking to.  But it's a good start.

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I rarely add picture books to my TBR.  I keep a list on our library app for picture books to put on hold, picture books to pick up at our local branch, as well as picture books to get downtown at the main branch (as well as another list to request from storage there, almost entirely Berenstain Bears).  If a picture book isn't yet in the library system but I want to remember to read it, then I add to TBR and check the library system later OR eventually request that they buy them.  We are allowed to request 3 books a month and there are plenty of months I've maxed out mine and Luke's requests.  (And then feel very justified when there is a long holds list for a picture book I've requested!  I feel like this one has been constantly checked out since I requested that they buy it.)

Maybe you don't like tracking your whole life (I don't understand this, being a number person, I really like seeing numbers).  Maybe you are not at a life stage that you are daily reading picture books.  BUT, just as I've enjoyed tracking my own reading, I'm also very glad that I've been tracking what I read to the boys.  I see a lot of benefits to this and seeing their numbers go up is exciting.  It's far from the only mark of a good parent but I do feel like I'm succeeding at some part of parenting when I regularly read to them!

(If you'd like to see my overflow of picture books, you can follow me on Goodreads here!)

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