This post was born out of a conversation I had yesterday in the comments of a thread here, I found out that there is quite a bit of variance in how people track their reading (if at all).
So how do you guys like to track your reading? Do you just track overall books? Pages read? Time read? Do you use an app / spreadsheet or a physical reading journal? What’s your favorite metric/stat to represent your reading?
Do you have a specific goal when reading? Like 10 pages per day or 5 minutes per day?
Or on the flip side, do you not like to track? Why not? Some people said it takes the fun out of it for them, others really like it.
Personally I like to track how many pages I read each day, as I really enjoy reading but I found it easy to get distracted with other things when I didn’t have any tracking or goal. This year I’ve started keeping track of time as well as pages. It’s been cool seeing how long I read because I never really paid attention to it before. It’s also interesting to see how my reading speed changes day to day. It kinda tells me how occupied my mind is with other things.
by OneBookToBindThem
24 Comments
I’ll track what I’ve read and when I’ve finished it on goodreads and nothing else. Not interested in building a lot of admin into my hobbies.
I only track full books and use Storygraph for it. Once I’ve added them there I can see how many pages I’ve read, the page numbers of each book I’ve added, genres, moods, paces. I don’t even care too much about any of these to track them on my own but it’s fun to see it this way.
> Or on the flip side, do you not like to track? Why not?
I’ve never tracked my reading, and probably never will.
I enjoy taking my time to read books (like I’m talking weeks to even months to complete a novel), because I stew on it, take notes, re-read passages, or even put the book down for a long while before coming back to it.
Tracking my reading would just be kind of pointless for the way I enjoy reading, and might even take away some of the joy I get from it if I start feeling compelled to rush my reading in order to put it in the “read” column.
I understand why others do it, though. We are all reading books because we enjoy doing so, and we can find enjoyment in different ways 🙂
I just got back into reading, and I’ve been setting daily goals to read X amount of pages. I get all of my books from the library, so I did this to ensure I can get the book read during my check out time! Worked so far
I hate tracking. I’ve tried multiple times- a spreadsheet of books, a journal, goodreads… I just don’t want to! I read to enjoy myself not to measure any kind of achievement or metric. 99% of what I read is on kindle so if someone asks me for a book Rec I can scroll back and see what I’ve read so there’s kind of a record. A few times I have started a book only to realize I’ve read it before but that isn’t really a problem! I can always read it again or just quit and start something else.
I’ve never tracked my reading in any way. I never saw a need to track my reading. I don’t want to track my reading. I see no benefit in tracking my reading. I don’t understand the point of tracking my reading.
I just read what I want to read, when I want to read it. It’s a relaxation activity, not a job. It’s not like I have reading KPIs!
The main thing I dislike about my Kobo (which I’ve been using for two years) is how it wants to track my reading. And it wants me to share that data on my social media! But *why*? It’s not a competition. I’m not trying to read more pages or books than anyone else. I’m not even “competing with myself”, as the saying goes; I don’t care if I read more or fewer pages this week than I did last week. Every week, I will read exactly the right amount of pages for me, based on my desires and my free time for that week.
This seems to be part of a broader trend of gamifying everything we do. I don’t see the point in turning a leisure activity into a goal-oriented competition.
I just read for pleasure, it’s not a competition.
I don’t track the pages that I read the same way that I don’t track how many minutes I spend watching movies, shows, videogames, listening to music nor playing videogames. It’s weird IMO.
I only track finished books. I used to have a notebook where I’d write every book I read. I’ve written down every book I’ve read for the past 10 years! A year or two ago I discovered Goodreads which I started using, moreso to get recommendations rather than for tracking purposes but I’ve gotten into the habit of book tracking now.
This year I downloaded Storygraph and I have to say I like it way more.
I use Goodreads and I love it. The yearly goal helps me read more and I love bragging to my friends about how many books I’ve read so far this year etc etc. I love going back and reading reviews I’ve written for books I read months ago. It’s all so much fun!
I track my reading the old-fashioned way. I use a book mark.
I do reporting for a living, so you can imagine how much I LOVE tracking numbers (truly, I do), but I’ve never been able to do it with books. Especially since I’d need to look back at 20+ years of reading and list all the books I’ve read, which would be nigh impossible. I’ve got a good enough memory that I’ve almost never re-read something by accident.
However, I do “track” my reads every year, by making a list, such as : “A book that made me laugh”, “A book that made me travel”, “A book that made me think”, “A book that made me cry”, etc. Everytime I finish a book, I consider whether it fits one of the categories. If it doesn’t, than it’s probably not worth listing down anyway. And if it did, then I have a nice record of what reaction the book got out of me.
I don’t formally “track” but I have a “to be read” place for books and they get moved to a bookshelf once they get read. The bookshelfs also have unread books that have been grandfathered in though. And there are also books I’ve read in my “to be read” staging area. This is a good system.
I had a list of books that I wanted to read, which gradually become the list of the books I’ve read. And that’s it
I have a yearly reading goal, so I have a simple spreadsheet of book title, author, date started, and date finished
Goodreads!!
>How do you guys like to track your reading?
I don’t. I read for myself. I don’t track shit like that even when it’s literally my job.
I just keep a google doc with little headings for year and genre. I like to remember what I read five years ago, or reflect on trends in my reading.
I use Goodreads
I track books in Storygraph. I don’t track pages or time. I mostly like to use my tracking to be able to easily look back at what I’ve read and remember what I liked or didn’t.
I don’t track my pleasure reading. I just have a habit of reading before bed or when I’m waiting on things.
For work reading, I use bibliographic software (Zotero) to record what I read and keep my notes. It’s not comprehensive (sometimes I read when I’m not logged in), but it gets the important stuff.
I use Goodreads and I like it. My long term memory is quite bad so it’s good to be able to see, what I’ve read and if I liked it.
I recently started to write reviews, too. My written english isn’t really that good, so the reviews are mostly for me (plus my three friends who can understand me). It helps me remember what I liked or didn’t about the book.
I’ve got a notebook I’ve been keeping track in since the summer of 2012
I do 6 hours a week. I have a big calendar next to my desk that I record hours per day.
I’m afraid if I stopped doing it I wouldn’t read at all.
Then at the end of the week I put it into a spreadsheet, along with any books I’ve finished.
I use Libby, love listening to audiobooks. Once I’m done with the book, I go to a used bookstore and buy a physical copy. My bookshelves are the record of what I’ve listened to. It’s pretty cool seeing my little library grow over time.