You finish a book, start the next one, and a few months later you can't quite remember whether you read that thriller in March or last summer. A reading tracker solves that. It can be a printed page, a simple spreadsheet or an app on your phone. The right one depends less on which tool is "best" and more on what you actually want to keep.
This guide walks through the three main options, what each is good at, and how to pick one in a couple of minutes.
What do you actually want to track?
Before choosing a tool, decide what you want to record. Most people want some mix of these:
- Titles and dates. What you read and when you finished it. This is the core of any reading log.
- Ratings. A quick score, so you can see at a glance which books you loved.
- Pages and pace. Page counts, how long a book took, how many books per month.
- Goals. A target for the year, such as 24 books, and how close you are to it.
- Thoughts and favorite lines. What a book made you think, and the sentences you wanted to keep.
Each need pulls you toward a different tool. If you only want titles and dates, paper is hard to beat. If you care about pages, pace and totals, a spreadsheet or an app will do the maths for you. If thoughts and quotes matter most, you need something with room to write, which most simple trackers don't give you.
Option 1: A paper reading tracker
A paper tracker is a printed page or a notebook where you write down each book as you finish it. Many people keep one on the inside cover of a journal or pinned near their bookshelf.
Pros
- No setup, no account, no battery.
- Writing a title by hand can feel like a small ritual at the end of a book.
- Easy to make it look the way you like, with colors, stickers or a simple grid.
Cons
- No automatic totals. You count by hand.
- Hard to search once you have a few years of entries.
- Easy to lose, and it stays at home when you're out.
Tip: keep the columns few. Title, author, date finished and a rating out of five is enough for most people. Trackers with ten columns tend to get abandoned by February.
If you want to start today, there is a free reading log printable you can print and fill in by hand.
Option 2: A spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a good middle ground. It's free, it can sort and total for you, and you can shape it exactly to your needs. Google Sheets, Excel or Numbers all work.
Columns that work well:
- Title
- Author
- Date started
- Date finished
- Format (print, ebook, audio)
- Pages
- Rating
- Notes (one short line)
Tips
- Add a "Year" column, or use one tab per year, so totals stay simple.
- Use a dropdown for format and rating so entries stay consistent.
- A formula like `=COUNTA(A2:A200)` gives you a running book count, and `=SUM(F2:F200)` totals your pages.
- Keep a separate "To read" tab so your list of finished books stays clean.
The downside is friction. Opening a spreadsheet on a phone to add one book is fiddly, and the notes column rarely fits more than a sentence. If you read mostly on the go, this can be the step that makes the habit slip.
Option 3: A reading tracker app
A reading tracker app lives on your phone, so adding a book usually takes seconds. Goodreads and The StoryGraph are widely used for lists, stats and social features, and there are many smaller apps with different focuses.
When you compare reading tracker apps, look at:
- Speed of adding a book. Can you search by title or scan a barcode, or do you type everything in?
- Stats. If numbers motivate you, check what the app shows: books per year, pages, genres.
- Privacy. Some apps are built around sharing and following others. Others keep your reading to yourself. Decide which you want before you log a hundred books.
- Export. Can you download your data as a file? If you ever switch apps, you'll want to take your history with you.
- Cost. Many are free to start, with some features in a paid plan. Check what's included before you commit.
One limit worth knowing: many apps are built mainly to count. They're good at telling you that you read 31 books this year. They're less suited to holding what you thought about those books, or the lines you underlined.
Tracking is not remembering
Counting books tells you how much you read. It doesn't tell you what you took from it. A year later, a list of titles and star ratings can feel surprisingly thin: you know you gave a book four stars, but not why.
That's the gap a reading journal fills. Alongside the title and date, you keep a few lines in your own words: what stayed with you, a sentence you wanted to remember, a question the book left you with. It doesn't need to be long. Even three sentences per book can make your record far more useful to you later. If you'd like to try it, here's a guide on how to keep a reading journal.
How to choose in two minutes
- You want a simple record and like writing by hand: use a paper reading tracker.
- You want totals and full control, and mostly log at a desk: use a spreadsheet.
- You want stats, lists and to see what friends are reading: use a social reading tracker app.
- You want to remember what books meant to you, privately: use a reading journal, on paper or in an app built for it.
- Not sure: start with the simplest option for one month. If you stop using it, the tool was too much work, not too little.
Tracking your reading with Kept
Kept is a private reading journal. It's built for the "remembering" side of tracking rather than the counting side.
You add the books you read. While you're reading, you can mark a line that stands out, and it's kept with that book. When you finish, you add a short reflection in your own words. Over time, each book holds the lines and thoughts that mattered to you.
Kept is private by design: there's no feed and no followers, so what you write is for you. It's free to start, and some features are part of a paid plan. If you already use another tracker for lists or stats, Kept can sit alongside it as the place where your thoughts live.
Frequently asked questions
How many books should I track?
Track every book you finish, whether that's five a year or fifty. The number matters less than the habit, and a short honest list is often more useful than a long one you stop updating.
Should I track audiobooks?
Yes, if you count them as reading, and many people do. A format column or tag (print, ebook, audio) lets you include them and still see the split later.
Is a reading tracker different from a reading log?
The terms are mostly used interchangeably. "Reading log" often means a simple list of titles and dates, while "reading tracker" can also include stats and goals. A reading journal goes further and adds your thoughts on each book.
How do I track books I read before I started?
Add the ones you remember and leave the dates rough, such as just the year. You don't need a complete history; a partial list is still a useful starting point.
What if I lose motivation?
That usually means the tracker asks for too much. Cut it back to title and date, and log the book the moment you finish it. If counting doesn't motivate you, try writing one line about each book instead.
A private reading journal. Mark a line while you read and it is kept with the book. Free to start.
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