Reading Stats 2020: How I Track My Reading

Another day, another blog I guess! I have not used a blog for reviewing my reading in a while but I guess it's time. 

In the first post I would like to give a proper introduction: Hi! I am Eke and I like to read more than an average person (probably) in a year. I have previously studied English language and literature, and currently in the process of getting an even higher degree in teaching said topics. 

Now to the topic of the post itself! 

I have been an avid journaller for a good few years now, and primarily I like to journal about books and especially statistics. I have been doing this daily since 2014 and I will be continuing doing so. Sometimes I found it tedious to count all the books and compile all the statistics together that I would have liked on paper. So, I have resorted to another way of journalling and keeping track of my reading habits.

This past year I have experimented with tracking my reading slightly differently: using a Google Sheets spreadsheet. The reading statistics on there did work for me pretty well; however, there were a few mishaps here and there that I think I messed up myself. Not a big deal, so I did not really pay attention to it. 

So! I used a template created by Alison, HardbackHoarder on YouTube since I am not a very avid Google Sheets/Excel user myself. Besides, it is much easier to use since I need only my Google account to access it anywhere. The one I have included is the new, 2021 template, but I used one for 2020 as well.
        It included nearly everything I need for tracking my reading throughout the year: the monthly and yearly statistics, acquired books, library checkouts, books I own, new releases and for those interested, slots for video ideas and readathons. The last two were the only things that did not work for me personally, but as you can hide either tabs or columns/rows on Sheets, I did just that. 

Conveniently, Alison has also uploaded a video of instructions on how to use her template! The new template includes many more new features to track and I am very excited to use it! 

Last year, I personally added a few columns myself to track certain things, such as chapters or word counts of when I have read something online. I removed the audiobook hours column as I do not really listen to audiobooks that often. 

This upcoming year, I have decided to experiment with two reading spreadsheets - continuing on with the new template by Alison, and also using a template by Crini (Crini's carrd for her social media: xcrini), which is different from Alison's. Crini's spreadsheet has mostly automatic calculations for everything on it, and for instructions, she has created a Doc file, which is pretty self-explanatory. 

Crini's spreadsheet is more focused on gender and Alison did not have a specific focus, as it does not this year either, and you can track many different things in both. I am excited to try them out and see which one I prefer! 

Happy new reading year and I sincerely hope this one will be better in general, 

Eke