How do you read, and how do you note what you've read? My system is:
Deciding what to read
- Look at New For You (titles picked by our selectors), new titles, and various booky sources for titles of interest
- Put holds on those books I want to read (it's free!)
- Add other books to my For Later shelf
- Make a monthly "What you waiting for" list of upcoming titles of interest
What I read - Three books on the go
- An audiobook (for the commute, walks, and working round the house)
- A print book for reading at home
- A print book for reading at work on my lunch break
Recording what I've read
- Start a book, note it in my diary
- Finish a book, transfer it into my "book notebook"
- Give it a star rating and brief review in the library catalogue
Here are my current three 2025 books on the go:
This works for me. I'm up to 1,508 items on my Completed Shelf. I can sort it by date, rating, author, or title - and filter it by subject, format, etc. Tracking what I've read makes it easy to sum up the year in reading and make "Best of the year" lists.
Plus it's fun to see how your reading year went. My 2024 in reading, by the numbers was:
- 114 books read
- 70 books (print)
- 44 audiobooks
- 68 non-fiction
- 44 fiction
- 34 biographies / memoirs
- 24 Aotearoa New Zealand
- 12 music-related
- 8 graphic novels
Trends in my 2024 reading
Keeping track of your reading means you can spy themes and topics that you've explored - intentionally or not!
Books about sisters
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
It's easy to get lost in the story of the four Padvano sisters, and Maura Tierney is great as the narrator.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
An involving story about three sisters rebuilding their lives after the death of the fourth sister. They are all struggling in different ways, and the saga is strong in sisterly and family interactions, both antagonistic and loving.
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
For some reason - the cover? - I thought this was a horror. It isn't (maybe a bit). It's about three sisters, the death of their father, and a world getting incrementally lost to the rising water. It's atmospheric and absorbing, you might think you know where it is going, but ... you don't.
Music
The End of the World, hard realities, death and dystopia
Tracking your reading in 2025
If you are keen to make 2025 a Year of Reading 📚, you will probably want to keep track what you've read. There are lots of ways to do this, both digital (Good Reads, Storygraph) and analogue (notebooks, journals).
🔥 tip: Use the library catalogue
Record what you've read using the Completed Shelf, give books ratings and reviews, and even show which books you own.
Read our guide How to keep track of what you've read using our catalogue.
This information can be private, or you can share it with library customers (spread the word about good books!).
The thing I want to get better at in 2025 is jotting down great quotes from books, and writing pithy reviews.
If you have any tips and tricks, let us know in the comments.
Happy reading!
Related Reading about Reading
- Jessie on levelling up your reading
- Moata's year of reading intentionally
- Simone reads around the world - 50 countries, 50 books
- Return to reading recommendations if you want to get back into reading and want ideas of where to start
- Best of 2024
Add a comment to: What did I read? 2024 in books, and Tracking your reading in 2025 📚