One of my goals this past year was to reach for my phone less, and reach for my books more. It’s March now, and I can say that I’m still going pretty strong! I’m not as strict as I was at first with screen time restrictions, but am still reading quite a bit more than before!
I also made it a goal to read one book at a time, but that’s nearly impossible for me, and I’ll tell you why.
I usually have a few books going at once:
- One for my pleasure (fiction)
- One for growth (non-fiction)
- An audiobook I listen to while I do the dishes, or fold laundry (read more about that here)
- Book club book (sometimes I’m part of 2 or 3 at a time, so that makes the book count go up, too)
- And last, but definitely not least, the Bible, or a devotional
I usually have my fiction book on my bedside table, my non-fiction book next to the couch so I can read it while the girls are playing, and I usually bring my book club books with us to libraries and parks. I keep them in a small wet bag in our “snack” bag, so they’re always with me because we go nowhere without snacks. The audiobook and bible are both on my phone, so I can access those whenever.
Now that you know the method to my madness, I’ll get to the purpose of this post.
I’ve always loved to have an ongoing list of all the books I’ve read. In fact, I’ve been doing this since high school. However, once I had a kid, it became a lot harder for me to manage my papers and journals. A lot of things I used to journal became digital; quotes from books, books I want to read, notes from non-fiction books, etc. But for some reason I didn’t create a list for books I’ve completed.
Enter Instagram find. I came across this Instagram page that was solely about books this woman had read. She used to create and share templates too, so I decided to start tracking my books with her template for 2021. However, she became inactive on her page, and didn’t make a template for 2022, so I decided to!
Now, the only way I’ve figured out how to use this template is with Instagram stories. There might be another way, but I’m not the most computer literate person, so this is the only way that I know of. Enjoy the following templates below!
Now, here is how you use these trackers:
- Go to the internet and save the image of the book cover on your phone.
- Crop if necessary
- Go to Instagram stories and pull up the reading tracker template
- Add the image sticker, and choose your book cover you previously saved in step 1.
- Resize the book cover to fit in the little rectangles on the reading tracker template
- Download the image from instagram, and it will be in your photos. Sharing is optional 🙂
*2024 UPDATE*
See the templates below for 2024 reading trackers.
I have also found that if you download the Canva app, you can easily add the book covers there. This would be a great option if you do not have instagram!
I absolutely love this method for a few reasons:
- It’s visually pleasing
- I can do it on my phone, which is almost always with me, when I have a free minute, wherever I am!
I hope you all enjoy these reading trackers! I know I’ve been loving them! It’s great to create an album on your phone and be able to look back quickly on the past few years and see what you’ve read!
