Book reading tracker app: what to look for (and what to skip)

Before I built my own, I tried several reading apps. Bookly, Kindle and a few others. Some were good. None of them fit how I actually read.

That's the problem with this search. "Book reading tracker app" means at least three different things, and most apps do one of them well.

So before you download anything, decide which job you want done.

Three jobs, three kinds of app

• A book log. Which books you've read, want to read, are reading now. Ratings, reviews, shelves. Goodreads is the best-known example, and it has a big community and an Android app.
• A progress tracker. Pages or percent through the current book. Useful, but it tells you about the book, not about your habit.
• A reading-habit tracker. Did you read today, for how long, and how many days in a row? This is about the person, not the shelf.

Most free apps are a log with a progress bar on top. The kinds overlap, though. A habit tracker can keep your list of books and your page count too. Mine does. That's just not what it's built for. So the real question is what the app is built around. If your goal is reading more often, pick one built around the habit, and keep the list in the same place.

What to check before you commit

A short list I'd use on any of them, mine included:

• Can it track time, not just pages? Minutes are the habit. Ten minutes of a hard book count the same as ten of an easy one. Pages say where you are in the book.
• Does it work for paper, ebooks and audiobooks? A tracker shouldn't care what you read on. It tracks; the reading happens elsewhere.
• Is the free version enough? Many apps lock the basics. Check what you get before you build a library inside it.
• Can you get your data out? An import and export path matters more than any chart.
• Does it need an account? Fewer accounts, fewer things to lose.
• Is it on your devices? Check the platform first. It saves a lot of time.

Does tracking actually help?

Some evidence, with the limits attached. A study of 3,635 adults in the US Health and Retirement Study followed them for up to 12 years and found that book readers had about a 20% lower risk of dying over that period than non-readers (Bavishi, Slade and Levy, Social Science & Medicine, 2016). It's observational. It shows an association, not that reading caused the difference, and it says nothing about apps.

So I wouldn't use it to promise you anything. I'd use it as a small reason to make reading a regular thing, and then let a tracker make "regular" visible. For why recording a habit helps at all, I wrote about it in why tracking your reading habit works.

What Book Reading Habit does, and doesn't

I'm the solo developer, so I'll be plain about it. Book Reading Habit is a reading-habit tracker for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

• You log sessions with a focus timer, an open-ended session, or by hand afterwards for reading you did away from the app. A session records minutes and pages.
• You set a daily goal in minutes. My own minimum is 10 minutes, after my morning coffee.
• Your streak counts every day with an ended reading session. Streak shields protect it when you miss a day.
• Add books by scanning an ISBN, searching by title or author, typing them in, or importing a Goodreads CSV. See how to add books.
• Everything syncs through iCloud, works offline, and needs no account.
• Core tracking is free: books, sessions, streaks, daily goals, iCloud sync and custom shelves. PRO adds goal charts, detailed insights, note exports and integrations.

Try Book Reading Habit on the App Store

And what it doesn't do:

• It isn't on Android, yet. It's Apple only for now. Android is something I'd like to do, and there are plans, but nothing is set: no date, no promise. If you're on Android today, I'd rather tell you now than waste your evening.
• It's not a place to read. You read your paper book, ebook or audiobook elsewhere, then track it. It has no store and no reader.
• It's not built for kids. I haven't designed it as a children's reading log, with teacher or parent views. For a young reader, a simple sticker chart may serve better.
• It's not a social network. There are private reading groups you join by invite link, but no public feed and no reviews.

Which one should you pick?

• On iPhone, iPad or Mac and want to read more often? That's what I built Book Reading Habit for: a timer, a daily minimum and a streak, with your books and pages kept alongside. The features page has the full list.
• Already have years of books in Goodreads? Keep it for the community, and bring the list into Book Reading Habit with a CSV import.
• On Android? For now, pick something that ships there. I can't help with that one yet.

Whichever you pick, give it a week before you judge it. Set a minimum you can't fail, log every session, even the short ones, and watch the days add up. If you'd like the longer view on making a habit stick, start with how to build a reading habit that sticks.

Pick the one you'll open

The best tracker is the one that's there when you sit down with the book. Start with a minimum you can't fail, and let the app count the days.

If that sounds right, Book Reading Habit is on the App Store, and the core tracking is free.

Happy reading.