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BeHabitual

Reading tracker printable

Two sheets for a reading habit: a monthly log with a row for every day, and a book list for everything you start this year.

Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent or saved.By Nabeel MustafaUpdated

Sheet

Pick a month to build the sheet.

Paper is quick to tick and slow to add up. When you want the totals worked out for you, that is a free habit tracker that shows today, the month and the year.

Track it free
A girl reading a book in bed, with a stack of books under the bedside table

Two sheets, one reading habit

This reading tracker printable has two sheets, and each fits on one portrait page. The monthly reading log has a dated row for every day of the month, with the weekday, a space for what you read, and columns for pages and minutes. A total row at the bottom is for the month. The book list has a numbered row for each book, with the title, author, the day you started and finished, the page count and five circles for a rating.

Pick the sheet, set the month or the number of books, add a title and an optional goal, then print or save it as a PDF. Each sheet can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet file with the same columns.

Which sheet to use

The two sheets answer different questions. The reading log is about the habit: did you read today, and how much. It is the one to keep by the bed or in the book itself. The book list is about the outcome: how many books, which ones, and what you thought of them. It is the one to look back on in December.

Many readers use both: a new log each month, and one book list for the year. The book list comes in two sizes. Twelve rows leave a line under each book for notes or a favourite quote. Twenty-four rows have no notes but hold two books a month.

Pages or minutes?

The log has a column for each, and you can fill either or both. Pages are easy to count and match a reading goal like 24 books a year. Minutes are fairer from book to book, because a page of a dense history takes longer than a page of a thriller, and they suit audiobooks, which have no pages at all.

If you set a daily goal, keep it small enough to meet on a busy day. Ten pages or fifteen minutes done most days adds up to more than an hour that happens once a week. The reading goal calculator works out the pages a day for a yearly target, and the reading speed test turns that into minutes at your own pace.

How to keep a reading log going

A reading log works when filling it in takes less effort than skipping it. A few habits help:

  • Keep the sheet where you read, folded inside the book or on the nightstand, with a pen.
  • Write the line when you close the book, not the next morning.
  • Count anything you chose to read: novels, non-fiction, long articles, audiobooks. Leave out what you only scrolled.
  • Leave a missed day blank. A gap is useful information, and an empty row is easier to come back from than a crossed-out one.
  • Add up the columns on the last day of the month before you print the next sheet.

When paper is not enough

Paper is quick to fill and slow to add up across a year. In BeHabitual, reading can be a count of pages or a timer of minutes, with its own days, and the month and year views draw the same picture as this log without the arithmetic. Use whichever you will still be opening in June.

How to use the reading tracker printable

  1. Pick a sheet

    Choose the monthly reading log for a daily habit, or the book list for the books themselves.

  2. Set the month or the size

    For the log, choose the month. For the book list, choose 12 rows with notes or 24 rows without.

  3. Add a title and a goal

    Both are optional and print in the header, such as "20 pages" a day or "24 books in 2027".

  4. Print or download

    Print the sheet, save it as a PDF, or download it as a spreadsheet file with the same columns.

Questions people ask

What should a reading log include?

At the least, the date and whether you read. Most reading logs also have the book title and how much you read, in pages or minutes. This one has all four, plus a weekday column and a monthly total.

How do I track the books I read in a year?

Use the book list sheet: one row per book with the title, author, start and finish dates, pages and a rating. Print the 24-row version for two books a month, or two 12-row sheets if you want room for notes.

Should I track reading in pages or minutes?

Pages if your goal is a number of books, because a pages-a-day target maps straight onto it. Minutes if you read a mix of easy and hard books or listen to audiobooks, because time is the same unit for all of them.

Is this reading tracker free?

Yes. It builds the sheet in your browser, with no account and nothing sent or saved. Print as many copies as you like, for yourself, a class or a book club.

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Read next

Start with three habits and one month.

You will know by the end of it whether this is the tracker that sticks. That is a shorter test than most things you have tried.

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