How do you like to log what you’re reading?

[Iversen]

I don't like to log what I'm reading - especially not in quantitative terms. I may mentioned it in my log thread, but that's all - and most of all it's an excuse for writing something in a target language.

My favorite list on Firefox (on my old computer) is brimming with links to pages with useful content- the problem is that I never return to half of them. And logging what I have read would be tantamount to making a list over things I almost certainly won't read again unless it's in a target language and I paid good money for it and put it on a shelf - then I might conceivably return to it as a source for study texts (or as goodnight reading). And if I have it on a shelf then I have almost certainly read it at least once, so why bother about how long it took for how many pages? It's there, and that's all I need to know.

[Lisa]

I'm not very motivated by logging, myself, but reading has been the most successful part of my language learning.

I do my reading in paper books (I'm at the computer all day already), and since I read in the evening anyway, it's a freebie if I can read in my TL. What helps me is reading books in translation that I know well and want to read; I've tried dual language and graded readers but they just end up being boring, and I lose motivation. It's mostly been agatha christies since inexpensive used paperbacks are so widely available online (in common languages, at least). It's a weak form of a dual-language book; I sort of generally know what's happening, so I don't get totally lost if I lose a sentence or paragraph. I order used books online, generally; even the big urban library I visit has a decent spanish section, and asian languages, but very little of anything in french or german.

While I'm reading a paper book, I write down words (on an index card) and the page; and the next day, back at the computer, I look them up and decide if the word is really worth learning (since they are not graded there are some fairly rare words). The page is necessary since something a word out of context doesn't make sense and I have to look up that page and see what it was trying to say. Since I generally know the plot I just read along as best I can, and pick it up again if I miss a sentence of paragraph. And the next time I read that book I'll understand better. Then repeat the whole process.

[chikara]

I find logging my time motivates me a lot. Logging time for listening is obviously easier than logging my time for reading. Maybe I shouldn’t even bother logging what I read by the amount time I spend on it. What’s your favorite way of logging what you read?
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I've found that tracking my time is a great motivator, especially for listening. But when it comes to reading, it's trickier. Maybe ditching time logging for reading could be beneficial. What's your preferred method for logging your reading? Whether it's pages, chapters, or something else entirely, I'm curious to know what works best for others.

[squirrel]

I'm personally pretty motivated by tracking things quantitatively, and for reading, I track both time (Excel) and pages/books (Notion). In Excel, I just have a general log going of how much time I spend with my TL overall. In Notion, I have a "To Read" database. It's just a list of all the books in my TL that I eventually want to read. I have a general count of how many books I've read at the bottom, and I also have a column that counts pages. I personally like tracking both because I like to know how much time I interact with German and how long it takes me to read each book, but I also like to set my reading goals based on page count.

[Le Baron]

For those who log page counts and what-have-you, what is it that you find most useful or motivating about doing this? Since I personally have little interest in logging these things - I do it in a very loose fashion these days - I've found that if I plot a graph and the line for the 'books read' or 'podcasts listened to' is visibly going up the scale, but that e.g. my scores for listening or reading isn't budging much or is even stalling, that's not really very motivating.

It might be good for helping to work out and diagnose what might be going wrong, but I'd have to analyse a lot more than just 'books read' or 'pages read'. Probably never really finding any concrete thing to address. If I compare it to e.g. dietary intake, it's like me just measuring caloric input, but that would miss a lot of very useful and important information. I could get a lot a calories in by eating burgers and drinking beer, but it's counterproductive if my goal isn't to just get fat. Instead I'd need to know what calorie sources are best for my needs.

A better sort of logging in this respect would be discovering through analysis that e.g. I gained the most useful vocabulary/structure (and possibly better retention) by reading non-fiction, or non-fiction on a certain topic, or modern fiction. Or that reading for 30 minutes produced better outcomes than reading for an hour or for just 10 minutes. Or that reading in the morning produced better results than reading in the evening. That sort of thing might be useful, if I had the time for it. Still I suspect these are not fixed values anyway.

Generally I know that the more you read over time, the better you get. The more times you run into the same words in meaningful contexts. Merely writing down that I read a book is just meaningless. Noting down that I read a book and it was absolute trash is a lot more useful for avoiding future annoyance and time wasting.

The best strategy I find is to just have a supply of books in a TL. To read a book, finish it and move on to another one and to just keep doing that. Even junking a book if it isn't working and moving onto another. I don't know how many books I've read in German or Dutch, it's a lot, but it's like it no longer matters. It only mattered that I read them at the time.

[dubendorf]

For those who log page counts and what-have-you, what is it that you find most useful or motivating about doing this? Since I personally have little interest in logging these things - I do it in a very loose fashion these days - I've found that if I plot a graph and the line for the 'books read' or 'podcasts listened to' is visibly going up the scale, but that e.g. my scores for listening or reading isn't budging much or is even stalling, that's not really very motivating.

I have found that, for me, tracking leading indicators is a more effective source of motivation and consistency than tracking lagging indicators. A leading indicator would be something like "I read 20 pages today." A lagging indicator would be something like "My score on a reading comprehension test went form X to Y." For example, when I was trying to start reading more, setting the goal of "I want to read 25 books by the end of the year" was very ineffective, but setting the goal of "I want to read 20 pages every day" was very effective. By tracking a process-based goal, I could see my progress and stay motivated every day. Or, if I did not read 20 pages in a given day, I could ask myself why that was and try to change my schedule or what I was reading to better achieve that goal.

It might be good for helping to work out and diagnose what might be going wrong, but I'd have to analyse a lot more than just 'books read' or 'pages read'. Probably never really finding any concrete thing to address. If I compare it to e.g. dietary intake, it's like me just measuring caloric input, but that would miss a lot of very useful and important information. I could get a lot a calories in by eating burgers and drinking beer, but it's counterproductive if my goal isn't to just get fat. Instead I'd need to know what calorie sources are best for my needs.

