People always ask me “What good books have you been reading?” It’s hard for me to think on the spot. Thanks to Meredith Sweet, who gave me a book several years ago for recording books, I now have a record of what I am reading (several notebooks later). I’ve also joined Goodreads (goodreads.com), which is a fun way to have an online tool to not only record what you read, but share with friends books that you want to read, are reading, and have read, with reviews, if you like. It’s a kind of social networking for book lovers. I joined in January of this year, and Goodreads just sent me a synopsis of 2016.

In 2016 I read 39 books. The shortest book was “Ghosts of Acadia” by Marcus LiBrizzi (read for my Maine Historical Society book group) at 142 pages. The longest book I read was Rosamunde Pilcher’s “Coming Home” at 977 pages. The most popular book was “Me Before You” by JoJo Moyes (read for my Maine Charitable Mechanics Association book group), which over a million other people on Goodreads already read. The “least” popular book (at least in Goodreads) was “Early Gravestones in Southern Maine” by Roy Romano, which is probably more of local interest, and popular within the state. My average rating of books was 4.4, which means that either I’m easy to please, or I just choose to read good books.

Goodreads also allows me to add book reviews, which is nice for books that are more obscure, such as a book that a friend of mine wrote, and asked me to review for Goodreads. There are probably many other features that I have yet to take the time to figure out (like any social networking tool, it can suck up a lot of time). But otherwise, it’s a great way to keep track of books and share with friends what I am reading.