Tracking Reading || What, where, and why

Of course, I track my reading. How else would I brag about it with data to back me up? 🤪

Tracking reading seems simple until you start doing it and get a whiff of the ways others do it in the online bookish community. As someone who's been reading for 10+ years and is an organisation and data patterns nerd, it's no surprise that I'm a bit obsessed with tracking my reading. The other benefits that come along with it help too.

This topic is inspired by a Let's Talk Bookish bookish prompt. I immediately added it to my ideas list when I saw it because, after 10+ years of tracking reading, I've got quite a bit to say about it. I thought it'll be fun to try out the question method to do this discussion post, so grab a cup of your favourite drink and let's discuss ☕️

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @ dinipandareads! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics here.

what?

I spoke a bit about this in my 10 Years of Reading post but that was mostly with the perspective of the data that is relevant for the post. There's more to what I actually track than what I used to figure out patterns in that post.

1. books I want to read.

As readers often lament, there are too many books to read and too little time to read them. My TBR list is an ever-increasing list. I used to freely add books to the list when I was younger, leading to my TBR list being hundreds of books long and often overwhelming. It wasn't working out so I'm cautious about what I add to my list now.

When I see books being spoken about or praised, I take a few extra minutes to check out the synopsis, average star rating, and reviews by friends (if any) before I add it to my TBR list. I also check its availability in India since a lot of books are either not available or too expensive here. Surprisingly, many books don't get added to my TBR through this practice, leading to a much more personalised list of books that I'll be able to read and enjoy.

There are only a few friends and one or two reviewers online whose words hold more sway over what I add to the list. If these people highly praise a book, I tend to add it to my TBR even if it doesn't exactly sound like my thing. This trust is due to several good recommendations over time.

Sometimes, I don't add books to the list even if I'm interested in it. Call it a gut feeling. I wait to see more opinions on the book before deciding that I want to read it, or I wait to come across it again and see if I'm still interested.

I tend to not add books to the list if it's not "priority" either. If I think I could wait a few months to read the book, or that I'm not interested in reading it soon, I don't add it to the list. Sure, I may forget about it, but that's fine. There are always books I want to read. It's happened that I've come across such books again later and added them to the list/read them.

Ever since I started doing the above instead of taking the word of a single reader/review, I've been happier with the books I read. I'm able to rely on my TBR list too, often picking books from the list to read next instead of picking random ones.

If my TBR feels overwhelming, I clear it. This happens once in a few years. I'm quite brutal about it, removing books unless I feel like reading them immediately after seeing them/reading their synopsis again. Changing reading tastes over years means that most of the older books don't fit in anymore, so clearing the list helps. The two times I've done it, I ended up with less than 50 books on the list.

As I write this post, my TBR has 127 books which is actually less compared to the hundreds (or thousands) that many readers have.

2. books I'm currently reading

I barely track this. Whether I track a book I'm currently reading depends on whether I remember to do so and want to do so, which isn't often. I'm not interested in showing what I'm currently reading either.

I track my current reads, sometimes, if they take long. That's the only time when tracking current reads makes sense. Most of the books I read, I finish in a couple of days because I'm a binge-reader. So, I read books quickly and take longer breaks instead of reading consistently every day. There's no point in updating my currently reading shelf if I'm going to update it again soon.

I've also noticed a trend where I abandon books if I mark them as currently reading. Not sure if it's because of that or simply because I take too long with them? Recently I marked a book as currently reading immediately after starting it and I abandoned it in two chapters 🙃

Due to the above, I'm biased against tracking current reads.

3. books I've read

This is the main thing I track. I've been tracking my read books diligently since 2014.

I like to mark my read books immediately after reading them. I can be late in updating sometimes due to life stuff but I try to do it as soon as possible. If I don't do it immediately, there's a good chance that I will forget to later. It has happened that I come across a read book months later and be confused as to why it's not on my read list.

My tracking isn't very thorough in terms of details, though. I track the book, the format I read in, date finished, and a star rating based on vibes. I don't think too much when I add the books to my read list. Sometimes, I write a one-word or one-sentence review.

I add the date I started reading the book if I remember/feel like tracking it. I mostly don't add it, though. I don't see the point in tracking the start date because I'm not interested in how long I take to finish books. Half the time it'll be within a day or two anyway.

