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▶Book and Reading Tracker
Log a book once. It counts your year, times your TBR at your real pace, and writes your Year in Books for you.
Every reader with a goal has the same question in September: am I on track, and what would it actually take to catch up? Most trackers count your books. This one does the arithmetic.
- Ahead or behind pace in whole books, and pages a day to finish the year on goal, both worked out from the log
- A TBR with a date on it: every book carries the days it would take you at your real pace, and the pile says how many months
- A Year in Books recap written from the log: longest, shortest, fastest, highest rated, most-read author, favorite genre, in sentences
- Series counted off the log, library due dates that flag themselves, and a reading calendar shaded for every day you had a book open
- Portable formulas that open in Excel 2016 and later, Google Sheets and Apple Numbers, when most of this shelf needs Excel 365
Overview
Log a book once. It counts your year, times your TBR at your real pace, and writes your Year in Books for you.
Every reader with a goal has the same question in September: am I on track, and what would it actually take to catch up? Most trackers count your books. This one does the arithmetic.
You log a book once: title, author, pages, the day you started, the day you finished, and how many stars. From that one row the file counts your year, works out whether you are ahead of or behind your goal in whole books, tells you exactly how many pages a day would finish the year on goal at your own average book length, times your to-be-read pile at the pace you have actually read, and writes your Year in Books for you. In the shipped sample a reader is 24 books into a 40-book year on September 5: three behind pace, 54 pages a day to catch up, and a 27-book TBR that would take 8.7 months.
What's Included
One workbook, 13 connected tabs, in four color editions:
- One ZIP with the workbook in four color editions plus the three-color bundle
- A two-page Quick-Start PDF: the four things to do first, what every tab is for, and the honest warnings
- A START-HERE file naming which file to open and how the colorways work
- A worked sample year in every tab, so nothing is blank until you replace it
- A link to the narrated video tutorial that walks every tab of the real file
Key Benefits
Why this one
Pace is an even share of your goal for the share of the year gone by. The Dashboard says three behind or two ahead in whole books, because that is how people say it, and then gives the useful number: pages a day to finish the year on goal, using your own average book length this year. Change the goal, or finish a book, and both numbers move.
Every book on the pile carries how many days it would take you at the pace you have actually read this year, and the pile as a whole says how many months it is. Priority 1 sorts to the top as Next up. It is a useful thing to know before you buy the next one.
The Reading Log is the only place you ever type a book. Title, author, pages, two dates, stars, with dropdowns for genre, format, status and source. A book counts toward the year the day its status says Finished and its finish date lands in the year you are tracking. Two hundred and fifty rows, which is years of reading.
Longest, shortest, fastest read, highest rated, first and last, most-read author, favorite genre, busiest month, how you read and where the books came from, then a paragraph in sentences. Every line is read from the log. Print it in January.
The Monthly Wrap-Up names the best-rated and the longest book of every month and writes this month in a sentence. The Reading Calendar shades every day you had a book open and darker when you had two. The Series tab counts read, left and next up for every series you have started.
A wishlist that adds up what is still to buy. Library books out with due dates that turn amber when they are close and red when they are late. Books you have lent, with the day and the name, because somebody always has your copy of Circe.
Who It's For
Built for
- Readers with a yearly goal who want to know where they stand, not just how many
- Anyone whose TBR has become a pile and would like to know how long it really is
- Book club members, library regulars and anyone who lends books and wants them back
- Readers who want their year written up without giving their reading data to a website
How It Works
Up and running in minutes
Open Setup and type the year, your goal in books, and roughly how many pages you read in an hour. The sample has a date typed in so the numbers hold still; clear it and the file uses today.
One row per book: title, author, pages, the day you started, the day you finished, and stars. Mark it Finished and it counts.
Title, author, pages and a priority from 1 to 5. The next five sort to the top with the days each would take you.
Ahead or behind, pages a day to finish on goal, your TBR in months, what you are reading now, books by month, top genres.
The Year in Books tab is already written. Put it on the refrigerator.
Why It's Different
Not another template
The shelf sells book trackers that count. Most of them need Excel 365 or live only in Google Sheets, and none of them tell you what it would take to catch up. This one runs the pace math in plain formulas you can read, times the TBR at your real pace, writes the year up for you, and opens in Excel 2016, Google Sheets and Numbers without asking for an account.
Delivery & Compatibility
Instant, and it opens in what you already use
As soon as your order is complete you get instant access to download the ZIP: the workbook in four color editions, the three-color bundle, a two-page Quick-Start PDF and a START-HERE file.
One ZIP, instant download. Portable formulas only — no macros, no add-ons, no account and nothing to cancel. Opens in Microsoft Excel (2016 or later, Mac or PC) and Google Sheets; to use Sheets, upload the .xlsx to Drive and open it with Sheets. Apple Numbers opens it too. The four colorways are the same workbook: pick one and stay in it.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Does it pull book covers or data from the internet?
No. Nothing here connects to Goodreads, a library or a bookstore. You type the title and the pages, which is also why it works everywhere and never breaks.
Can I use it next year?
Yes. It is undated. Change the year on Setup and the Dashboard, the calendar and the Year in Books follow; the log keeps every year you have logged.
Will it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Every formula is portable. Upload the .xlsx to Google Drive and open it with Sheets; formulas, dropdowns and conditional colors carry over.
How many books does it hold?
Two hundred and fifty rows on the Reading Log and sixty on the TBR as it ships. Insert rows inside the blocks and the named ranges stretch with them.
A reading log and planning tool that calculates from the books you enter. It does not connect to any bookstore, library or reading service, and it does not pull covers or ratings from anywhere. The workbook ships with an invented sample year so every tab has something in it; delete it and type your own.
