Great sites and apps for tracking books, movies, music and video games

Image of the article titled

In this week’s Guardian, writer Rachel Siggy looks back at the question of why so many of us visit sites like Goodreads and Letterboxd so often to record media consumption. I came up with the answer. This is dopamine..

Yes, the same addictive brain chemicals that fire neurons each time a cell phone lights up in a notification mark, see, or track the progress of the books we read. Assign a star rating to every movie, especially the time spent on immersive video games. Or (and this is where things get a little insidious), read, see, play to make a list of everything we want to read or feel “should” increase.

It is worth considering (like Sigee) whether it is healthy to “gamify” leisure activities in this way. As a hardcore media logger, I sometimes get everything I want to consume and probably never get. Unless I find a way to live forever and give up my work and family responsibilities.

But I’m not going to stop it either. Even before technology offered a way to make it easy, I intermittently kept a list of movies I watched with, for example, my then girlfriend, my current spouse. Just like scrolling through a photo on your mobile phone, just looking at the name of the movie in its list will remind you of where you saw it and what you were talking about. Much of everyday life is temporary.Keep a record of a particular day-even if it’s as trivial as you’ll end up seeing Weekend in Barneys (Surprisingly strange movie) You can give you an anchor to cling to.

So, aside from noble nonsense, here are some of the best sites and apps to help you start tracking your media habits, such as books, movies, video games, and music.

The best app for recording your reading

Goodreads is the most widely used book tracker to date. But there are choices If you don’t want to provide more data to the corporate owner, Amazon.

Goodreads. You know about this. Goodreads has been around for 20 yearsAnd since Amazon’s acquisition in 2013, the site has attracted about 90 million readers who are eager to catalog what they read and keep them up-to-date with what they’re reading. increase. In many ways, it sets the standard for these types of social catalog apps, customizing books on different shelves, writing and reading reviews, making friends with and following other users, and listing recommendations. You can create it. Not perfect. The UX is basically unchanged from the very beginning of the site, the design is cluttered and unintuitive, and the mobile app is very slow, but you could use it anyway.

LibraryThing. Founded in 2005, a year before Goodreads, LibraryThing has always been a slightly stuffy, more serious competitor to the site. Originally operated with a paid subscription, it has since switched to a free model, but aims to deliver the product without flooding with ads. It offers many of the same social features as Goodreads, but is definitely leaning towards a serious business of tracking and cataloging your readings.

Other options to consider: Libib, BookSlothWhen Story graph

The best app to record the movies you watched

When it comes to tracking your movie, there’s a clear winner (which is also one of my favorite sites on the internet).

Letterbox. This app-based and web-based movie tracking social network has a user base of over 20 million movie fans for good reason.It’s very easy to search for and log all the movies I’ve seen so far and add viewing dates (recently I found a pile of old ticket stubs and saw them in theaters 15 years ago. You can record lots of movies, write reviews, follow other users, and create a list based on Esoteric, hyperspecific modifiers you can think of.. In addition, there is a view that shows posters for all the movies logged on on one screen. This is neat. ((((Stop by and hello!).

SIMKL. This lesser-known Letterboxd competitor has many of the features and strengths of the site, but with one big bonus. Its database also includes TV series and anime (Letterboxd usually avoids TV altogether, excluding some “event” miniseries such as: Wandavision). You can mark the entire series as watched, or track the episodes you watched and the rest of the episodes. This makes it much easier to over-manage your streaming series during a trial.But the coolest feature is Chrome extension that integrates with streaming service viewing historyYou can record your viewing history with SIMKL without leaving Netflix.

Great site for recording video games

There seems to be no definitive video game alternative to something like Letterboxd or Goodreads. The options that rival these services are described below, but neither has reached the same level of awareness. Probably it is …

Your system will probably do it for you. Most consoles these days already track the content and timing of the game, so you’ll need to log the game, but you may need to tweak the system menu to find it. For example, Nintendo Switch keeps track of the games played in each user profile, but if you need very detailed information, such as the exact time a particular game was played on a particular day, the relevant game. You need to download. Nintendo Switch Parental Control App..Method is as follows Check the time played for each game on PlayStation 5 When Xbox..

However, if you need more complete accounting than the time to sink into a particular title, we recommend using a different service.

Back log.. Backloggd is the closest thing I’ve found to “Letterboxd for video games” (hence the name probably).Currently only available via the web (although the app is Reportedly working), This site completes the game (with “master”, “abandoned”, or some other options), backlog (meaning you own it but haven’t played it yet), cataloged as a game Can be converted. You are currently playing or have added a game to your wishlist. You can log “playthroughs” (dates of actual game play), see which games you have marked as played, browse other users’ profile pages, and follow them as needed. .. This site is continually adding new features, but already offers almost everything I’m looking for.

Groovy.. This seems to have taken Goodreads as an inspiration. You can mark the game as played, currently playing, backlogged, or as a wishlist. Write (and read) a review; mark the date you played. What makes this site stand out is the ability to add status updates for ongoing games. This is useful when you have defeated a particular level or boss, or want to keep track of what you are doing.

Other options to consider: GG, Completioner (This allows you to import the Steam library), and HowLongToBeat..

The best app for recording your favorite music

Like video games, the music logging infrastructure isn’t as robust. This is also because services like Spotify and Amazon Music track it most of the time. Still, there is at least one social network of music lovers worth considering.

Music board. Musicboard claims to be “a social platform that allows you to track all the music you’re listening to and increase your passion for music with your friends,” and it certainly does. You can use it to profile, track albums and songs you listen to, write reviews, and follow other users. There are great tools for showing off your listening history, tracking upcoming releases, and displaying very detailed stats about your listening habits (if you plan to earn $ 3.99 per month on a paid subscription).

Or use a spreadsheet (or notebook) to keep track of everything

Of course, the most versatile and hassle-free way to track what you’re reading, seeing, or playing is manually in a spreadsheet (or a notebook if you’re interested in its tactile sensation). It is to record with. Object “shit”). This is certainly a valid method —I love spreadsheets around here— However, it sacrifices the visual and / or social sharing aspects of other app-based options.

Maybe you’re okay with that — to be honest, you’re likely to be the only one who cares about your media habits anyway. Personally, I like the incentives to keep up with Goodreads’ reading challenges, fill out the Letterboxd diary, and keep going. Past pen and paper attempts did not stick and data was lost over the years. On the other hand, one of the reading sites I used to go to was ShallowThis year seems to have disappeared without warning and there is no possibility that the notebook will stop working.