Some people track other things like sub-category ratings or major points on their mind, or some things about the story itself. I don't. I keep my tracking short and quick. It should be done within a minute or I won't keep up with it.

4. annual reading challenge

It started through the annual reading challenges on GoodReads and it has soon become something that I just do. I've stopped caring about the number itself but I still look at it. It's interesting to see how my reading numbers change over the years. The tracking apps show how ahead/behind I am on the challenge too, it's helpful when I'm trying to reach the goal or to gauge if I want to change my goal.

where?

I used GoodReads for a long time, about 9 years, before switching. See, I didn't mind the actual functionality of the website and app—even if the design was old and clunky—as long as I could quickly mark my books and log off. I wasn't fond of the social aspect of GoodReads, though. It felt a bit too social for a reading tracking app. Sometimes, a lot of clicks are needed to get what I want done. That it's owned by Amazon (which didn't bother doing anything for the platform in years among other things) wasn't great either.

After dabbling with it for a while, I switched to StoryGraph in 2024. I moved over a bit of recent historical data manually (the auto transfer didn't work well, I checked and the GoodReads export is the problem) and decided to refer GoodReads for older data if I really want it. It's not often, so it's fine.

I use StoryGraph to track all my reading now. It's where I update things immediately and save whatever. I use the website when I'm on my laptop to look up my reading when I'm writing wrap-ups or recommending books and the app to track my reading. (Add me on StoryGraph!)

Although StoryGraph could make things a bit quicker to track reading (few too many clicks necessary), I like that the user interface is clean and there isn't too much happening. I like that the social feed is not the first thing I see, but easily available if I want to see what my friends are reading. I like that choosing the format I read in is much easier than on GoodReads. I like the stats that are automatically generated—saves me from counting when I write blog posts. I love that it's on dark mode and opening the app at night doesn't sear my eyes.

StoryGraph has the option to create buddy reads too, which my friends make use of for our buddy reads. We still chat about it on our group chats but it's cute how they're excited about creating the buddy read on StoryGraph, as if they're making it official.

I still update GoodReads once in a while, just to have all my data in one place. Also, GoodReads is part of Amazon which has money to burn to keep it up while StoryGraph is a small company—the latter could end up shutting down one day due to a financial crisis and I may lose my data. I used to update every month or so but nowadays I forget GoodReads exists so updates are low and irregular.

Technically, I track reading on my blog as well, since I mention what I read along with some thoughts in every month's wrap-up. I started blogging a couple of years after I started tracking my reads on GoodReads but I think my blog is more comprehensive than the tracking apps/websites. I write longer reviews on the blog and at least write a couple of sentences about each book in wrap-ups.

StoryGraph/GoodReads is good for counts and quick searches but my blog has more data about the books. Whenever I'm looking up books that I've read, I check on GoodReads or StoryGraph for quick data like my rating or dates read but I always search on the blog for more thoughts, especially if I'm recommending books or checking something about the stories.

A friend convinced me and a couple others to try Fable in the beginning of 2025. I really tried but the fact that it didn't have a website was really inconvenient. I use the website quite a bit, mostly when I'm writing blog posts. Sometimes I prefer updating reads on the website too, simply because I'm on the laptop. I quit Fable pretty quickly.

A lot of people have reading journals, very pretty ones too, but I don't have the patience for that. I think I tried maintaining a list on paper once many years ago and it didn't last long. I love seeing others' reading journals but I don't have the patience for it. I read a few too many books to keep it up 😂 I'd rather blog about them.

why?

There are a few reasons.

1. it's fun

We like quantifying things. Data backs up statements and often show us who we really are.

When I started tracking the books I read, it was out of curiosity and fun. I had to return books to the tiny library nearby and the log on GoodReads became the source of truth for my reads. I liked logging the books I read online and seeing what others had to say about it. I liked scrolling through my list of read books to see how many books I read and how varied they were. I used the TBR list to hunt for my next reads in the library.

10 years later, it's still fun. I like seeing the books I read in a list. I like the pie charts the StoryGraph creates, showing me whether ebooks are always winning or if I'm reading more audiobooks lately. I like how my friends excitedly create buddy reads on StoryGraph and add me to them.

