If you like spreadsheets and graphs and reading about other people’s reading, you’ll love this post! I wanted to share with you how I track my reading and a snapshot of what my reading looked like in 2020, in case you’re looking for ways to track your own reading. This was my largest reading year yet, coming in at 90 books. I blame quarantine and having nothing else to do but sit at home and read for this spike in books read.

I used to only track my reading on Goodreads, which is a perfectly acceptable way to track the books you read, until my husband introduced me to his own reading tracker, an excel document that he’s been using for over 8 years. He’s been adding categories to his tracker as the years have passed and when he showed me how he tracked his reading back in 2019, I decided to try it out in 2020. I created my own spreadsheet and added the categories I was interested in diving into at the end of the year.

I decided to use Google Sheets, stored on my Google Drive, so I would have access to the spreadsheet anywhere, including on my phone. I thought about the data I wanted to collect throughout the year and I added the categories to the top of my spreadsheet. I’m including a link for you to a blank copy of my reading log spreadsheet at the end of this post in case you’re inspired to track your reading this way!

Here are the data points I was interested in analyzing in my reading:

Title
Author
Format (Kindle, Audiobook, Print)
Source (where I got the book—library, own, borrowed)
Number of pages
Genre (fiction or nonfiction)
Genre 2 (thriller, fantasy, scifi, etc.)
Author gender
Author of color
Recommendation source (who recommended the book to me)
Date started
Date finished
Brief summary
Star Rating
Other notes
Reading Time (how many days it took me to read the book)

I wanted to dig deeper into my average pages read, how many authors of color I read, my average star rating, and more.

Throughout the year, anytime I finished a book I would add that book and it’s stats to my reading spreadsheet. Sometimes I would even add it before I finished the book, just adding the data that I could, like date started, number of pages, title, author, etc. After the book was finished, I would fill in each section and then write a brief summary, so I wouldn’t forget what happened in the book. The summary portion of the spreadsheet was the most challenging for me. It’s difficult to summarize a book into a few short sentences but it has been so helpful when recommending books to others or when trying to remember what a book was about. Even though this section takes the most work, I would highly suggest keeping it.

And that’s it! By the end of the year, I had an entire spreadsheet full of data points on my reading habits and on December 31st, I had a blast combing through my spreadsheet, creating graphs for different variables (see below) and was surprised by what I found!

So let’s get into the data of my reading in 2020!

Genre: Fiction vs. Nonfiction

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This stat doesn’t surprise. I always gravitate more towards fiction, with some nonfiction sprinkled in. I usually take my nonfiction on audio unless I want to annotate in the margins and if that’s the case, I’ll buy the book for our personal library.

Format: Print, Audio, Kindle

Coming in at almost 52% print, this was obviously my preferred method of reading in 2020, however; I actually read way more on my Kindle this year than I ever have. I usually love the feeling of holding a physical book in my hands, feeling it’s weight, turning the pages, and watching as I make progress. However, there is something to be said about the pure convenience of using an e-reader, like my Kindle, to read. Not only can you take your book with you anywhere without having to lug a book around, there are so many other great features that can’t be ignored like the built in dictionary, Wikipedia, and X-ray that I found has enhanced my reading. Am I becoming a Kindle reader? All I can say is out of the 7 books I have started/read in 2021, 5 of them have been on my Kindle! My reading more Kindle books also had something to do with the fact that my local library was closed due to Covid and when libraries started opening back up, they decided to keep it closed for renovations. I am chomping at the bit to have my local library open again!

Star Rating (out of 5):

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This is one of my favorite graphs to analyze and think about. Overall, out of all of the books I read this year, 32.5% got a 5 star rating! To me, that seems pretty high. I am usually notorious for giving lots of books a 3 star rating (which equals my 5 star ratings this year at 32.5%) because for me, a lot of books are just okay. But I was really surprised this year at just how many books earned a 5 star rating. I guess I read a lot of great books in 2020.

Genre:

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I really thought I tamed on my thriller reading this year, but apparently I didn’t! I knew I read way more fantasy, dystopian, and cozy mysteries than usual, but I find it fascinating that in a year where I really thought I read less thrillers, I still read 22! I also really upped my Cozy Mystery reads this year. If you’re unfamiliar with that genre, think settings with bookshops, tea drinking, warm fuzzy feeling with a tad bit of murder thrown in. In this midst of the crazy of 2020, I found myself reaching for these at night to help settle myself down to sleep.

Source: Where I got the book

This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest! Many of the books I read come from the library, either physically or through the Libby app. The Libby app has both audio and ebooks, so any book I read on my Kindle or listen to on audio, usually comes from here. Our Rojas Library, is all the books that we currently own and we bought many new books for our library in 2020. There are many books on our shelves that I have yet to read but would like to in the future.

A few other stats to highlight:

Average page length: 409

Average time to read a book: 10 days

Authors of color: Only 18.7% of the books I read in 2020 were from authors of color. This is something I’m really watching and working to increase in 2021.

My highest recommendation source: 30.7% of my books were recommended on The Currently Reading Podcast by either Kaytee or Meredith. If you’re into podcast listening and also into reading, this is one I highly recommend. I never miss an episode and I’m a Patreon supporter, so I get bonus content! It’s a must listen for me.

How I’m Tracking my Reading in 2021

I’m using another spreadsheet, I just made a new sheet and renamed the tab for 2021 on my existing spreadsheet, that way all of my reading data will be I the same place and I used the same categories I used in 2020. I did include a few more that I was interested in and I rearranged some of the categories on the sheet for ease of use. I added a category for my thoughts on the book because I found that I wanted to keep this separate from the summary category and a category noting if I posted about the book on my blog. I also added a DNF (did not finish) tab on my spreadsheet, that way if I choose to DNF a book, they will all be in the same place.

I plan to continue using my reading log spreadsheet, Goodreads, and my brand new Reading Journal to track my reading this year! I’m new to using a Reading Journal but I’m loving it so far and will be posting about it in the future once I’ve established my routine. I can’t wait to share it with you.

If you’re interested, here is a link to a blank copy of my reading log. You may need to sign in to your own Google Drive account. It will prompt you to make a copy of the sheet and then you can edit it to fit your own needs! Remove categories, add categories, do whatever you’d like!

How do you track your reading? Are you a data nerd like I am? Do you use Goodreads? Let me know in the comments and if you’re on Goodreads, let’s be friends!

Happy Reading!