Why do you love the date fields?

Just in case Tim is reading this....

I love Date Read because it provides a permanent way of tracking reading, both my own and others'. It seems worthwhile to enter data that I can then refer to later, as opposed to temporary methods like Currently Reading. When looking at someone's catalogue, I like to be able to see what they've read over, say, the past two years. I prefer doing this via Date Read in the catalogue rather than via groups like the 75 Book Challenge because it provides a lot of information in a visual form--there are covers, ratings, tags, etc. all in one place.

I like Date Acquired because it's more accurate than Entry Date; I like to keep track of what books I buy, but I don't always catalogue them on the right day.

I like Date Acquired myself, though I have always been stymied by the fact that it wouldn't accept fuzzy dates like March 2001. In my offline database of books (which I still maintain), too many records lack a precise date for me to get any good out of just filling in the ones that do on LT. (That sentence is very confusing. Sorry.)

I love the Date Fields because they allow me to keep track of my reading, and my acquisitions. I love keeping track of my reading because books are such a big part of my life that... okay, so if you asked me what I was doing on July 14th, 2005, I'd have no idea.

But if I went and looked at my dates, I'd see that I acquired Harry Potter and the Half-Blood prince on the 15th, and finished on the 17th, and I'd remember that on the 14th I was finishing my re-read of Order of the Phoenix, and desperately eyeing the pre-ordered Amazon box that mistakenly got delivered to someone else at the station a day early, only she was on vacation for the week, and wondering if it would really be mail tampering if I opened the package, read the book, and then sealed it up before she came back.

Dates tie my books to what's going on in my life other than books, and give the books themselves a life that they don't have if they're just sitting on the shelf.

Plus there's the added bonus of seeing how my - and other's - reading tastes have changed over time, and what they're currently into, and what's fresh in their minds, etc.

I have always been stymied by the fact that it wouldn't accept fuzzy dates like March 2001. (#2)

Me too. And the perpetual suggestion of arbitrarily de-fuzzying the dates (by just assigning it to the first of the month or something) really is -- at best -- a half-assed work-around.

I thought the recent change to allow more varied date formats in the catalogue was supposed to be a step toward fuzzy dates.

>4 AnnaClaire: Yeah, for a while I tried putting in the first of the month as a default, then got sick of the inaccuracy and left it out altogether. It's recorded as Month/Year in my EndNote database, and that will have to be good enough.

>5 _Zoe_:
I was wondering about that -- when (and if) fuzzy dates would be coming along.

Maybe it'll be like Collections: coming "soon" for who-knows-how-long.

> 5+8

I am wondering about that too.

As imprecise as time is (see my favorite Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year) I kind of live by it. I mean, I have a clock in the bathroom and have been known to have 2 calendars in a single room.

I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment of typing something like the date read upon finishing a book. I do think the process could be streamlined, especially with the Currently Reading collection which I am still adjusting to using.

Fuzzy dates would be great for acquire since I lack precise info for many books, and in fact have never kept a record before LT. It's even surprising how quickly I forget the exact date I bought a new book the week before!