Why I like to keep track of the books that I've read

I've been tracking my reading for a long time now - I joined Goodreads back in 2013! I have tried other ways of remembering the books I've read but they just didn't work for me. Before that for a short time I used a physical reading journal but I felt obliged to offer some insightful thoughts about each book, and that put me off. 

When I record a book that I've read I very rarely add a review - instead I just want to keep a note of the title, author, dates read and a vague star rating. My Goodreads star ratings are quite skewed because I don't think I've ever rated a book less than three stars - if a book is that bad I just stop reading it!

I usually have too many books in my to be read pile to keep track of them separately. Instead I only add a book when I start reading it and I don't update my progress as I go along, I just log that it's finished and select my rating. I like the idea of sharing the information with friends and family like a social media account, but I only have a few friends that use it!

I usually try not to read the reviews that others have left on a book. Often I think that someone will write a provocative review in order to get more views/comments and raise their own profile. I also don't like reading the bad reviews of a book that I've really enjoyed as it makes me wonder if I was just too stupid to notice something negative about it!

Tracking my reading helps me in two ways. Firstly I enjoy looking back on the books that I've read. I don't keep a count for the year or have any other kind of reading goals, but I do like to look back at the end of year summary that Goodreads provides and see some stats about what I've read. My favourite insights are my most and least popular books as shelved by other users, and the average book length.

Secondly, I've lost count of the times that I've gone to add the book I'm reading into Goodreads and discovered that I've already read it. On one occasion I had finished it just three months prior! I'm terrible at remembering the titles of books that I've read, especially if I've read them on my Kindle. Without having a physical book in front of me I'm often not even quite sure of the title of the book that I'm currently reading!

Do you track the books that you've read, and if so how?