As readers, we are constantly looking for the best way to track our books — be it keeping track of books that we want to read, books that we have read, or books that we own. There are a plethora of reading tracker apps, websites and tools that can help us track our books and reading, with new ones seemingly popping up on the regular. While it can be tempting to try all the new, shiny apps out there, especially when we see Bookstagram influencers waxing poetic on every shiny new app, for our own sanity, it’s helpful to try a few apps and tools and stick to them.

Here’s a handy list of some of the best tools and apps to track your reading goals and habits.

The 8 best book reading tracker apps and tools

I’ve divided this list into the best free reading tracker apps and websites; the best digital tools to track your books and reading; and some fun analogue ways to create a reading tracker or reading log.

The 3 best digital reading tracker apps for book lovers

Goodreads: Perhaps the granddaddy of book tracking websites, Goodreads is still one of the most popular reading tracker apps. There are a plethora of ways for you to find books to add to your already tottering to be read (TBR) list — from lists such as The Best Books of the Twentieth Century, Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once, and Goodreads Editors’ Book Picks; to the recommendations that you can find beneath any of the books you’ve read; to seeing what your friends and readers you’re following are reading or want to read. There’s also the uber popular Goodreads Reading Challenge, which is where you can track and record all the books you read by year; the Year in Books, which gives you a minimal yet elegant view of your reading habit for the year; and The Goodreads Choice Awards, where you get to vote for {and find} some of the best/most popular books of the year.

The StoryGraph: This website has emerged as a popular contender to Goodreads, especially after Amazon took over Goodreads. The StoryGraph app can help you track your reading and choose your next book based on your mood and your favorite topics and themes; allows you to give half and quarter stars to books {a feature that’s lacking on Goodreads}; and join others in reading challenges. It also has a wide range of charts and graphs to see how your reading develops over time and use that to help you pick better books. Some of the features, including custom charts, extra stats {including filtering your stats for a custom time period, and viewing stats for your fiction or nonfiction reads}, and yearly reading comparisons are available only to paid subscribers. The biggest drawback to StoryGraph is that it could be difficult to find your friends on there, since it caters to a primarily Western audience.

Fable: The new kid on the block, unlike Goodreads and The StoryGraph, Fable is an app only reading tracker. Also unlike the other two apps, Fable allows you to track not just the books you’ve read, but also the TV shows you’ve watched. It’s the most social of all the digital apps, with a lot of popular clubs that you can join {such as Twisted, a club dedicated to mysteries and thrillers, and Diversify and Amplify, which focuses on uplifting and amplifying marginalized voices}. You can also discover what to read next by exploring friends’ lists and take fun mood quizzes to find just what you want to read or watch next. The reading tracker app helps you stay organized with lists, goals, stats, and more tools designed to keep you on top of all your books and shows.

The 3 best customizable digital tools to track your reading goals and habits

Notion: Notion is a super-powerful tool that can help you build a tailored reading tracker that you can customize to your heart’s content. You can choose from a number of freely available templates that you can tweak to your liking, or create a reading log from scratch. Customize your views, set up separate databases to track your yearly reading, create a TBR list, and tables to track the books that you own. You can set up the databases with as much or as little information as you want to track; set up different views, including a table view or a gallery view with book covers; organize your tracker by genre, rating or year; add reading habit stats; build progress bars; and generate charts and graphs for a more visual view of your reading habits.

Google Sheets or Excel: You can use Google Sheets or Excel to set up detailed reading logs, with columns for title, author, rating, and dates. You can decide how much or how little information you want to capture about each book that you read, making the system infinitely customizable. You can track your reading and TBR lists on separate sheets, and also generate charts and graphs for a more visual view of your yearly reading habits.

Milanote: Milanote allows you to create visual boards with images, links, text and notes. You probably cannot use it to track your reading in the conventional sense, though you can use it to create boards with lists and images of your favorite books from each month, or create a yearly board to collect your favorite books and quotes from the year. There are no charts and graphs, no fancy tools and databases; BUT if you want something that’s a bit more fun and visual, definitely give Milanotes a try.

2 reading log ideas for adults and teens

You may not get fancy charts, graphs, and databases when you track your reading the old-fashioned way, by hand, in a notebook, but the satisfaction of flipping through your journal and seeing a record of all the books that you read is immeasurable. Here are two reading log ideas that you can try.

Reading journals: You can use your yearly planner or a journal to track your reading. There are a ton of ways that you can set up your reading trackers, from simple reading logs to super elaborate spreads that will leave you with your jaw hanging on the floor. A quick search on YouTube will give you a ton of ideas; pick and choose the ones that you like and give yourself permission to make it as simple — or elaborate — as you like.

Printable reading logs: Like the idea of keeping a physical reading tracker, but don’t feel up to the task of setting everything up yourself? Look around for printable reading lots. You can look on Etsy for printable reading log templates, or on Pinterest or Canva for free templates that you can print and stick into your planner or notebook.

Create a hybrid reading tracker system that works for you

When deciding how to track your reading, think about what you really want to track. It can be tempting to succumb to the lure of all the bells and whistles that digital and tools offer, but what’s the point of spending hours setting up and filling out a fancy spreadsheet or Notion database if all you really want is a simple log of the books that you read?

Deciding what you want to track will help you more easily choose the system or systems that work for you and ignore all the shiny new apps, templates, and trackers on the market.

For the curious: My hybrid reading tracker system

For the longest time, I maintained a running list of the books I read on my blog. Originally, it was ordered by date; then a few years ago I decided to change it up and order the books by genre.

When that page started to get too long and unwieldy, I decided to stop updating the list on my blog and track my reading on Goodreads and Notion. I could easily drop Goodreads from my hybrid reading tracker system, but I use it as it’s linked to my annual Book Bingo challenge.

I started tracking my reading on Notion to see just how long I took to read each book. I created a very simple database, where I track the genre, reading status, and the date I started and finished the book. I also have a column to add the book’s star rating and to keep note of any book bingo prompt or other reading challenge that the book is associated with. Plus, I have a different database view that lets me see the genres I’ve read during any given year. For instance, in 2024, I read 3 dystopian novels, compared to 2 in 2023, 3 in 2022 and none in 2021! I like being able to see my reading patterns like this.

This year, in addition to Goodreads and Notion, I maintained a simple reading list in my daily memory keeping journal. I just log the name of the book and author, give it a star rating, and add my notes and thoughts on the book. I also decorate the pages with stickers and washi tape {fun!}. Thumbing through the pages, looking back on the notes I made on each book, and all the washi tapes and stickers decorating the pages makes me happy. It’s also very helpful to look back on my notes when I’m writing my reading wrap-ups each month, which make it a win-win!

So there you have it — a fairly comprehensive list of free reading tracker apps, tools, and systems that you can use to track your reading habits.

Do you use any of the apps or tools to keep track of your reading? Do you prefer to use a single app or tool, or are you a hybrid tracker like me? Let’s have a chat in the comments!