Comparison
Which app to track your reading in 2026?
Tracking your reading changes everything: you read more, you remember better, and you rediscover the past year at a glance. The only question left is choosing the right tool. Here's an overview of the options, from the most hands-on to the most complete.
The paper notebook
Charming and distraction-free, but impossible to sort, search or share. A quote jotted down two years ago is lost forever.
Notion or Excel (the DIY route)
Flexible, but you rebuild everything by hand: database, views, formulas. And the moment you slack off, the system collapses. The hidden cost is maintenance time.
A dedicated app
It's the best compromise when it's well designed. What to demand from a reading tracker:
- Log a read in a few seconds (date, rating, a quick note).
- Keep your quotes and find them instantly.
- Human recommendations, not a commercial algorithm.
- Motivating reading stats (pace, genres, yearly recap).
- An import from Goodreads so you don't start from scratch.
Our recommendation
Novirae brings together the tracker, the journal, the quotes and a social side in a single app, with no ads or data resale. Your reads become a living profile, and your library a second brain. All free for the essentials.
To go further on method, also read how to keep a reading journal that lasts.