I use Notion to essentially catalogue all the books in my house. You could extend this to include your video games, movies, and music too. Inputting all the data is a big project to embark on, particularly if you have lots of books and media in your household, but I'm going to say, it’s worth it!

I use my library system to not only get an overview of what books I own (searchable by genre or type) but also to plan and review my reading. I keep track of what I’ve read and have dedicated views for this. I can see, for example, a gallery view of what I read in 2023. I also keep an eye on my current reads so I know what I’ve started. I’m one of those people who has several books on the go at any given time. I can also see all those books I’m ready to start but haven’t yet. Useful for when I’m browsing for my next read.

Organising, sorting, filtering - these are all things that appeal to me, and I’m sure lots of other Notion users. If you haven’t catalogued your books and media yet, now might be the time!

So, what information do I keep in my library system?

Title: Pretty self-explanatory and essential!

Author: I tag authors so each time I add a new one, I add a new tag.

Publisher: Tag the publisher.

Year published: Add the year the book was published. You’ve now got all the information you need for a solid reference.

Status: Each book is assigned a status which will be either ‘Finished’, ‘Ready to start’, ‘Current read’ or ‘Reference’. Reference is a status for those books, often non-fiction, that you’re not reading all the way through in one go but that you dip into every so often.

Category: This is where I can tag the book’s genre or category. Perhaps it is ’American Literature’, ‘Food & drink’, ‘History’. This comes in useful when you want to filter and search your library or collate a collection based on a theme.