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latepaul · 05-31-2012, 07:34 AM

I've been tracking my reading since I started blogging reviews regularly. That goes back to 2009. I'd realised that in the previous year I'd only read 4 books and having once been a voracious reader I decided to make a "project" out of it.

I use Goodreads to set the goal and for a place to make public updates, but my main tool is a spreadsheet I set up. Actually the spreadsheet dates back to 2007 when, in anticipation of the final Harry Potter book, I wanted to re-read the series and finish before the new book came out. So I needed to set per-day page count goals and have an idea of how many pages I read in a hour say. It's evolved a lot since then.

My current version has a tab to enter the raw data - which has books along the top and a row for each day of the year. Every day I spend time reading I enter the time for that day and the current page for any book(s) I've read. I have a separate tab which has a conversions for page numbers - so when I start a new book I enter how many pages it has in paperback, calibre, locations in Kindle and so on. I usually use a paperback edition from Goodreads as the definitive page count, even though I'm probably reading an ebook. Then there's a summary page that gives me stats so far - pages read, pages/hour, number of days read, reading time per day, reading time per days on which I actually read. It also lists the books with my percentage complete and pages/hour for that book. Finally there's a page where I track some of these stats this year versus previous years (I had a points system on my blog the first year I did it)

My goal for this year is 50 books, up from 30 last year. I'm on track provided I finish my current book and one other by the week-end (ish) - which I should do. I average between 40-60 pages/hour depending on the page lengths and how "easy" a read it is. At that rate a book is ~8-10hours so I think 50 books is probably at the high end of what I can achieve without gaining a whole lot more free time or sacrificing some other activities.

I find that I read in 1-2hour stretches for a few days then go a few days without reading at all. I've tried to even it out but I feel like I'm fighting my natural inclinations so now I just go with it. I'm trying to get better at discarding books when they're not working for me because that's one thing that really knocks the stats is if I'm "stuck" on a book I'm not enjoying and therefore not reading but not moving on.

Sometimes I think I should just go back to "just reading" and none of this spreadsheet nonsense but then I actually like that.

05-31-2012, 07:34 AM	#11
latepaul Wizard Posts: 1,270 Karma: 10468300 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: a variety (mostly kindles and kobos)	I've been tracking my reading since I started blogging reviews regularly. That goes back to 2009. I'd realised that in the previous year I'd only read 4 books and having once been a voracious reader I decided to make a "project" out of it. I use Goodreads to set the goal and for a place to make public updates, but my main tool is a spreadsheet I set up. Actually the spreadsheet dates back to 2007 when, in anticipation of the final Harry Potter book, I wanted to re-read the series and finish before the new book came out. So I needed to set per-day page count goals and have an idea of how many pages I read in a hour say. It's evolved a lot since then. My current version has a tab to enter the raw data - which has books along the top and a row for each day of the year. Every day I spend time reading I enter the time for that day and the current page for any book(s) I've read. I have a separate tab which has a conversions for page numbers - so when I start a new book I enter how many pages it has in paperback, calibre, locations in Kindle and so on. I usually use a paperback edition from Goodreads as the definitive page count, even though I'm probably reading an ebook. Then there's a summary page that gives me stats so far - pages read, pages/hour, number of days read, reading time per day, reading time per days on which I actually read. It also lists the books with my percentage complete and pages/hour for that book. Finally there's a page where I track some of these stats this year versus previous years (I had a points system on my blog the first year I did it) My goal for this year is 50 books, up from 30 last year. I'm on track provided I finish my current book and one other by the week-end (ish) - which I should do. I average between 40-60 pages/hour depending on the page lengths and how "easy" a read it is. At that rate a book is ~8-10hours so I think 50 books is probably at the high end of what I can achieve without gaining a whole lot more free time or sacrificing some other activities. I find that I read in 1-2hour stretches for a few days then go a few days without reading at all. I've tried to even it out but I feel like I'm fighting my natural inclinations so now I just go with it. I'm trying to get better at discarding books when they're not working for me because that's one thing that really knocks the stats is if I'm "stuck" on a book I'm not enjoying and therefore not reading but not moving on. Sometimes I think I should just go back to "just reading" and none of this spreadsheet nonsense but then I actually like that.