2. my memory is poor

When I read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, it reminded me of a book I reads years ago in high school which a friend had given me, telling me to read. I kept trying to remember the name of the book but I couldn't remember it. Finally, I hunted through my read list from the high school years and found it - The Giver by Lois Lowry.

A few years ago, I picked up a romance book from Kindle Unlimited which I saw someone praising online and I hated it. I went on GoodReads to mark it as did-not-finish and found that I had already marked it so—a year ago. I had forgotten about it and had the same experience, only I DNFed it sooner the second time.

When people ask me for book recommendations, instead of always talking about the last book I enjoyed (recency bias), I check my reads over the last few months or longer to recommend a book that I think they will like.

When my friends and I were trying to pick a new book to buddy read, I scrolled through my TBR list to find books that all of us would like instead of trying to pluck a book from the depths of my brain.

For my wrap-ups, I use my StoryGraph to write about the books I read that month/year. I sometimes look back on my reviews to write other things like book lists.

The above are just a few ways tracking my reads helps me recall the books I read or want to read. I read a few too many books to remember them all, especially when there are a lot of other important things to remember like my ID number, passwords, or whether I already applied moisturising cream before heading out in the morning.

One could argue that not every book is worth remembering. If you loved a book, you would remember it. If you forgot about it as the years went on and found better books, it's fine because your favourites have changed. Why remember the books that you disliked? I don't agree with that.

The whole point of tracking reading is that you don't have to worry about remembering good books, there's always a record of them. I loved The Giver and ended up forgetting it's name even though I vividly remembered the story. It helps to have a record of read books to reference.

And what's the point of recording "bad" reads? You can easily check and tell others to not read them, saving their time. My friends often ask me if I've read a certain book (that's something in my usual genres) before judging whether they want to read them and I ask them about other genres.

Tracking anything becomes worth it only after doing it for a significant period of time. If you track only the current year's medical appointments, it might not seem very valuable. But armed with years of medical appointment data? That can help you in ways you cannot predict. (True story: I used my bullet journals to back track my health issues to tell my doctors when something happened.)

Similarly, tracking reading is mostly fun in the beginning and may seem not worth the effort over years. But it will prove to be helpful in ways you won't think of beforehand. Tracking reading isn't as important or life-changing as other things like medical history but if you want to track it and are able to keep it up, it will help.

Besides, it sounds much cooler to say "I read 250+ books in one year in high school" as a fun fact about myself in my introductions rather than a simple "I like to read."

etc.

Answering the Let's Talk Bookish prompts that came with this topic...

1. Has the way you keep track of your reading changed since you started blogging?

I started tracking my reading quite a while before I started blogging (in fact, tracking reading is what led to starting a blog!) so there isn't much difference. I tracked the same things before I started blogging. Briefly, my tracking changed to include in-depth reviews on GoodReads that were cross-posted from my blog but I stopped doing it a few years ago.

The only difference is probably my use of StoryGraph. I don't think I'd have heard of, let alone switch to, StoryGraph if I wasn't in the book blogging community which has been quite vocal about the issues with Amazon/GoodReads and praised StoryGraph as an alternative.

2. What are the pros and cons of tracking your reading?

I spoke about the pros earlier. Cons... hmm.

I won't say that it's time-taking because I barely take a minute or two to track every book. (I'm not counting blogging about the books since it's a whole different hobby). I rarely spent time scrolling on the GoodReads/StoryGraph social feeds.

There was a brief time when I was obsessed with my standing on GoodReads. I cared about how many reviews I wrote and being on the leaderboards. I cared about being friends with many people and following what they read. I used to be disappointed when people I admired didn't accept my friend request on the app. I was a teenager then and grew out of it as soon as college work started piling up.

I'm a tiny bit obsessed with keeping my read shelf up-to-date, only because I know that I'll soon move on and forget to update it. If I'm unable to track it for some reason (like no internet or the site is down), I write a note or reminder in my phone to update it later.

I actually can't think of any proper cons. Either it's a perfect fit in my life or I'm missing something 😂

chat with me!

Do you track your reading? What, where, and why? Do you prefer to track in apps/websites or notebooks/journals? Has the way you track changed over time? Do you see any cons in your tracking?