Your year in books: how to do a reading wrap-up
A reading wrap-up is a look back at everything you read in a year: how much, which book was the best, and what the books did to you. Every December and January, bookish corners of the internet fill up with them. Here is a way to do yours in one evening, with ten questions to answer, and where each answer lives in Storyfeel.
Before you start: make sure your whole year is there
A wrap-up can only count what you logged. Three quick checks:
- Every book you finished is marked Completed, with a finish date. Storyfeel counts a book in the year you finished it. A book with no finish date counts in no year at all.
- Page counts, if you want a page total. The year's pages only add up the books that have one.
- Books you logged somewhere else. If part of your year is on Goodreads, import your Goodreads library: the date you marked each book as read becomes its finish date, so it lands in the right year.
1. The numbers
Open Stats. The Year at a glance chart has arrows to move between years: choose the one you are wrapping up. It shows how many books you finished each month and, underneath, the year's total of books and pages and the difference from the year before (shown only if you read something that year too). Each month's dot takes the colour of the genre you read most that month.
The rest of Stats (formats, genres, ratings, authors, tropes, spice) covers your whole library, not just this year. For the year itself, Calendar shows what you were reading day by day: good for finding your busiest month, or the week you could not put a book down.
On My Journey, the Reading challenge card shows how close you came to your goal. It always counts the current year, so look at it (or take a screenshot) before 1 January: that day it starts again from zero. Your past years stay in Stats.
2. The favourites: from twelve books to one
In Book of the Month, pick your favourite of each month from the books in your library. Each year has its own twelve; choose the year at the top. If you did not pick as you went, do it now in one sitting, with Calendar open to remember what each month held.
Then open Book of the Year: your monthly picks play a knockout tournament. Tap each matchup to choose which book goes through, all the way to the final. It needs at least two months picked. The winner is your book of the year, and you will know exactly which books it had to beat.
3. The feelings
Numbers say how much you read, not how it felt. That part lives in Feels: the Highlights and quotes you saved, with the feeling you gave each one, and your diary. Scroll back through the year and choose your passage of the year.
On My Journey, On this day shows what you were reading and feeling around today's date in earlier years. From your second year on, part of the wrap-up writes itself.
Ten questions for your wrap-up
- Your book of the year, and the book it beat in the final.
- The biggest surprise: a book you expected little from.
- The book that made you feel the most, and what that feeling was.
- A book you set aside, and whether you are glad you did.
- The character you would most like to meet.
- Your quote of the year.
- An author you read for the first time and will keep reading.
- The genre you read most, and one you want to try next year.
- A book you would reread tomorrow.
- Your reading year in one word.
Write the answers in your diary, in a post or on paper. For questions to ask a single book, see these reading journal prompts.
Then: set up the next year
- Your goal. The Reading challenge goal is a single number that carries over. Keep it, or change it on My Journey.
- A new bingo card. In Games → Book Bingo, each year has its own card. Or print our free book bingo cards.
- A challenge or two. Some reading challenge ideas, from easy to ambitious.
Questions
Do I need Storyfeel to do a wrap-up?
No. The ten questions work in any notebook. Storyfeel saves you the counting: if your books are logged, the numbers, the month-by-month view and the tournament are already there.
Can I share my wrap-up?
There is no public profile in Storyfeel, so your year is only shared if you share it. Take a screenshot of Year at a glance or of your Book of the Year bracket, and write the rest in your own words.
Is all of this on the free plan?
Yes. Stats, Calendar, Book of the Month, Book of the Year and the Reading challenge have no free-plan limits.
New to keeping track of your reading? Start with how to keep a reading journal, or simply try Storyfeel free.