I Own HOW MANY BOOKS?! 📚 Cataloguing My Entire 2,000+ Book Collection

[@brooke8642]

This was fun to watch, I can"t believe you have over 2000 books on your shelves! You could do a "Tackle my TBR" series.

[@TiaSprengel]

I absolutely LOVE "tackle my TBR" series - they're my favorite thing to watch on Booktube!

[@NightShine345]

Same!! I'd love to see that

[@brooke8642]

@@TiaSprengel I really love Becca's Shelve it or Scrap it series. It's always fun to watch.

[@lostaj7287]

​@@brooke8642yeah her's and emilyfox's is so much fun to watch as well!!

[@brooke8642]

@@lostaj7287 I watch Emily's too.

[@mabfab]

I did this out of sheer boredom during lockdown in 2020. I have 621 books, 71 unread so about 88% read, 12% unread.

[@adrie2408]

@@mabfab that's really good! I'm the opposite. I have about 150ish books last i counted. i had about 60% unread, about 40% read. I also do unhaul more read books than unread

[@EnvyNV6]

just in case you haven’t figured out the auto-sort: highlight everything and click data, then create a filter! then you get the toggle for the sort a-z

[@livwithbooks]

Me yelling “take a photo!” At my TV when you said you’ll have to take the middle grade off the top shelf. 😂 I’ve had a little spreadsheet for about 9 years now! I’ve read 54% and I have 2.5% that I’ve soft DNF’d as well

[@fanpiresam482]

"I'm going to go bareback today" 😅🤣 never change Gav!

[@SmallPaleThing]

This wasn't boring at all! I use excel lists for my manga and love updating them, and watching people making/updating their own lists is always really interesting because everybody does theirs differently and you always see something new.

[@amandak.4246]

i use notion. i'm in the middle of 200 series, i could never keep track without my database

[@SmallPaleThing]

@@amandak.4246 Oh, I love what you can do with Notion but I never managed to get the hang of it, unfortunately.

[@jacytodd]

Not boring at all! Very satisfying! When some people make these kinds of videos, they just show some of the process and then BAM it’s done. You were able to successfully tell a story, keep your audience updated with where you were at, the time of day, triumphs, goals, and the future. That’s not an easy task to do, on top of a boring and tedious task such as cataloging 2 libraries.

[@rebeccametcalf4448]

I have most of my books on Storygraph, but this was motivating to go and make sure everything is on there and up to date. I really like the search function on Storygraph, because you can search genres and moods within your owned TBR

[@reading_faerie]

7:35 you should just be able to right click on the top of the column with the authors and then it brings up the sort menu and you can click a-z!! (Like click ON the letter C it should bring it right up for you!)

[@brief402]

Thank you, someone wrote it for him. Surprised there isn't more likes on this

[@hotla7]

My little excel nerd self wants to give you all the excel tips so you can do this faster

[@MikaDoesStuff23]

The Six Musical soundtrack is the perfect length for buckling down and doing chores/household tasks, I do that all the time!

[@Gwenyfith]

I do it to Hamilton 😅

[@dracaryslace]

2000+ books!? Holy canoli!! Can't wait to curl up and watch. ❤

[@avsambart]

I don't know if you use it but if you do, storygraph has an "owned" button you can press so you know and can see how many out of your entire tbr you actually own. It's easy and useful.

[@pretentioussunshine]

@@avsambart this feature is one of the main reasons I switched to Storygraph You can also get statistics on all your owned books, it's so simple and useful

[@pretentioussunshine]

@@avsambart this feature is one of the main reasons I switched to Storygraph You can also get statistics on all your owned books, it's so simple and useful

[@maria03974]

Storygraph is great. This is one of the many reasons I use the platform

[@Anim3giirl]

my goal this year was to get over 70% read of my shelves and as of last month, I've accomplished it. So now I just have to make sure I maintain it! I have 1134 books and I've read 797 as of right now.

[@tabithamiscellania]

I love spreadsheets so this sounds like an amazing relaxing day to me lol when I did this for my own bookshelves I only had 300 though. I can't imagine doing it for over 2000!

