If you’re anything like me, you read LOTS of books! Whether via Kindle, phone, computer, audiobooks or just regular print books, there are so many different ways to get your literature fix. So how do you keep track of it all? Well, that is what I am here to tell you. As of today, I have read 1,382 books! And that’s not necessarily counting the many books I have reread or forgotten to write down. It can be hard to remember all the books you’ve read or what happened in said books, especially if your favorite author only publishes one book every year or so. Keeping track can be overwhelming at times between the to-be-read, suggestions, have read, have read but didn’t like, and maybe you tried but couldn’t get into it. There are so many different categories to break your books down into so what do you do? Well, my first suggestion (and personal favorite way to keep track) is Goodreads.

What is Goodreads?

Goodreads is a website and app where you can keep track of the books you’ve read, write reviews, see what other people are reading, discover new books, follow your favorite authors, create reading challenges, and so much more! One of my favorite parts about this site is you can link your Kindle account, so whenever you start a new book on your Kindle it automatically updates your Goodreads account. With zero effort on your part, your Kindle books will automatically be logged with the date you started and finished reading. Being a Goodreads user since 2013, I am able to view my reading history along with my rating of each book. I can see “My Year in Books” which tells me my shortest book read, longest book read, most popular books, and highest-rated books for that year. Goodreads is completely free to use and user-friendly making keeping track of your books easy and fun.

Digital Book Trackers

But maybe you don’t want all that extra fanciness and just want to log your books digitally. There are a number of basic book trackers you can use through either a website or an app. Book Breeze is a perfect example of a basic book tracker app that helps you keep track of what you’ve read without overwhelming you with additional features and buttons. 

Reading Journals

What if you’re not really computer savvy and prefer to only read regular books, how do you keep track then? 1,382 is a big list to keep track of and organize. Eventually, it is hard to navigate, so my next recommendation is to buy a physical reading journal! Most bookstores, as well as Amazon, sell reading journals. Many of these are under $10. A standard book journal is composed of review pages, a section to list your want-to-read books, monthly calendars to mark how many days you read each month, a section to list quotes and a space for notes. 

Create Your Own

Another way to keep track is to custom-create your own tracker. Etsy offers hundreds of unique book journal pages that you can combine together to create your perfect personalized tracker. This option is appealing to me because I don’t typically use the review feature of a website or reading journal. If I was building my own custom tracking journal, I would want the following:

  1. A rating system to rank each book
  2. A monthly calendar so I can see how many days I read out of the month
  3. A “Best Book of the Month” to form a bracket and find my monthly favorites
  4. A page where I can fill in books on a bookshelf with different colors indicating the genre of each book
  5. A “Best Book of the Year” page

I might add more sections or customize as I go. Everyone has different things they like to track when it comes to reading so being able to create a customized tracker is a great option! 

Why even keep track of books at all? There are a number of great benefits. It will help you organize your reading lists, make it easier to remember what you have read in the past, what you’re currently reading, and figure out what you want to read later. It will also help you achieve your reading goals. It will also help you remember your books better! After reading so many books, especially after it’s been a few years, I don’t always remember what a book is about or if I even read it at all. Keeping track can answer those questions for you! It will also help you become a great recommender to others! If you know someone who likes the same type of books as you, you can use your tracker to make recommendations of books you love that coincide with their favorite genres or themes. Tracking can give you a feeling of accomplishment! Looking back to see that I have read over 1,300 books blows my mind and makes me want to read more to see how far I can reach. You may even find that the more books you track the better reader you become. With every book you read, you learn something new or experience something you’ve never felt or thought of before, which in turn broadens your thought process and heightens your understanding.

I hope these suggestions have helped open your eyes to all the different ways you can keep track of your books. No matter how you track your reading, the information these resources provide can be helpful, so go out and find a fun new way to track your books today!

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