
For the past few days, I've been looking for a way to manage my reading list in Obsidian. Initially, I started out with a simple markdown file. It did its job, but I wanted to be able to keep track of the books to be read, currently reading, and already read. Plus, I wanted to be able to add tags to each entry and display its status, share the list with others, etc. In short, I had to find a way to itemize the books on my shelf.

Today, while browsing the Obsidian forum, I stumbled upon a post that announced winners of Obsidian October 2022. One of the winners delivered a plugin called [Projects](https://github.com/marcusolsson/obsidian-projects). It seemed that this plugin would help me accomplish exactly what I currently needed to do with my unordered list. I was intrigued and decided to check it out.

The plugin is similar to popular project management tools, such as Atlassian Jira and Trello. It allows you to create projects and add tasks to them. You can also add tags and other metadata such as due date, priority, and whatnot to each task.

After installing and configuring the plugin into my own vault, I am now creating files under `reading`, with all the book details in the frontmatter in each file. I'm still in the process of migrating my reading list from the simple markdown file that I began with. I'm also trying to figure out how to use the plugin to its full potential. But so far, I'm quite happy with the results.

<img src="/static/images/obsidian_projects_plugin.png" alt="obsidian-projects-plugin" width="700">


Projects plugin in Obsidian


Obsidian is a powerful note-taking app that allows you to organize your thoughts in a way that is easy to manage and easy to search. It is a great tool for writers, researchers, students, and anyone who wants to organize their thoughts.

### Philosophy

Zettelkasten is a method of note-taking that is based on the idea of creating small notes that are linked together. The notes are organized in a way that allows you to easily find the information you need.

### Features

There are many features that make Obsidian a great tool for note-taking. Here are some of the most important ones:

- Markdown
- Full-text search
- Graph with links and backlinks
- Embed (page or image) into another page
- Tags (search)
- Templating (daily notes, custom templates)

### Plugins

Besides the core plugins, there are many community plugins that add more functionality to Obsidian. Here are some of the most popular ones:

- Custom Frames
- Excalidraw (download community libraries, embed into page, search text)
- Omnisearch (ctrl + o)
- Advancd Tables
- Advanced Slides
- Advanced Code Block
- Dataview
- Jira Issue
- And many more ...

### Shortcuts

There are hotkeys for almost everything in Obsidian. For instance, you can toggle the left sidebar with cmd + b; you can toggle the right sidebar with cmd + ; and you can toggle the preview with cmd + p. It's up to you to find the shortcuts that work best for you.

For more information, visit the official website at https://obsidian.md/
