A good spreadsheet automatically calculates the percentage completed, the number of pages read (if you input page counts), and how many books remain. Watching a formula change from "2%" to "50%" over several years is deeply satisfying.
: Columns for 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2018 to see which books are "core" versus "retired". Title & Author : The primary identifiers (e.g., The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald). Original Publication Year
Managing a reading list of this scale in your head or on a scrap of paper is impossible. A dedicated spreadsheet offers several distinct advantages:
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: Life is too short to force yourself through a book you hate, even if it is a certified classic. Mark it as "DNF" in your spreadsheet and move to the next.
If using Google Sheets, bookmark the link on your smartphone home screen for easy mobile access.
Make your spreadsheet visual. Apply conditional formatting to your "Status" column. Set cells to turn soft green when marked Read , light yellow for In Progress , and soft red for DNF . This gives you an instant visual overview of your library. 3. Create a Progress Dashboard Title & Author : The primary identifiers (e
| Title | Author | Year | Country | |-------|--------|------|---------| | Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes | 1605 | Spain | | Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | 1813 | England | | Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | 1851 | USA | | Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | 1856 | France | | Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | 1877 | Russia | | The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 1925 | USA | | In Search of Lost Time | Marcel Proust | 1913–1927 | France | | One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel García Márquez | 1967 | Colombia | | Beloved | Toni Morrison | 1987 | USA | | The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | 2008 | India |
Create a separate tab in your workbook dedicated to high-level formulas. Use COUNTA and COUNTIF to generate a live dashboard. =COUNTIF(F:F, "Completed") Use code with caution.
The "1001 Books" project was first published in 2006, with subsequent updated editions. The original book is notoriously hard to track your progress with, as new titles are added and others removed in different editions. with subsequent updated editions.
While not a spreadsheet, you can import the 1001 list directly into this app to track progress digitally. 💡 Tips for Navigating the List 1. The "Combined" List
Heavy focus on classic canon and historical foundational texts. Gradual introduction of 21st-century fiction. Combined List