How to track a reading challenge in a spreadsheet: books, pages, DNF and series

Last updated: 15 October 2026 · By Quicksloth

A reading challenge is one number, say 40 books this year, but keeping it honest takes a few rules: which books count, in which year, what to do with the ones you didn't finish, and whether you're ahead or behind today. Here are those rules, worked out on one made-up reader's year, so you can apply them in any spreadsheet.

Short version: keep one list of books and change only the status. Count a book in the year of its finish date. Work out your pace from the day of the year. Keep DNF books out of your goal, your pages and your average rating, and count them on their own line instead.

One list, one status

The easiest challenge tracker to keep up is a single list: one row per book, written once. What changes over time is the status: TBR (to be read), Reading, Read, DNF (did not finish) or Wishlist. Shelves like "currently reading" or "TBR" are then just views of that list, filtered by status. If you keep separate tabs and copy books between them, sooner or later a book ends up in two places or in none.

For each book, the columns that matter for a challenge are: status, pages, started and finished dates, a rating, and if you like the hours and the series with its number.

Which year a book counts in

A book counts in the year of its finished date, not the year you started it. A book started on 20 December 2026 and finished on 4 January 2027 counts for 2027. That means:

• A book marked Read without a finished date can't count in any year. Add the date, even an approximate one.
• Days per book is finished − started + 1: started 2 June, finished 15 June is 14 days.
• Keep every year in the same list. Next January you only change which year the totals look at; last year's books stay where they are.

Ahead or behind: the pace

Our made-up reader's goal for 2027 is 40 books. On 1 July 2027 they have read 18.

• Books expected by today = goal × day of the year ÷ days in the year. 1 July is day 182 of 365, so 40 × 182 ÷ 365 = 19.9 books.
• Pace = books read − books expected, rounded: 18 − 19.9 = −1.9, so 2 books behind.
• From here, 22 books in the 184 days left (counting 1 July) is one book about every 8.4 days.

Pace only makes sense for the current year: for a past year, books read against the goal says it all (18 of 40 is 45%).

Pages and hours

A book goal treats a 200-page novella and a 900-page doorstop the same. A page goal, next to the book goal, evens that out. The reader above also set 12,000 pages: with 5,760 pages from their 18 books, they're at 48% of the page goal, close to the 50% that half a year would suggest, even though they're 2 books behind. Fewer books, but longer ones.

Hours are optional, and useful for audiobooks, where pages don't mean much. If you track them, add them only for books you finished, like pages.

DNF books: count them, but apart

Not finishing a book is a choice, not a failure, and it shouldn't drag your numbers down. Three rules keep it fair:

1. Not in the goal. Only Read books count towards the 40.
2. Not in the pages. The pages of a book you stopped halfway through aren't pages read.
3. Not in the average rating. Here is the difference it makes:

Average of the Read books: (5 + 4) ÷ 2 = 4.50. With the DNF included it would be (5 + 4 + 1) ÷ 3 = 3.33, which says more about the book you dropped than about your reading year.

Do count DNF books on their own line, with the day you stopped as their finished date so they land in a year. Our reader has 3 DNF books in 2027 next to 18 read: 3 ÷ (18 + 3) = 14% of the books they closed this year. If that share keeps rising, it may be time to pick books differently.

Series: progress and the next book

Give each book a series name and its number in the series, and a series becomes easy to follow. Our reader is going through L. M. Montgomery's Anne books:

• In my library: 4 books. Read: 2.
• Progress: read ÷ books in the whole series, if you know how many there are (the reader typed 8): 2 / 8. If you don't, read ÷ books in your library: 2 / 4.
• Next to read: the unread book with the lowest number, so Anne of the Island (#3) until it's marked Read; then Anne of Windy Poplars (#4). A DNF book is never "next".
• When every book you own is read but the series has more, the next step is simply to add the next one to your list.

Three spreadsheet traps

• Counting non-empty cells. A count of "cells that aren't empty" (COUNTA) also counts the header, and cells that look empty but hold an empty text after a paste as values. Count by status instead: the number of rows where Status is "Read".
• Dates typed as text. "2027/03/14" typed in a cell formatted as text isn't a date, so the book won't land in any year. If the year totals look short, check the finished dates first.
• Averages over everything. An average of the Rating column takes in DNF ratings and any rating left on a TBR book. Average only the Read books that have a rating.

Try it with your own books

Our Book Tracker does all of this from one Library of 1,000 rows. Start Here shows books read against your goal with a progress bar, books expected by today and your pace ("2 books behind"), pages against an optional page goal, hours, average rating and average days per book. Shelves builds Currently Reading, TBR and Wishlist from the status; Series shows In my library, Read, Progress and Next to read; Reading Stats has books, pages and hours by month, by format and by rating, your genres, the DNF count and share, and this year next to all time. DNF books never count against your goal or your average rating, and a Check column flags a Read book without a finished date. It works in Excel and Google Sheets and is coming soon to our Etsy shop.

Coming from Goodreads? See How to move your Goodreads library into a spreadsheet.

The reader, the goal and the numbers on this page are made up to show the calculations. The books in the tables are in the public domain.