[@rosarioreads]

the dedication to get this all done in one day 👏🙌

[@lizaveta3568]

Hi! You can easily have series as a saparate column, for standalones you can put "standalone" or just "-" and that way column won't be empty and even just sorting will work fine, filter can work with empty cells. Hope, it helps 😊

[@zombiepush]

I'm sorry that I'm too late to say this but instead of removing the books you can snap a pic and go from that. Love the floating candles!!! I really love this spread sheet idea because I routinely talk myself out of buying books and then think of them constantly it becomes mush in my brain.

[@ghostly_bookish]

Nobody can doubt your dedication Gav, that was amazing. I was exhausted just watching!

[@AmataRayne2492]

Wow... You blow my library out of the water, Gavin lol I do a spreadsheet for my digital ARCs, but I go ahead and incorporate my TBR into my Goodreads account. I don't track what books I own, but to prevent myself from buying doubles, I created multiple shelves on Goodreads and move books between them. For example, I have "physical TBR" and "Manga and light novels TBR". I move a series I have onto those shelves digitally. I can click on the series link in the book listing to see if there's any books I'm missing from a series (as most will show the corresponding TBR shelf it would belong to). I also periodically comb through my TBR shelves to make sure that there's no duplicate versions of things popping up. I find that easier to handle than a spreadsheet. You wondered if this was boring...NO! I had fun watching you catalog things. :)

[@theanswerisbooks]

I need to do this! I had a spreadsheet but I stopped updating it almost two years ago, and now I have the same feeling as you. I just need to start from scratch.

[@theothersilas7538]

A year or two ago when I had less than 30 books, I was watching a lot of unhauls and library reorganization videos. And almost every time, the person was finding books they didn't know they had or thought they'd lost, or they didn't know how many books they had in total. So I made a spreadsheet for my wee collection to make sure something like that wouldn't happen to me. 😂 One of thr best decisions I ever made. What a behemoth task you took on, sir. But congrats on your catalogue! ❤

[@dwoodw6990]

Just in case no one else has mentioned it, the square in the very upper left (beside column A and above row 1) you can click on it and it will highlight the entire sheet. That way you don't have to click and drag.

[@Lara_Ameen]

2235 books is an amazing collection and you have such an impressive TBR! Living my dream of having a home library! 😍🥰

[@graceelizabeth1299]

I use an app called bookshelf go organise what i have, i can make as many shelves for genres as i want, including a tbr shelf and it tells you how many books you have alltogether. I tried to do a spreadsheet a couple of years ago, but my dyslexic brain had an aneurism trying to figure out exel.

[@graceelizabeth1299]

*to

[@liamgardner4037]

Please never stop posting Gavin 🙏

[@oliviac712]

I love spreadsheet videos, they're sooo interesting and relaxing! You were so dedicated to get all this done in one day😮 I have a couple of extra columns on my library catalogue- genre, date published and also country the author is 'from'. The last one I find a bit hard to determine and generally go for where the author was born (with extra clarification if I see their parents are born somewhere else). I like this one because I'm trying to 'read around the world' and it's a good way for me to see what countries I have authors from. Also this is kinda geeky, but I have a book stamp with my name on and I stamp each book before adding to the catalogue so I can pretend I'm a proper librarian 📚😊

[@xoPotatoTreexo]

Where did you get the stamp from 👀 because that is such a geeky idea and I love it!

[@oliviac712]

​@@xoPotatoTreexo haha thanks! I got mine from Etsy seller GetStampeduk but I'm sure there are loads of others. This is the one I got: www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1238337842/from-the-library-of-stamp-ex-libris?click_key=ec802f618bac6ac46000df2a9a8ced938c1c0268%3A1238337842&click_sum=295b652a&ref=search2_top_narrowing_intent_modules_etsys_pick-1&sts=1 It's so cute and it makes me so happy! 😊

[@xoPotatoTreexo]

@@oliviac712 thanks for the link 😊

[@lenrb1814]

This wasn’t boring at all, I saw your video while I was doing laundry and it was all better! I must admit that I’m so jealous of your library 😂 ❤

[@courtsavage]

This video made my brain very happy. I am a book cataloguing junkie. I have re-catalogued my books in so many different ways that it is probably a little much but I really enjoy it! Thanks for sharing!

[@caylaellsworth5354]

Love your library! The floating candles!

[@biteofdog]

Impressive library, I love how nice and cozy you made it!

