Reading Goal Tracker – Google Sheets Companion

For the past two years, I’ve been tracking the books that I read on my Cross Stitch Reading Goal Tracker. After I finish a book, I fill in a small section of my cross stitch project. Each section is a book on a bookshelf representing one book of the year. I fill in the book with a colour of thread that corresponds with a genre of book. For example, bubblegum pink is romance, light blue is fantasy, so on and so forth. It can actually be a bit tricky to track these books on my reading tracker and I was using a popular book review site to do this. However, I’ve spent some time developing a new way to track books using Google Sheets. I created a spreadsheet specifically for this project.

My Reading Goal Tracker Spreadsheet includes a section to fill in the title of each book you read, the author, what genre the book is, what colour floss you used, a checkbox once you’ve added the book to your tracker and so much more. The best news? It’s available for free. Granted, it won’t be much help unless you already own one of my cross stitch reading goal patterns.

Track by Genre

While there are a few different fields on this spreadsheet, my favourite section is the Genres dropdown menu. I’ve added even more genres than my cross stitch pattern includes. The new genres include: Chick Lit, Comics, and a few more.

There is an additional tab that includes a colour code for tracking by genre that mirrors the Cross Stitch Reading Tracker Pattern. However, you can easily add additional colours of thread to the drop down menu. See instructions on how to do this later on in this post.

Star Rating

I don’t really take rating my books seriously. I’m pretty quick to DNF a book that I’m not enjoying, so my star ratings tend to skew on the higher end, typically 4 or 5 stars. But for those that do seriously enjoy rating your books, I’ve included a drop down menu that includes half stars.

Format

I most read eBooks, but you’ll have the option of selecting: eBook, Paperback, Hardback, and even audio books for the format you read the book in.

How to add additional items to dropdown menus

You can even add your own items to dropdown menus! Do this by clicking the arrow of the dropdown menu and clicking on the pencil at the bottom. A menu will appear on the right hand side of the screen. At the bottom of the menu, you’ll be presented with the option to add a new item to the dropdown menu. You can actually do this with any of the dropdown menus.

But why is it free?

Now, there is a caveat to spreadsheet. I am not a Google Sheets expert. I am certain there are ways to improve this spreadsheet by adding analytics, but I’m not an expert. Instead, you’re getting a free and decent spreadsheet, capable of containing a ton of information for your reading goal.

While I am happy to answer any questions about how to use this spreadsheet, I might not be able to answer the more technical questions, but I will do my best to help.

There are also plenty of people who have already purchased one of my Reading Goal Tracker Patterns and it didn’t seem fair to make this only available for future buyers.

Can it be used on other spreadsheet platforms?

While I have designed this spreadsheet in Google Sheets, I unfortunately do not have access to Excel, so I’m not able to confirm whether or not it would work.

Can I purchase a reading goal tracker pattern?

Absolutely! I have a variety of patterns for both 2023 and 2024 for reading goals of 12, 24, 50, 100, 200, and up to 366 books! You’re able to track your books in a variety of ways like genre, the format you read them, and more. For the smaller reading goals, you can even turn them into a bookmark.

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