How to track books you have read

Why track your reading at all

A reading log answers the questions you actually ask later: what did I read last spring, did I ever finish that trilogy, which translation did I own. It also quietly builds the data behind streaks, yearly totals and your reading personality. A spreadsheet can do this; an app does it in seconds, from your pocket, with covers.

Set up your library in an evening

In Must Read there are 3 ways to get books in, and you will use all of them:

• Scan – point the barcode scanner at the back of any physical book and it lands in your library with cover and metadata.
• Search – find anything by title, author or ISBN across millions of titles.
• Import – bring your whole history from Goodreads or StoryGraph, original reading dates included.

Use the 4 statuses honestly

Every book lives in one of 4 states: Want to Read, Reading, Completed or DNF. The last one matters most – a did-not-finish shelf keeps your Reading shelf truthful and removes the guilt pile. Moving a book between statuses takes one tap and stamps the date for you.

Record what matters

For each book you can track pages read, start and finish dates (editable, so back-filling old reads works), a star rating in quarter-star steps, and private notes and reviews. None of it is required – a book with just a Completed date still counts everywhere it should.

Keep it going

The Currently Reading widget puts your open books on the Home Screen, and reading reminders (free for everyone) nudge you at times you choose. Once logging a book takes 5 seconds, the habit keeps itself.

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