[@joya8459]

I organize my tbr in a spreadsheet too. It includes my owned/physical tbr as well as my "want to read" books. For those I don't own but want to read, I added a "available in library" column. I find the tag feature in the storygraph quite useful for my tbr organization too.

[@Televinita]

This is so perfect, I was just sitting down to update my own catalog with all the books I've bought in the last two months. My spreadsheet is basically the same as yours except I added a genre category by how I sort them on shelves, which helps break down my TBR into more manageable sections. And I do books in a big series like "Goosebumps #44: ____" so that I can sort by title and more easily see the gaps. I have around 1500 at the moment with ~450 unread...prior to this haul anyway. (Long story short, a fun video.)

[@Meimoons]

Love your set up! It looks so cozy!

[@judithcakelover]

I adore the floating candles!!😍😍

[@bookthoughtswitheilish]

I love the floating candlesticks! 😍

[@jenniferreppenhagen8902]

Omg the FALL vibes!! 🥰 I love it all. Such a beautiful library!

[@confessionofabookdragon]

This was fun to watch! I need to do a spreadsheet as well for my books. For the most part I have some of my read separate from my TBR and on the bookshelves in my room is full of unread books. I am slowly writing the titles down on paper and when i get the chance to go to my library I might just input them on their computers and save it cause I don’t have any of that stuff on my computer

[@TheJennyPeanuts]

Good for you for getting this done! 👏👏 I’ve been putting this off but you have motivated me to get started ❤

[@ja.ck.IE_Ma.kw09]

Love the video, it's just fun to catalog things. Organising can be so good for the mind.

[@lombamarina3432]

Soooo quick! Can't wait to see this one

[@k.ande.southworth9197]

Just think, you have so many TBR's, that's a lot of review video content still to make. Awesome. I'm looking forward to all the videos! I've gotten quite a few new books after hearing your review. Love your content. Thank you for doing these video reviews!

[@kaesinfinitelibrary]

Six is such a great show!!!

[@puncky]

this is so real with just the easiest of spreadsheats, loved the vid!

[@acciocreativity]

incredibly satisfying to watch 😍 i use storygraph to catalog what i own and don’t own and my tbr vs read. it’s very handy whenever i’m in a conversation about books and i can be like “ah yes. i own exactly seven hundred and four books.” and ppl are like 👁️👄👁️

[@thenubianreview]

I enjoyed this video; I recently cataloged my home library and I unhauled about 200 children's books I got for my kids and kept their favorite books. As for my total, I have 921 books, and I inherited 20 boxes of books from my dad. I haven't gone through the boxes yet because it seems overwhelming. He was a collector of 1st editions and indie authors; I plan to make that my 2025 goal because I'm paying a monthly storage bill in a climate-controlled facility. Your video actually gave me a little motivation to maybe start sorting out some of the books.

[@JanAgaton]

kudos to you for finishing the project because I started a notion monthsss ago and could barely get through 500 books

[@shordiiepoo]

I love this one Gav short and fun with great music ❤️

[@AM711]

C'mon 100k! Almost there!

[@lindsayarmstrong7130]

I can’t believe you have been in your new place for 2 months already! I do a spreadsheet for my movies.

[@Libraryofamoodreader]

Love the library, Gavin! 😍🍁 It’s beautiful and this video was fun as always! I want to do this for my books too but I’m afraid of how many I still have to read 😂💀

[@robyndoyle7495]

I use the handy app on my phone easy to just scan them. Next time take a photo of the shelves then don’t have to move from your shelf 😀 now you have done it once though you shouldn’t have to do it again.just add it to your monthly todo so keep it up today. Very interesting video

[@jessicabridges4335]

Hey, now you deserve rewards, and also, you need to eat. So it's a win-win. I should do this for my books! 😅 Loved the video.

[@esliet]

Impressive collection, loved this video

[@Katiedora122]

I just did a similar project, but just all my unread books, for now (currently 239, but I've got a few dozen around the house that I still have to log). I still need to clean some of it up, but it was definitely enlightening. I also didn't do a column for series, but I did one to specify if something was a standalone or not. Although I did use the dropdown chips (which I hadn't been aware of before) for a few columns like genre and when I acquired a book, and it wound up being helpful as I've tidied the spreadsheet up.

