How I Keep Track of Books

Hey Bookworms!

I’ve never thought about tracking the books I read before until about two years ago and I’ve tried several ways until I found what works for me. Let me know how you keep track of books (if you do) or if you use any of these methods!

Goodreads –

GR helps me

• keep track of how many books I read in a year
• Set a reading goal and tells me if I’m ahead or behind schedule
• Gives you a report of how many books you read, pages read, etc.
• Sort books into categories (read, to be read, wish list, etc)
  • which comes in handy when I go to a bookstore and don’t know which book to get next (that’s where the “wish-list” list comes into play

Cons

• Requires internet
  • Which isn’t a good thing when you’re traveling and have limited data.

You can add me on Goodreads if you like. 

Google Sheets/ Microsoft Excel –

*Here’s an example of how I keep track of books using Google Sheets – Any books I didn’t finish I copy and paste into the next month

With Google Sheets or Excel I can

• Track books when I’m offline for when I’m out traveling or visiting somewhere with poor reception.
• Be more specific with the way I track books
  • For example I can track by page number (I like to divide it into 3s or 4s – ex: 100 pages = 25| 50| 75 | 100 or 195 pages = 65 | 130 | 195) or by chapter (one chapter per box or if there are over 20 chapters then I group them together)
• Separate sheets to display 2 months at a time
• See which books were read during which month (for monthly wrap ups)
• Document which books were bought when (If I remember to write it down)
• Also I like to color code the books in relation to their covers (Ex: A Court of Thorns and Roses has a read cover so I filled in the boxes using a red hue)

Well there you have it. I’m not super knowledgeable with Sheets or Excel so my spreadsheets are pretty plain (which further proves that you don’t have to get fancy with it). I have tried book journals but after a while I found it sort of burdensome having to carry around a small notebook or rather remembering to put it in my purse/backpack. 

Do you keep track of books you read?

Until next time!