How to keep track of the books you’ve read, which month you read them and who you read them with, using one short note per book. This case study follows a simple pattern through a year of book club in Onuri and shows exactly what you can find again later.
Most reading logs fail for the same reason most journals do: they ask for too much. A spreadsheet wants columns filled in. A book app wants a rating, a shelf, a start date and a review. After a few months the log falls behind, and once it falls behind it stops being trusted.
This case study started with a single line typed into Onuri after a book club meeting:
August - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club
Example note
AugustJane EyreCharlotte BrontëBook club
That is the entire entry. Four pieces of information, separated by dashes, written in about ten seconds. No title field, no folder called “Books”, no tags typed by hand. Onuri recognises the useful parts of the note on your iPhone and shows them as pills, so the month, the book, the author and the group all become things you can search and filter by later.
Repeat that once per book and, by the end of the year, you have something more useful than most reading apps give you: a private reading history you can question in plain words. What did we read in August? Which Brontë books have I read? What did Dad recommend? What did I read on holiday?
Mock-ups on this page show the pattern in Onuri’s style. Exactly which pills appear depends on what Onuri recognises in your own wording.
The case study
A year of reading, one line at a time.
Here is the full example year: twelve notes, mostly book club picks plus a few books read alone. The pattern stays the same. Only the last part, the context, changes.
JanuaryPride and PrejudiceJane AustenBook club
FebruaryFrankensteinMary ShelleyBook club
MarchThe Great GatsbyF. Scott FitzgeraldLisbon
AprilMiddlemarchGeorge EliotBook club
MayDraculaBram StokerDad
JuneWuthering HeightsEmily BrontëBook club
JulyPersuasionJane AustenGalway
AugustJane EyreCharlotte BrontëBook club
SeptemberMrs DallowayVirginia WoolfBook club
OctoberThe Picture of Dorian GrayOscar WildeBook club
NovemberLittle WomenLouisa May AlcottSarah
DecemberA Christmas CarolCharles DickensBook club
Twelve notes, about two minutes of typing across a whole year. Now for the part that makes it worth doing: getting answers back out.
01
Search by month
“What did we read in August?”
Type August into search and the answer comes straight back: Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, book club.
This is the question book clubs ask constantly, usually while scrolling back through a group chat. Because the month is written in the note itself, it stays attached to the book no matter when you typed it. The same search works for any month of the year, and if you have been logging for several years, each note also carries the date you wrote it, so you can tell this August from last August at a glance.
August
Matches
August
August - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club
Example note
AugustJane EyreCharlotte Brontë+1
02
Search by author
“Which Brontë books have I read?”
Search Brontë and both sisters appear together: Wuthering Heights in June and Jane Eyre in August.
Author searches are where a one-line log starts to feel like a library catalogue. The same works for Austen (Pride and Prejudice in January, Persuasion in July) or any writer you keep coming back to. One practical tip: type names the same way every time. If you sometimes write Brontë and sometimes Bronte, search for the part they share, such as Bront.
Brontë
August - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club
Example note
AugustJane EyreCharlotte Brontë+1
June - Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë - Book club
Example note
JuneWuthering HeightsEmily Brontë+1
03
Filter by group
“What has book club read this year?”
Filter by Book club and the year’s picks line up in order, newest first.
This is the list every book club needs and almost nobody keeps: what the group has already read, so you don’t pick the same book twice and new members can see the history. It also answers “when did we last do a classic?” or “how long since we read something short?” without anyone digging through messages.
Filters
Book club ✕
December A Christmas Carol
October The Picture of Dorian Gray
September Mrs Dalloway
August Jane Eyre
June Wuthering Heights
+ 3 more
04
Search by person
“What did Dad recommend?”
Tap the Dad pill and Dracula comes back, alongside everything else you’ve written about him.
Recommendations are the most forgotten part of reading. Someone tells you about a book, you read it months later, and by then you can’t remember who suggested it, so you can’t tell them you finally read it. Writing their name in the note fixes that. Because Onuri connects people across all your notes, the same tap also shows Dad’s birthday note and the gift idea you saved, which is often exactly when a book recommendation is useful.
Filters
Dad ✕
May - Dracula - Bram Stoker - Dad recommended it
Example note
MayDraculaDad+1
Dad’s birthday is 3 March. He wants that Shackleton biography.
Example note
Dad3 Marchbirthday
05
Search by place
“What was I reading in Lisbon?”
Search Lisbon and The Great Gatsby appears, next to the restaurant you loved on that trip.
Books get tangled up with where we read them. A holiday read, a book finished on a long train journey, something you read in hospital or on a first week in a new city. Adding the place takes two extra words and turns your reading log into part of your travel memory, and your travel notes into part of your reading log.
Lisbon
March - The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - read in Lisbon
Example note
MarchThe Great GatsbyLisbon+1
Dinner at the little tiled place near the castle in Lisbon. Go back.
Example note
DinnerLisbon
06
Combine filters
“Which book club picks were by the Brontës?”
Stack Book club with Brontë and the list narrows to exactly the books that match both.
Combining filters is where a few dozen notes start answering questions you never planned for. Book club and summer months. Austen and Galway. Sarah and anything she recommended. You never designed these categories, because you never had to. They come from the words already in your notes.
Filters
Book club ✕Brontë ✕
August Jane Eyre · Charlotte
June Wuthering Heights · Emily
Keeping track of months
Why the month goes in the note itself.
Every Onuri note already has the date you wrote it. So why type the month too? Because the day you write a note and the month you read the book are often different.
You can log your backlog in one sitting. Sit down in October, type out everything you read since January, and every book still lands in the right month.
Book club months are fixed. “The August book” stays the August book even if you finished it on 2 September.
