One of the features we implemented in our homeschool student's college applications was a high school reading list. It was a partial list of the books that they read throughout their high school years. I say "partial" simply because we never did a very good job keeping up with the number of books they actually read.
My kids are voracious readers and,
because of this, our books lists seemed very impressive to the colleges. It was how my kids loved to learn. I couldn't KEEP them away from books. Even in college, when my youngest came home for vacation he decided to read Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, CS Lewis, and Agatha Christie. He didn't just read ONE of each of those, he read the whole SERIES of each one. That's what he loves to do, and that's why his book list looked like it did.
When they were in high school studying Christian Apologetics, I set 35 books in front of the kids, and told them to read for just 1-2 hours a week from those books. I was expecting them to read, perhaps, ten during the year. Instead, they read them ALL. It was amazing to me, but that's what they loved to do - and they still love it.
Early on, our strategy was to use a literature-based curriculum and then just pile it on. We started homeschooling with Sonlight Curriculum. I supplemented using Jim Trelease Read Aloud Handbook. By the time they were in high school, we included book lists from The Well Trained Mind, and various "reading lists for the college bound" that I found online.
We didn't use literature guides, really. They mostly just read the books. When I would ask them about it, they just said it was good, and asked for the next one. It's not like we dissected each book in an intense way. They loved reading, and I fed them books!
There were certain homeschool classes that I struggled to teach (for example, art and state history. )#) For these classes, I found it worked better when I let my kids learn from literature. When I got completely frustrated by a subject, I just scheduled the kids to read. So instead of studying art, we read art history. Instead of studying third year French, we read French books, and books about France. Reading is my kids' love language.
To keep a reading list, you can have the kids record every book they read, but that didn't work well for me. I have a better idea! Keep all the receipts from the library and from the bookstore. Keep all your assignment sheets, if you use them, because that may have the names of books you have used. You can include books on tape, and you may want to include plays that are in book form (like Shakespeare, Death of a Salesman, etc)
By the time you finish homeschooling high school, an avid reader will have plowed through an impressive array of books. Make sure to capture them in a reading list (even if it is partial). This can demonstrate to colleges that your students love to learn.
