There’s just something so satisfying about having a book tracking app where you can log all your books, don’t you think? 😏
The easiest way to keep track of books you’ve read in the past and the ones you’re currently reading is to have an organized system – be it on spreadsheets, notebooks, bullet journals, or, of course, using an app!
Instead of browsing the Internet for the best reading trackers out there, check out our favorite book tracking apps for book lovers list below!
What Is A Book Tracking App?
In general, book apps have been around for quite a while now. Thanks to them, stories are literally at our fingertips.
A book tracking app is exactly what it sounds like: an app that keeps track of the books you read. Think of it as your personal digital book inventory system. From reading lists to notes & ratings, you can use a book tracking app to log in and “archive” basically anything book-related.
Some book tracking apps even generate statistics based on your reading goals, the number of books you read, the time you spend on them, your overall reading speed, and more.
Why Should You Track Your Books?
Be honest: how many books do you read in a year? In a month? A week? Remembering all the books we’ve read can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. Especially if you’re like us and you have a really long TBR list. 😅
Tracking anything can seem like a chore at first. Like that time when you had to log your school assignments or your expenses and general budget. But after a while, having an efficient book tracking system can really motivate you when you’re serious about improving your reading habit.
As you create and organize your own digital bookshelf, tracking your books will help you:
- Bring some order to your bookworm brain – you know what we’re talking about!
- Keep all your books organized in one single place;
- Know exactly how many books you read and how fast;
- Improve your reading habit by holding you accountable;
- Motivate you to read even more.
And if you like readathons and reading challenges, then a book tracking app will make your life so much easier. You can log your readathon TBR, your prompts, and even track your reading progress in real-time.
What Are The Benefits Of Using A Book Tracking App?
No matter how big your home library has become, a book tracking app can become your all-in-one solution to keep everything nice & organized. Apart from having all your books in your pocket, book trackers can also help you:
- Create a reading schedule;
- Save & organize your favorite quotes and notes;
- Track your reading progress and how it’s improving;
- Remind you when it’s time to read;
- Keep you accountable for your reading goals;
- Record your impressions on a book;
- Read even more books year after year.
And improve your overall results in readathons! It’s far more convenient to have all our info digitally logged in one place, without wasting time on writing by hand all your readathon stats.
Tracking time spent reading, page started & page finished, total number of pages, total number of minutes – why not have an app that already does all that for you, right? ✌️
Best Book Tracking Apps
1. Bookly
If you’re looking for a book tracking app that will also push you to read more, you’ve come to the right place! Bookly users have been tracking their reading for years and it’s allowed them to get a much better picture of what and how much they actually read.
Pros: Bookly allows you to add & track an unlimited number of books, e-books & audiobooks, track your reading sessions in real-time, set daily reminders & daily/monthly/yearly reading goals, generate custom reading reports & book infographics, digitally annotate your books with thoughts & quotes, play ambient sounds while you read, estimate remaining time for each book, participate in readathons & track readathon progress;
Cons: The free version has a limit of adding only 10 books, and even if the app has no built-in social element, you can join our Discord server for LOTS of engaging activities and conversation starters;
Available on: iOS & Android;
Rating: 4.6 on App Store & 4 on Google Play Store.
2. Goodreads
Goodreads is arguably THE world’s largest website for book lovers that love to be social. Using the Goodreads app, you can share, rate & review various books of your choice. It has a system of tags & shelves that allows you to sort your books, starting from the ones on your want-to-read list, currently reading, or read-in-the-past.
Pros: You can get personalized recommendations, rate & review books, see book reviews & updates from your friends, set up your yearly reading challenge, share notes & progress updates, join online book clubs & connect with other readers;
Cons: The app has no personalized monthly or custom-period reading goals besides the yearly reading challenge, there are no time-to-read reminders nor any specific personalized stats & infographics;
Available on: iOS & Android;
Rating: 4.9 on App Store & 3.8 on Google Play Store.
3. StoryGraph
StoryGraph is a book tracking app pretty similar to Goodreads. While it has a much more intuitive algorithm for book recommendations, users can also review books by mood, pace, character development, diversity level, and content labels.