It reads naturally. When you scroll back, “August - Jane Eyre” tells you more at a glance than a timestamp does.
It makes seasonal patterns visible. Over a few years you start to notice your own rhythms: heavier classics in winter, lighter books in summer, or the months you barely read at all.
If you read more than one book a month, that’s fine. Write a note for each. If you want the year too, add it: August 2026 - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club. Searching “August” still finds it, and searching “2026” gives you that year’s full list.
Copy the pattern
The reading log template.
Start with the one-line version. Add a second line only when there is something worth keeping.
The one-liner
Month - Title - Author - Context
Context is whoever or whatever you’ll want to search for later: Book club, a person’s name, a place, or why you picked it up.
With a thought
August - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club
Better than I expected. Aoife hated the ending.
One sentence of reaction is enough to remember what you thought, and the second name connects the note to Aoife too.
With a quote
August - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club
Quote: "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me"
Months later you might remember the line but not the book. Search a word from it, like bird, and the whole note comes back with the title and author attached.
To read next
To read - Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier - Sarah recommended
Start with “To read” for your list of future books. Search “To read” for the full list, and change it to the month once you’ve read it.
For book club organisers
Running a book club from your notes.
If you’re the one who keeps the group organised, the same habit covers the logistics too. Notes like these sit right beside the reading log:
Book club at Aoife’s on Thursday at 7pm - Mrs Dalloway
Example note
Book clubAoifeThursday7pm
Whose turn is it to host? Filter by Book club and look at the names.
Who picked what? Write the picker’s name in the note: “Sarah’s pick”.
Which books split the group? One line of reaction after each meeting builds a history you can look back on at the end of the year.
What’s been suggested but not chosen yet? Keep “Book club idea - Title - Author - Who suggested it” notes and search “Book club idea” when it’s time to vote.
Honest comparison
Onuri, book apps, spreadsheets and paper.
Onuri is a notes app, not a dedicated book tracker. Here is where each option is genuinely strongest.
Option
Best at
Weaker at
Goodreads, The StoryGraph and other book apps
Covers, ratings, reviews, reading progress, yearly reading challenges, stats and recommendations from other readers.
Your reading lives in a separate account with a social profile, away from the people, places and plans in the rest of your notes.
Spreadsheet
Sorting, counting and charts once the data is in.
Filling in columns is a chore on a phone, so logs fall behind.
Paper reading journal
Slow, reflective writing and something lovely to keep.
Searching. Finding “what did we read in August?” means flicking through pages.
Onuri
Ten-second notes that connect books to months, people, places and groups, all private and searchable.
No covers, star ratings or reading stats. It remembers the context, not the page count.
Plenty of readers use both: a book app for ratings and challenges, and a line in Onuri for the who, when and where that book apps don’t capture.
Ideas
20 reading notes worth writing down.
Every book you finish, in the one-line pattern
Books you gave up on, and why (“DNF - page 80 - too slow”)
Who recommended each book
Books you’ve lent out, and to whom
Books you’ve borrowed and need to give back
Your book club’s picks, hosts and meeting dates
One quote per book you want to keep
Where you read it: a holiday, a commute, a hospital stay
Books you’d buy as gifts, and for whom
Audiobooks and the walk, drive or chore they went with
Rereads, and how they felt different the second time
Authors to read more of
Books mentioned in podcasts or interviews
Books you want to discuss with a specific friend
Your “to read” list, with who suggested each one
Library books and their due dates
Books from school you want to try again as an adult
Bookshops you loved, and where they are
Your favourite book of each year
Books your kids loved, and the age they loved them
No public profile, no followers and no feed. The Onuri app uses no ads, tracking or third-party analytics SDKs, and its App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected”. Notes sync only through your own iCloud account.
Take it with you
Export your log any time.
Onuri exports notes as TXT or CSV. Because every line follows the same pattern, a CSV export drops neatly into a spreadsheet if you ever want to count or chart your reading year.
Questions
Reading log FAQ
What is the easiest way to keep track of books I’ve read?
Write one short line per book as soon as you finish it, in the same order every time: month, title, author, and one word of context such as who recommended it or which group you read it with. Keeping it to one line is what makes the habit last.
What should a reading log include?
At minimum: when you read it, the title and the author. The most useful extra is context, meaning who recommended it, who you discussed it with or where you read it, because that’s the detail people most often wish they had kept. A single sentence of reaction or one favourite quote is a good optional second line.
How can I remember which month I read a book?
Write the month at the start of the note, for example “August - Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë - Book club”. Searching the month later brings back everything you read then, even if you logged the book weeks afterwards.
Can I use Onuri as a book club tracker?
Yes. Add “Book club” to each note about the group’s picks, and filter by it to see everything the club has read. Notes about hosts, dates and times, such as “Book club at Aoife’s on Thursday at 7pm”, connect to the same group.
Can I add books I read years ago?
Yes. Write the month and year in the note, for example “March 2023 - Middlemarch - George Eliot - Book club”. The month and year in the text keep it searchable by when you read it, not when you typed it.
Is Onuri a replacement for Goodreads or The StoryGraph?
Not exactly. Book apps are better for covers, ratings, reading challenges and stats. Onuri is better for private, fast notes that connect each book to the people, places and months in the rest of your life. Many readers use both.
Is my reading log private?
Yes. Onuri has no public profiles or social features. Notes stay on your device and in your own iCloud account, and the app’s App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected”.
Is Onuri free?
Yes. Onuri is free to download with unlimited notes, search and automatic connections. Optional Onuri Premium adds Insights, Ongoing and Done statuses, colour themes and alternate app icons.
Start with the book you’re reading now.
Open Onuri and type one line: the month, the title, the author and who it’s for. Next year you’ll be able to answer “what did we read in August?” in a second.
