I think I’ve mentioned before that, while I love reading mysteries, so many of them are part of a series—and I hate reading a series out of order! It may not bother some of you, but I can’t help but have a running dialogue in the back of my mind: “Am I missing something? What did that remark mean? Was it explained earlier in the series?” If you also want—no, make that need to read a series in order, I have two great websites that will help you keep track of the order of your favorite books.

One of my favorite webpages is called Fantastic Fiction. It’s a British web page, which is very handy because some books are published under different titles between the UK and the U.S. (Why? I don’t know!)

Fantastic Fiction does a good job of listing both British and American titles, so that you know exactly what you have, and what you’re looking for. You can search by author or by title. Author searches are the best, because the result page will give you a brief biography of the author, and then a comprehensive list of all the books they’re written, when they were written, and if the book is part of a series, that is also listed. All series are listed in order, too!

My other favorite webpage is called FictFact. This page allows you to keep track of the books you read. All you have to do is sign up for your own account (your email and a password) and you can begin searching for series. Once you find a series, there is a button to click that says “Follow series.” If you click that button, the series is added to your personal list. You can mark books as” to be read; currently reading; read or skipped. Add all the series you like; it’s so easy to see what series you are following, and how many of the books you’ve read to date.

The other really nice feature is that FictFact will announce the next book in the series for you, along with a release date! No more wondering when the new Janet Evanovich is coming out—FictFact will tell you. Notorious Nineteen is due out November 20, by the way.

Your home page lists all the series you are following. It will indicate “Not started” or “Current” or tell you the percentage of the way through the series you happen to be. It will also list the next book you should read. It’s a great way to keep track of the series you are reading, or the series you would like to read. And don’t delete a series once you are current—you never know when another volume could be added! FictFact will tell you as soon as a release date is announced.

Links to both of these sites (and many more great web pages) can be found on our library web page at www.pocahontaslibrary.org under the tab “Links” and then “Books.” Even though I started out discussing mysteries, both these sites list all genres of fiction, not just mysteries.

Now, go get organized!