I am a self-proclaimed book nerd. I love all things books and reading and have learned to structure my life around that book love. I get up early to read with a cup of coffee, choose purses based on their ability to house books and notebooks and move all my bookish apps to the front page of my phone’s home screen. 

But there’s one more thing I do for my reading life that has made a large difference in my reading life: my reading log. 

My reading log is a personal celebration of my reading life and curates the information I want and need to make my reading life (and life!) even better. All I need to do is enter in the books I’ve read and it instantly gives me a visual look at my reading life. In seconds. 

How? Because my reading log is actually a bookish spreadsheet. 

You might be wondering why a book-holding, sticky-note-loving, book-dart-kind-of-girl chose a digital reading log rather than a printed one. Well, it does one thing that my printed reading log cannot: it curates, analyzes and makes my reading life visible in chart form.

Admittedly, it’s taken me a long while to create a bookish spreadsheet that I actually love more than my notebook, but now that I have, there’s no turning back.

Here’s how it works:

After I finish a book, I head to my reading log to enter in my chosen data. I’ve pinned my bookish spreadsheet to my Internet browser bar so I can easily access it with a single click of my mouse. 

  • First, I enter my bookish data. I track the title, the author, genre and format of the book. 
  • Then, I enter my rating in stars. Honestly, I have a hard time with this. I mean, a book could be perfectly written, but not the right book for me and I don’t think it’s my place to rate a book based only on my reaction to it. So, I give a lot of 5-star ratings.
  • After that, I track bookish metrics that matter to me: Is the book written by a BIPOC author? Did I abandon the book? Who recommended the book to me? Over time, I’ve customized my reading log to track exactly what matters most to me as a reader. 
  • Then, I analyze the data. This is where the book nerd in me shines through. Since I’ve created customized charts in Google Sheets, I can instantly see, in pie-chart form, exactly what my reading life looks like, something not as easily accomplished on paper. This way, I can easily see how my reading life has grown (or not!) so I can do something about it. When we know better, we do better.
  • Next, I set reading goals. When I can clearly see what my reading life looks like, I can set purposeful goals to cultivate it. Goals like reading more, reading more widely, exploring new digital texts, finding book recommendations from less-likely sources and more. I like to set monthly reading goals, but you can choose to reflect on your reading life at any time. 
  • One last thing: I also have a digital space to curate my To-Be-Read (TBR) stack and challenge my reading life. This way, I not only remember the titles I want to read, but remember WHY I want to read them, too. And my personal book challenge ensures my reading life is personal and meaningful all year long. 

Here’s a 1-minute video of my reading log in action. You’ll see how I go from simple book entries to beautiful book charts in moments. 

The bottom line? Energy flows where attention goes. And when I give my reading life the attention it deserves with a simple entry on a bookish spreadsheet, I gain newfound energy for my reading life every single time. If this is something that might work for you, too, you can download my spreadsheet here!

Would you consider using a bookish spreadsheet to track your reading life? What matters most and deserves a place on your document? Comment below!