[@solangelicag]

This was fun! You did so well. I have a spreadsheet for the books I read, and my physical tbr. Now I want to make a sheet for all the books on my shelves (I have at least 300). I do have a bit more columns on my spread sheet. Status, title, author, pages, format, genre, year publ, and if the author is white/BIPOC (trying to diversify my reading)

[@scionsilverbeat8149]

Vid was fun ~ Looked tiring but so satisfying. I don't have to catalogue my books. I unhauled roughly 200 novels and 3 manga series in the past. At present I have 89 novels plus 6 manga series. I've become REALLY fussy about what I buy. "Like" doesn't cut it. Has to be a favourite xD

[@andieland1923]

This was so fun to watch! I just use the Bookshelf app and scan my books as I buy them, it's easier for me.

[@stephbarry8971]

Would love to see u read Sookie Stackhouse books and watch True Blood and compare ❤

[@ButtercupBooks15]

As someone who has a bad case of out of sight out of mind, I really need to catalogue my books as well.

[@midnightscrawls]

i do love a bit of spreadsheet organising… i just made one for my physical tbr (63!) so i can try and focus on getting through it for the rest of this year

[@Tracywhited2]

I need to see the library at night !! 🧡🧡🧡

[@KittenCece]

Super interesting! And, it kind of makes me feel inspired to try to catalog my little collection. If I have to guess I'd say that I have ~30-40 books. I'm a wild unhauler. I don't like feeling bogged down by items, so books don't stay long. And I haven't been an avid rereader until... well, this year. XD So I've never felt compelled to keep stuff other than my FAVORITES. If I start now I can do a lot more data per entry and that would be interesting 🤔 Thanks Gav for the content!

[@ladylovesteadreads]

I use the My Library app to catalog my books. Much easier than doing everything manually. xoxo

[@chrisiereads]

Decorations - so cute! Also, you have made me want to do this lol

[@michellebunting8050]

I never thought to catalog my books, granted I don't have nearly as many as you, Gavin. I may give it a go and try to keep up with it.

[@devonpatterson_]

Loved the video Gavrax 😉

[@tish_has_plans_to_read]

now i want to catalogue my books, though it is significantly less than your amazing collection. but now i'll be able to know which ones I already own when i go book shopping =)

[@James_Cooper]

this was really enjoyable, really love these type of videos! i rso need to do this too

[@FawnOverBooks]

I loved this! I want to create my own book spreadsheet!!

[@katiewinn2660]

I love videos like this! I tried to make a basic spreadsheet like yours in 2023 as a means of surviving a very boring uni course. (I would photograph a section of my shelves and reference it during class to fill in the spreadsheet.) I think I got about 80% of it done before finals got crazy and I abandoned it. I've tried to go back and finish it but at this point it would be easier to start fresh like you did. Sad thing is this is my final year of grad school so I can't make any consistent goals for tackling my TBR until I turn in my thesis next spring. Once that happens, though- Oh do I have plans... 😎 Edit because I forgot to mention- You mentioned in your last unhaul video that you really had your TBR where you wanted it, so I'd rather see some "tackle my tbr" videos like other comments mentioned. I don't think you need to be under 2K books for the sake of numbers if they fit on your shelves and you're genuinely interested in reading them. But, since there were some books you rated low but kept because you annotated them (like The Familiar), maybe do a giveaway of those books with your patrons or channel members? That way the annotated copies go to people who might be interested in your notes, and it clears space. BTW- 1192 of 2234 is 53.36%. Still more than half, and within striking distance of 60% if you want to make that a goal. (Maybe a 2025 video series?)

[@fionamctaggart5904]

This is so fun! I don't have a catalogue system but I'm sure my tbr is around 40%

[@AmandaShouldBeReading]

The struggle of “what manga volumes do I actually own” is so real. I need to do something similar with our book collection but it’s such a daunting task. I’m also not sure I want to know just how many books I own that I haven’t read, it’s far too many for sure.

[@LaMerleNoir216]

I am so glad I’m not the only one with spreadsheets of books lol. I have several divided by genre.

[@Rebecca-le9hn]

I also have a spreadsheet for my books. Years back, I put the info on 3x5 index cards (pre computers). Got a laptop, started a spreadsheet, and then the laptop crashed. Luckily, I still made out a card. Since then, I have started another spreadsheet, and I also make out a card.

[@cindywingetbooks]

I am surprised that you haven't made this list already! Years ago! Lol. I am pretty sure I own more books that I haven't read than I have read.

