Be the master of your reading list with Book Track.
I’m a bit of a bookworm. I think I have my mom and my brother to thank for that. My mom would always encourage us to read as much as humanly possible and my brother picked up books that were far above his reading level. So, being the good little sister, I tried to just keep up with him. For the longest time, I didn’t care so much about reading for pleasure, but then a friend introduced me to the Harry Potter series. I fell in love with storytelling through books again. And, when I finished the HP books, I immediately wanted another series to read. Now, I’m always on the search for a good book to start. Unfortunately, I don’t always have time to pick up a book when it’s suggested, so that’s why I’m grateful for Book Track.
DETAILS & SPECS
Book Track is a personal library manager for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It allows users to keep track of the books they own and books they would like to read. The app has the ability to scan barcodes so that users can find titles quickly and easily. Book Track has two lists built into it — Library and Wish List. The app provides the option to purchase any books stored in Book Track through Amazon. Books can be marked as read or yet to be read. You can also modify the details of a book, leave personal comments, and rate the books. The app synchronizes across all the devices and no registration is required. Synchronization will take place automatically if iCloud is enabled on all your devices. The app also allows you to add tags to titles so that you can organize the books in your library.
KEY FEATURES
- Add new books and manage your collection
- Organize your books with tags
- Keep track of the books you’ve read
- Synchronize with all your devices
- Import books from other apps or services
- Export your library
USER EXPERIENCE
When I first heard about Book Track, I was ecstatic. I thought it was a fantastic idea for an app and it wasn’t until I started using it that I realized how brilliant it really is. The first thing I ended up doing was saving book titles to my wishlist while I was strolling the aisles at Barnes & Noble. Even though the app is built to work with online sources, it’s also very good with brick and mortar stores, too. I used to just take photos of book covers and then I would have to sift through hundreds of photos to find those long, lost books among photos of family and friends. Now, I can pull up Book Track, tap on the “+” button in the wish list and just scan the bar code.
That’s exactly what I did when I was in Barnes & Noble. I wandered the shelves and found some rather intriguing titles. I ended up finding twisted Disney fairy tales and I scanned all the titles in the collection. The thing I really like about this app is that it pulls all the information of the book into the app so you can view it in one place. For example, one of the books I scanned was called, “The Rules of Magic” by Alice Hoffman. When I scanned the barcode, a cover of a book popped up along with the title, author, category, and brief summary of the book. I was able to immediately see that the book that was recalled by the app matched the book that I was holding.
One function I found to be a bit odd was that it didn’t matter which list you are adding to — you have the option to save books to either list when you recall the information. For example, when I was in the wish list and tapped on the “+” I could select either the wishlist or the library list after the book’s information was retrieved.
As much as I love this app, I think one suggestion I would make would be to keep the lists separate. It would be great if when you open the app you are met with a dashboard that gives you the option for a quick add (to either the library or the wishlist), to view the library, or view the wishlist. Once you are in either the wishlist or the library, you can only add to those lists. I ran into a small problem where I was attempting to add a collection of books to my library, but somehow, I added it to both. I feel like a book should only be able to be in one list or the other.
Even though I believe I will primarily be using this app on my phone, I really like that it’s available for my MacBook Pro and iPad, too. The syncing between the apps is flawless and very quick. I was able to add a book to the iOS app and it instantaneously appeared in the Mac app that was open on my laptop.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Book Track is a great companion app for any book worm. I am very excited to see where it goes from here and what features the developers add in the future. The app is solid and it takes up very little space on your devices. The interface is very clean and because it’s a newer app, it works with the modern features of the iPad like Split View. Book Track is easy to understand and worth the download ($1.99 for iPhone/iPad and $1.99 for the Mac app.
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