To extend the analogy to your example of diet, if you want to lose fat or gain lean body mass, then tracking weight every day would likely be a frustrating indicator because weight varies day-to-day for many reasons. It could change based on time of day, hormonal cycles, water retention, etc. It is also unclear what one is supposed to do with that information. If your weight is up or down today relative to yesterday, would that change how you exercise or what you eat? Probably not. But if you track, say, exercise sessions or fiber or protein intake or added sugar intake, then you could see data that you might be able to take action on. For example, "Ah, I skipped two workouts this week. Maybe I need to change what time of day I exercise to better fit my schedule or need to change my exercise modality to something I find more enjoyable."

A better sort of logging in this respect would be discovering through analysis that e.g. I gained the most useful vocabulary/structure (and possibly better retention) by reading non-fiction, or non-fiction on a certain topic, or modern fiction. Or that reading for 30 minutes produced better outcomes than reading for an hour or for just 10 minutes. Or that reading in the morning produced better results than reading in the evening. That sort of thing might be useful, if I had the time for it. Still I suspect these are not fixed values anyway.

Generally I know that the more you read over time, the better you get. The more times you run into the same words in meaningful contexts. Merely writing down that I read a book is just meaningless. Noting down that I read a book and it was absolute trash is a lot more useful for avoiding future annoyance and time wasting.

The best strategy I find is to just have a supply of books in a TL. To read a book, finish it and move on to another one and to just keep doing that. Even junking a book if it isn't working and moving onto another. I don't know how many books I've read in German or Dutch, it's a lot, but it's like it no longer matters. It only mattered that I read them at the time.

This is an interesting point, because I understand the desire to analyze your activities to determine what contributes best to your desired goal. For example, with weight training, do I get stronger if I do sets of 4 or sets of 12? If I do conventional deadlifts or sumo deadlifts? If I do 3 sets or 4? The problem, though, is if you spend one month trying one approach and then the next month trying a different approach, it is difficult to compare the two months because you are a different person at the start of the first month than at the start of the second month.

In the end, I think your comment that "the more you read, the better you get" is right for most things in life. There is a dose-dependent relationship between process and outcome. If you do more weight training volume (more sets) you will likely be stronger than if you did fewer. If you read more, your reading comprehension is likely to be greater than if you read less.

[jeffers]

I find the Super Challenge a motivating goal, and I track my reading on a spreadsheet by pages read. I mostly use Kindle books, so I have a column for the total pages, and a column for % read, which allows a calculated column of the pages read so far. Whe I finish a chapter, I update the % and see the numbers go up. I guess that's the "dopamine hit" that's popular to talk about on YouTube, but it gives me a sense of satisfaction to see the numbers go up. If I read a short book two or three times, I can change the percentage accordingly.

This is an example page from the current SC, my Hindi reading, which has a lot of 2 page books, and one long book which is currently at 6%. I don't always take notes on vocabulary, but I figured with short things which I was reading 2-3 times it made sense to do so:

Screenshot 2024-05-24 100145.png

I also made speedometer graphs to show if I am ahead or behind of my challenge numbers today. This can be motivating or demotivating. Over the past week I didn't read much, saying to myself that I'm well ahead anyway. Sometimes being behind on a speedometer can be demotivating as well, because it makes you feel like you might as well give up. On the other hand, sometimes I think, "if I just blast through the rest of this Harry Potter over the next few weeks I can catch up", and it was that which saved my French Super Challenge last time. Here is the current state of my speedometers. There are also meters next to them showing what % of the total challenge I've completed, which I find interesting but not particularly motivating.

Screenshot 2024-05-24 101120.png

[Le Baron]

In the end, I think your comment that "the more you read, the better you get" is right for most things in life. There is a dose-dependent relationship between process and outcome. If you do more weight training volume (more sets) you will likely be stronger than if you did fewer. If you read more, your reading comprehension is likely to be greater than if you read less.

More 'over time' though. I'd want to stress that, because it's better, for me at least, to just develop a habit and forget about measuring for some time. Otherwise it's like the old 'a watched pot never boils'.

With regard to strength I think that is a matter of load and rep ranges, than sets. I'm not a volume junkie and I think the 'more sets' thing is dubious science. Just to be clear though, I'm not the ghost of Mike Mentzer looking for a quarrel about it.

[dubendorf]

More 'over time' though. I'd want to stress that, because it's better, for me at least, to just develop a habit and forget about measuring for some time. Otherwise it's like the old 'a watched pot never boils'.

Yes, I suppose if you were to go from reading nothing to reading 18 hours a day and then go back to reading nothing you would have accumulated 18 hours of "volume," but without much effect. I am the same: I counted pages to get into the habit of reading, but now I do not track time/pages read or anything, I just maintain the habit by reading daily.

With regard to strength I think that is a matter of load and rep ranges, than sets. I'm not a volume junkie and I think the 'more sets' thing is dubious science. Just to be clear though, I'm not the ghost of Mike Mentzer looking for a quarrel about it.

Yes that's true, the weight has to be dosed relative to your strength. A hundred sets at 10% of your 1RM isn't likely to develop much strength... I think they call that cardio.

[jeffers]

Yes that's true, the weight has to be dosed relative to your strength. A hundred sets at 10% of your 1RM isn't likely to develop much strength... I think they call that cardio.

I've just been involved in a discussion in another thread about reading things that are too easy, just right, and too hard. This analogy can make some sense of the value of the different levels of reading. Reading stuff that is too easy is like warm-up cardio training. Reading stuff that is just right is like cardio, and reading hard stuff is like strength training. No analogy is perfect, but this one more or less works well.