How do you keep track of short stories read?

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chlorine

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As years go by I find myself enjoying short stories more and more. I read some collections, some magazines, and some standalone ones available on the web. Occasionally there are intersections between these sources, e.g. a collection will contain a story that I've already read as a standalone, or two collections contain a same story.
My problem is I will not always be sure whether I've already read a story or not, so I would like a convenient way to be able to keep track of which ones I've read. It would also help me to find back one I've loved but whose title I've forgotten. Does anybody has a convenient way of doing that? Book tracking sites such as librarything or goodreads are not good to track which story appears in which collection.
isfdb.com is an invaluable resource for tracking which collection contains which stories and vice versa, but does not allow me to keep track of which ones I read.

I'd be interested to know if some people have a way to deal with this (also I hope this is the correct place to post this question).
 
I've kept a log of books I have read since January 1974, which has often been useful, sometimes in unexpected ways. Occasionally I make note of short stories read as well, but not always, for sure. I keep the list going in a series of notebooks, and also transcribe the data in a digital document. The digital document, which I just updated before seeing this thread, would come to 131 pages if I printed it. I do have a printed copy, but I haven't printed the most recent pages to add to it. The list I refer to generally has the dates of reading, the author's last name, the title, and an indication of whether this was a 2nd or later reading -- that might be about all; sometimes I write a little more.

But as for short stories, if I just felt like rereading, say, Karen Joy Fowler's "Standing Room Only," I likely wouldn't record the reading. If, however, I checked out a science fiction anthology in which I read her story and several others, it's not unlikely that I would list all of those stories in a notebook & then in my digital list.

Often, in short story books I own, I'll make a note in the book of when I read one of the stories. During these past few weeks I picked up several of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story collections and a Chekhov story collection, and finished reading the stories in them. The Chekhov I had started reading in 1997, and the Singers had been started quite a few years ago too. I've noted dates of reading in a bunch of Groff Conklin sf anthologies. But I haven't been consistent about this practice. That's one of the ways in which my book log is good for what it does but is not a complete picture of my reading, even of my fiction and poetry reading (I have never attempted to list my reading of current events magazines and newspapers, etc.).
 
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Pyan said:
Yes, I find that the first couple of sentences are usually a dead giveaway.
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If I thought the story wasn't much good the first time I read it, I probably wouldn't want to reread it, but often I want to reread a story that I know is good. If I were enjoying a story, but suddenly realized I had read it years ago, that wouldn't be a reason to put it down.
 
I think that you are serious about keeping track of the Short Stories you have read, then keep a small paper notepad on hand and record accordingly. Then enter this info into a spreadsheet for easy sorting. It may be a bit much for most to do.

Or keep an actual copy of the story you have read filed away. Easer but now you'll have to put them into file boxes and store them somewhere.

Maybe your own memory is the best way to go. :)
 
Extollager said:
I've kept a log of books I have read since January 1974, which has often been useful, sometimes in unexpected ways. Occasionally I make note of short stories read as well, but not always, for sure. I keep the list going in a series of notebooks, and also transcribe the data in a digital document. The digital document, which I just updated before seeing this thread, would come to 131 pages if I printed it. I do have a printed copy, but I haven't printed the most recent pages to add to it. The list I refer to generally has the dates of reading, the author's last name, the title, and an indication of whether this was a 2nd or later reading -- that might be about all; sometimes I write a little more.

But as for short stories, if I just felt like rereading, say, Karen Joy Fowler's "Standing Room Only," I likely wouldn't record the reading. If, however, I checked out a science fiction anthology in which I read her story and several others, it's not unlikely that I would list all of those stories in a notebook & then in my digital list.

Often, in short story books I own, I'll make a note in the book of when I read one of the stories. During these past few weeks I picked up several of Isaac Bashevis Singer's story collections and a Chekhov story collection, and finished reading the stories in them. The Chekhov I had started reading in 1997, and the Singers had been started quite a few years ago too. I've noted dates of reading in a bunch of Groff Conklin sf anthologies. But I haven't been consistent about this practice. That's one of the ways in which my book log is good for what it does but is not a complete picture of my reading, even of my fiction and poetry reading (I have never attempted to list my reading of current events magazines and newspapers, etc.).
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I should have said -- I might write, in the book, the date I first read a given story (if I knew), and maybe record later readings or not. I have a small number (compared to many of y'all I'm sure) and might want to be able to tell if I hadn't yet read a story. In other words, I'm not concerned to avoid rereading a good story, but I might want to be able to tell if I hadn't read something, for better or worse, so far. This would apply to a big book like Asimov's anthology Before the Golden Age, where I can tell that I've read such as such stories but not, say, the "Tumithak" story yet (though I've had the book for many years).
 
Just finsihed "how the Marquis for his coat back" a Nel Gaiman Neverwhere short story .. it as been read and is not at the bottom of the read again pile after Skullduggery Plesant
 
Danny McG said:
Is that the 'corridors' one?
(Or am I thinking of something else?)
I've occasionally wondered where to find it
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Yes, that's right -- "Corridors" is in the title.

I have Before the Golden Age as one thick hardcover book. I think it was made into three paperbacks, so if you're looking for this particular story in paperback, you'd want to make sure of getting the right volume!
 
I track my novels in a tweet thread. No reason you couldn't do that with short stories too.

Think I'm also going to do a spreadsheet in future. Again, can be done with short stories.
 
About ten years ago I set up a database to list short stories as I read them. This began with anthologies and moved on to collections. It now runs to almost 200 pages (covering over 200 anthologies/collections). Unfortunately it's fairly useless except as a record of what stories I've read and by what author. Although I think of it as a database, it’s more just a glorified list.

This is an example of the format:
“The Problem of Pain" by Poul Anderson (1973) (BSFSY3) (Van Rijn)
Peter Berg recounts how his Christian faith was challenged while working on an expedition with his Ythrian employers.
i.e. Title of story/author/date/ Abbreviations for titles of anthologies/collections that contain it
Brief one or two line summary (not plot spoiling).
The entries are listed alphabetically by author.

It's useful for checking what stories I've read by a particular author. However, if someone poses a short story question on Chrons Book Search, while I may remember reading it, I can't track down the story unless I can guess the author and look through the entries listed under that author.

I sometimes wish I'd included main themes of stories in the format, in order to be able to trace stories more easily, but I suspect that'd have got seriously unwieldy and that much more nerdy than my needs.
 
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Spreadsheet. It began as a way to solidify in my mind what I'd learned about Excel, then became a habit that satisfies my curiosity about what I've read and when. Also a nifty index to find out where I left off in a collection or anthology I've been sampling rather than reading cover to cover.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I guess I'll try a spreadsheet and see how it goes. :)
 
chlorine said:
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I guess I'll try a spreadsheet and see how it goes. :)
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Ive long since forgotten how many many books and stories ive actually read. ive probably reread a few that ive forgotten.

One short story writer that ive reread the most is Clark Ashton Smith . I love his stories, they're so beautifully written.:cool:
 
Generally, i try and remember them. To be fair, most short stories tend to be together in anthologies, so its not too arduous.
 
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