Pros: StoryGraph has a very good algorithm & mood-based book research, you get personalized book recommendations, import your Goodreads library automatically, generate charts & stats based on your reading habits, add live reactions to specific parts of a book while you’re reading it, set yearly reading & page goals, has a built-in DNF option & reading journal;
Cons: The app itself is more like a gateway to the web platform, the community feature is unclear as you can’t see the people you’re following, and you can’t search books by genre;
Available on: iOS & Android;
Rating: 4.7 on App Store & 4.3 on Google Play Store.
4. Reading List
Reading List enables you to plan and track your reading progress. If you’re looking for a less social place where you can just keep a list of the books you’ve read, the ones you’re reading, and the ones you want to read, then this is the app for you!
Pros: Reading List requires no online account or signup, you can add & track an unlimited number of books, create custom reading lists, record your reading progress, add your own rating & notes;
Cons: The app has no built-in social element and it’s rather more of a private digital place, with no personalized monthly or custom-period reading goals, no personalized stats & infographics;
Available on: iOS;
Rating: 4.8 on App Store.
5. Book Breeze
Book Breeze is an app meant to help you with organizing and tracking your reading. It focuses on collecting data related to your reading speed, how many hours you spend reading, and how many pages you read.
Pros: Book Breeze has a pretty straight-forward & easy-to-use interface, you can track your reading in real-time, generate reading graphs for pages read, books & reading pace, estimates remaining time for each book, has weekly reading stats for short term goals & total reading stats for long term motivation;
Cons: You can’t DNF a book without losing the data, it has no element social, and no personalized custom-period reading goals & stats;
Available on: iOS;
Rating: 4.7 on App Store.
5. BookSloth
Here’s another book tracking app, but this time, with a bigger focus on the reading community. Besides indexing and organizing your books, you can also start discussions with other users on BookSloth, ask them for book recommendations, and discover new books based on curated lists and new releases.
Pros: BookSloth allows you to update & track your reading progress, join clubs & live chats, recommend your favorite books, annotate & review your books based on reading elements such as writing style, worldbuilding, romance, etc.;
Cons: The app has a limited library and is lacking the personalized custom-period reading goals, reading stats, infographics, and personalized reminders;
Available on: iOS & Android;
Rating: 4.2 on App Store & 3.8 on Google Play Store.
7. Bookshelf
Bookshelf is a recently released book tracking app that helps you build your own digital library while keeping you motivated to read more. The app has a functional search engine based on scanning books’ barcodes.
Pros: You can create your own curated book collections, track your reading in real-time, set reading goals, generate reading stats & charts, annotate your books with notes & quotes, create knowledge quizzes, import your Goodreads library, and export your digital library;
Cons: The app has no social element, as its main focus is on building users’ personal libraries and helping them reach their reading goals;
Available on: iOS;
Rating: 4.5 on App Store.
How To Choose The Best Book Tracker For You?
When it comes to choosing the best book tracking app, well, things can be a bit tricky. We totally get it. But we’re here to help! 😁
Depending on what you’re looking for, you may have to explore more of each app’s individual features. If you want to:
- Track your books as a digital catalog, you can use Goodreads or Reading List.
- Track books you’ve read or want to read, you can use any of the apps we’ve listed.
- Track your reading habits, you can use Bookly, StoryGraph, BookSloth, or Bookshelf.
- See how your reading changes based on your mood, you can use StoryGraph.
- Set reading goals, you can use Bookly, StoryGraph, Book Breeze, BookSloth, or Bookshelf.
- Interact with more book lovers, you can use Goodreads, StoryGraph, or BookSloth.
- Join book clubs, you can use Goodreads or BookSloth.
- Join readathons & reading challenges, you can use Bookly or Goodreads.
- Log and track your readathon progress, you can use Bookly.
Tracking Things Up
Overall, having a book tracking system saves you A LOT of time. You just add all the books you own to an app and then organize them in different collections, as you wish.
So maybe next time you organize your bookshelves, we hope you’ll consider a book tracking app too!
What’s your favorite book tracking app? Let us know in the comments below! 👇
Looking for a new reading challenge? Check out our 2022 readathons list here!
Start tracking your reading today!
Download Bookly for iOS 👉 https://bookly.app.link/nAH81rtpg9
Download Bookly for Android 👉 https://bookly.app.link/4TMM20xpg9