[@caspiansvensson]

It was very interesting. And inspiring. I saved this under "Educational". Yes, I am being real.

[@coppertopolo]

I have a spreadsheet for all my Lego sets, but not my books. I can't wait until Heartstopper 3 comes out, because I LOVED your reaction video (s). And not to worry, I don't find any of your videos boring in the least.

[@annmariesloan8406]

Do you mean Heartstopper 6???

[@coppertopolo]

@@annmariesloan8406 No, I meant Season 3 of the TV series.

[@annmariesloan8406]

@coppertopolo makes sense. Definitely waiting as well.

[@DarkBeauty73]

love it, now I want to do mine. I have goodreads lists and I have the to do app that has various lists done by authors last name but I don't have a spread sheet yet lol

[@kimble1871]

I’m only a short way into this video and I want to go back in time, give you a quick hug and do this the easy way for you. I am impressed though!

[@OliviasCatastrophe]

I have a catalogue like this as well because I have shamelessly bought some duplicates before 😅 I’m at about 1422 for my library and I’ve read 60% at a minimum. I tally once a year in July!

[@Fbisdbjf]

I did this all on a Google Spreadsheet typed out on my phone 😅. Literally just title, author and if it’s a special edition (fairyloot etc). Makes life much easier when you’re in a charity shop and they have the whole back catalogue of a favourite author!

[@chadreadsrom]

Love this kind of video and love a good spreadsheet ❤

[@itsapaigeturner8919]

This is inspiring me to do this for sure!

[@Kite562reviews]

I mainly just use my channel as a way to keep track of what I've read over the years mostly. I also write my detailed notes of what I'm reading on my phone with a simple note app. 😊

[@livslibrary]

The way this cured the itch in my type 1 brain. 🤭 So satisfying!!!

[@holdenbeach4ever]

This was so satisfying

[@graceelizabeth1299]

My entire owned books is 392 and i have 106 in my tbr so i feel pretty acomplished. Hoping to get my tbr down to 100 by christmas (before new books come in)

[@knottyneedle]

I just rearranged my bedroom/office and living room to be bedroom/library nook and office/livingroom. And recently I have gone to a couple of book sales and unhealed books. So I want to go through and catalog all of mine too.

[@kalliopelovesbooks1375]

There are - as of - right now - 212 TBR books on my list. The only one I'm tracking. But not all of my unread books are on the list because I haven't updated it regularly. My aim is to reduce my TBR under 150 books. But again I like buying books to much. It's a vicious circle - but keeps my reader's heart happy.

[@disisally]

you going from singing voice to normal talking voice without skipping one (1) single beat cracks me up

[@bookishmelody]

I need to do this. Where I get myself in trouble is all the ebooks I’ve picked up on daily sales because I often forget about those.

[@anitarucker8589]

I love you, you are such a cozy, cute, vibe!!! Woohoo

[@wendyvilla2904]

🖤💚 Great video.

[@Merdragoon]

How I keep my TBR figured out is through Storygraph, but it's also because I'm using it for buddy reads since I don't do video chats and it's easier that way since I"m the slowest reader in the group in the moment due to being out of practice but also I take time to look at the context a bit more where I put down my thoughts in the buddy read area comments. I mostly got story graph for note taking my thoughts as I'm reading so I can get better at context clues and reading comperhension as well and it brings my thoughts about the book a bit more nuianced and measured. It's also easier on me as I won't feel guilty in writing on clear post-it notes in a book.

[@jennysinger2130]

P.S. highly approve the Six soundtrack singalong... totally road tripping with a friend tomorrow and this will happen.

[@valentinatsvetkova4019]

This was so fun to watch!! And now I'm sad all my books are categorized and I can't do it all over again. I use Google spreadsheets, a personal site, notion and a book journal. I'm a little bit of a psycho for organizing and tracking books 😅

[@judithcakelover]

I also reaally need to do this as well, more so I can see how many book I havent read yet.

[@lovers625]

I love this video!

[@Rosalind_Jane]

this nerdery is my kind of video! I tend to unhaul new reads unless they're favourites, but I also have a nostalgia problem so older books stick around. Excluding digital, percentage-wise it's 71% unread 29% read. Couple of questions on your methods: How do you deal with multiple authors - alphabetically? What about multiple editions?