3 Ways to Track Your Reading

I like tracking my reading. I like being able to look back, see what I read, and what I thought of it. Over the years, I've tried several methods of doing that.

Today I'm sharing three of my favorite ways to track books I've read. If you've wanted to do better at that, I hope this post will inspire you to get started.

#1: Goodreads

Good For: Online reading tracking

Benefits: Writing reviews, yearly reading challenge, reading stats

I've been using Goodreads since 2016 and currently have reviews for almost a thousand books. If you haven't heard of Goodreads before, it's a combination of a book database and a social platform. You can write reviews of books, which people can like and comment on.

I love Goodreads for tracking reading because it's so easy to use. You can sort your reads onto digital bookshelves, participate in polls and reading challenges, and even find new books to read through sidebar suggestions. You can give updates as you read books and view others reviews to see what they thought. And since it's an online site, you can access it on any device.

There are a few drawbacks, however. There aren't half stars on the platform, even though everyone has asked for them for years. I find reading reviews before I start a book affects my opinion, so I don't do that anymore (but that could just be me). And of course, it's a bit woke. But I'd say the good far outweighs the bad.

#2: Bookmory

Good For: Daily reading tracking

Benefits: Tracking pages read, yearly stats, timed reading

I found this app by someone sharing a screenshot of it on Twitter. I decided to download it and found it had a lot of useful features that I enjoyed using. It's pretty similar to Goodreads, but without the social aspect. It allows you to track your reading, give reviews on books, and lets you set yearly reading goals.

I mainly use the app for tracking my daily reading. I can plug in how many pages I read on each book I'm reading each day and watch the little progress bar move further, which inspires me to read more. I can give a quick star rating when done and quickly see how many books I read this month. It also has half stars, which is awesome.

It also has a bunch of features I don't use. You can organize your reads in collections or write reviews, which I don't do in the app. There's a reading time if you'd like to see how long it takes you to read a book and even a place to take notes as you read. If you like Goodreads, but don't want people to see your reviews, this is a great alternative.

It does have some ads, but they're fairly unobtrusive. I like to use this in combination with Goodreads, giving me daily reading incentive, but writing all my reviews in Goodreads.

#3: Reading Journal

Good For: A permanent reading record

Benefits: Physical notes, offline access, wonderful record

I've been tracking my reading by hand long before I got Goodreads. As a kid, I wrote lists of ever book I read in a year (which at the time was 300+ books), along with the author's name and if I'd read it before. Then I got into Goodreads and stopped physically tracking my reading for a while.

But then I decided to set up a reading journal again. Partially because I wanted an offline version of what I read and my thoughts, and partially because Goodreads is an online platform. One day it could disappear and I'd lose all those reviews and records. Even if that were to happen, I have everything from the past few years in my reading journal.

I keep it simple too. I write down the book title, author, my review, and a few other little stats. I actually did a whole post on my reading journal a few years ago, so check that out for a more in depth look.

Of course, not everyone likes writing things by hand. But you could also keep a reading journal in a Word Document or something similar. For me, writing stuff out by hand is my happy place.

Do you track your reading? Do you use any of these methods or other ones? Tell me in the comments.