My Bookshelf

Elevate Your Reading Journey with My Bookshelf

For years, I have read over 20 books a year, and I wanted to create a tracker that would give me information that I like and is important to me in a nice and simple Notion dashboard. I trimmed down all the ones I had seen (like those that need me to input an image of a book, which isn't important to me) and created a flow that works for me.

My favourite part of this bookshelf is the yearly tracker. Once a book is completed, it needs to be reviewed (between 1-5) and then allocated to a year. Once that is done, you can see how many books you've read over the year, like mine below:

Another feature I wanted, and haven't seen, is being able to see how many pages I have completed each year. Some years I feel disappointed by the amount of books I've read, but now seeing the amount of pages I have completed helps me understand that I just had a dense year of reading.

As you can see below, this is a minimalist design but full of great information right at your fingertips to help with book tracking!

Three areas to view a book:

1. To Read —this is for your list of books that are on your "wishlist". Someone tells you about a book you should read, pop it in here (using the capture features at the top of the dashboard). 
2. Reading —these are the books you are in the middle of, which, as you can see, one of mine is a history book that is 1,952 pages long, so it might be there a while...
3. Read —these are all the completed books I have finished, grouped by year so I can easily toggle them and focus on one or two books when I am talking with someone about books I've read or trying to recommend something. 
4. Favourites —if a book gets a 5 ⭐️ rating, then it goes in this list, also grouped by year. 

And here is the last little secret weapon of My Bookshelf, the sort assist. This makes sure that before, during, and when a book is finished, all the correct information has been added. You will only ever need to check this page every month or so to make sure that everything has been filled out correctly!

The last feature that I must point out, although to me it isn't the core of what I have created, but I know people love it, is the highlights database.

Here you can add highlights as you go, or add them at the completion of a book (which is what I do by sending myself all the highlights from a book I've read on Kindle).

My Bookshelf is for those who are passionate about reading and want a simple yet elegant space to store their reading list. I used to track books in Apple Notes, but I never had the ability to save highlights, rate books, or bring clarity on how many pages I'd read each yet. This Notion Template changes that completely!

Grab it for 🆓 or give generously —and make sure you give me a follow on Substack or Threads if you love my content!