How I Track My Reading

I’ve tracked my reading for years, using everything from a sheet of notebook paper to a dedicated reading journal to a list in the back of my bullet journal. I love looking back at each year to see how many books I read and how my reading patterns changed from previous years.

For 2021, I’ll be tracking my reading three different ways. Here’s what I use now, what I’m adding, and why I love all three methods.

Goodreads

Goodreads is the easiest way to track what I’ve read. I use the app to quickly log and review books. It’s also a great way to connect with authors and other readers, find out what’s popular right now, set reading goals, and find new authors I’d like to try. Of course, being on Goodreads also means my TBR list is out of control, but that’s part of it. I log every book and give a star rating to almost every book, and I frequently leave a full review as well. If you’d like to connect on Goodreads, you can find me here.

Planner Log

For the past couple of years, I’ve kept a book log in my planner. This year, I added a book rating stamp I found on Amazon. Unfortunately I haven’t seen it available there for months, but Etsy has some similar items. Just search “book rating stamp” and you’ll find several options if you’d like one for yourself.

My planner log is another quick way to track my books. I don’t have room to go into a lot of detail – a couple of lines at most for each book. But it’s nice to have a record with my calendar and all the other details of my year.

Book Journal

I love the Facebook group Tea and Ink Society. The group’s founder recently created a printable reading journal and offered it for an amazing discount the first few days. I snatched it up, and I’m so glad I did! This journal is perfect – easy to customize and print what you need in the right quantities.

I debated about how to print and bind mine and finally decided on a temporary notebook with page protectors. I already had this cute mini binder and lots of page protectors from a previous project that didn’t work out. I printed the journal in the half size option. I can pull out a page, fill it out, and slip it back into the page protector. At the end of year, I’m going to take it to our local office supply store and have it bound. This way, I’ll have all the pages I need, but no wasted pages. I’ll also be able to add extras, like a copy of my Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge pages.

You can get an instant download of The Book Lovers Companion here. It comes in two sizes: full and half. I can tell this journal will be used year after year as a regular part of my yearly tracking and planning. I love the flexibility and quality of it. It holds everything I could possibly think of for tracking my books, and then some. Be sure to check it out!

Tell me how you track your reading in the comments below. Are you changing anything for 2021?

Advertisement