How to keep a reading log, one book at a time
To keep track of the books you've read, log each one when you finish it, or when you give up on it: the title, the author, the date, a rating and one line. Keep what you're reading now and what's next in the same place. And go easy on yearly targets, which tend to turn reading into homework.
What goes in a reading log?
- Title and author.
- The date you finished.
- A rating.
- One line: a quote, an idea, how it left you.
- Whether it was a reread.
- The format, if you mix print, ebooks and audiobooks.
Start dates are optional. They're interesting if you want to know how long books take you, but they're also one more thing to forget. The finish date is the one that matters.
Should you set a reading goal?
A yearly number works for some people and backfires for others. The common trap: by autumn you're behind, so you choose short books over the long one you actually wanted to read, and reading starts to feel like a chore.
If you like targets, try a softer one. A book a month. One book from a country you haven't read before. Finally finishing the doorstop that's been on the shelf for two years. Goals about what you read tend to last longer than goals about how many.
How do you track a book you're halfway through?
Note the page you're on every so often. It's surprisingly motivating to see the number move, and it helps when you're reading more than one book at a time.
In artsvibe, a book on the Now part of your shelf can carry the page you're on: one field, with the book's page count beside it. When you finish, you log it like anything else, with a rating, a line and the date.
What about books you don't finish?
Write them down anyway, with a note on where you stopped and why. A list of abandoned books is useful. It shows you which genres or writers you keep picking up and putting down again, and it stops you buying the same book twice.
Giving up on a book isn't a failure. Life is short and the pile is tall.
How do you remember the books you read?
Ratings alone fade quickly. A year later, a four-star book can be a total blank. Three short notes fix most of that: what it's about in one sentence, a line you'd want to quote, and what you'd say to a friend who asked whether to read it. It takes two minutes, and it's what you'll be glad of when someone asks for a recommendation.
Do audiobooks count?
Of course. Listening to a book is reading it, whatever anyone at a dinner party says. Log it the same way, and note the format if you're curious how your reading splits between print, screen and headphones.
Do rereads count?
Yes, and they deserve their own entry. Reading a book again at a different age is a different experience, and the rating often changes. Over the years, your rereads turn into a list of the books that shaped you.
Where should you keep it?
Wherever you'll actually open it. A notebook, a spreadsheet and an app trade off much as they do for films, and the film diary guide goes through them. One point for paper that's specific to books: copying a favourite line out by hand helps it stick.
If you're choosing between a book tracker app such as Goodreads or The StoryGraph and one log for everything, this comparison covers both, and this round-up looks at the apps people mean when they ask for a Letterboxd for books. artsvibe keeps books in the same log as your films, series, albums and gigs, so the book that led you to a film sits next to it in your diary.
How do you keep it going?
Log a book on the day you finish it, while the ending is fresh, even if all you write is a rating and three words. A thin entry beats a missing one, and you can add to it later. If a month goes by with nothing finished, note the book you're in the middle of and the page you're on; that's a record of the month too. Keep a short Up next pile rather than a list of two hundred books you'll never get to. And once a year, read your log back from the start.