StoryGraph Alternative: A Private Reading Spreadsheet

Hey folks, it's Ren here. My desk this morning is the usual quiet clutter: a notebook open to nothing in particular, a cold coffee, and a spreadsheet where I track every book I read.

I came to it after a stint with StoryGraph, an app I genuinely liked for its mood charts. What I did not like was that my moods had to be its moods.

That is the whole reason this exists. A StoryGraph alternative spreadsheet gives you the same mood and pace tracking, except you invent the categories and you own every row.

"I cannot remember the books I have read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

🔬 Where StoryGraph stops and you want to keep going

StoryGraph stops at the moods and tags its designers chose, and that is exactly where a lot of readers want to keep going.

The app is built around a fixed set of moods and a pace meter, which is lovely until your reading does not fit the boxes on offer.

Please do not be hard on yourself if you have tried to make your reading fit an app's categories and felt vaguely wrong about it. The categories were the problem, not your reading.

• The mood list is fixed, so your own labels never quite fit.
• You cannot tag a book with a phrase the app has not thought of.
• Your data and charts live inside the app, on its terms.

🎨 What you get when the categories are yours

The unlock of a spreadsheet is that you define the moods and tags, then chart them exactly as you like.

Here is the shift that surprises StoryGraph fans. The mood chart they love is not hard to make; it is just a column of labels and a bar chart, and the moment you build it yourself the fixed menu disappears.

What matters	StoryGraph	Your spreadsheet
Mood tracking	Yes, fixed list	Yes, your own list
Custom moods	No	Invent any mood
Free tags	Limited	Tag anything, any way
Charts	The app's charts	Charts you control
Privacy	Account required	Private on your drive

Cosy, tense, hopeful, slow burn, comfort re-read: if you can name a mood, you can chart it. One book can carry as many tags as it deserves, which the app rarely allows. The result is a mood breakdown that actually describes your reading, not a tidy approximation of it.

For the wider system this mood tracking slots into, the book tracker spreadsheet guide shows how the pieces fit together.

✅ How to build it in fifteen minutes

A blank sheet becomes a stats engine faster than you would think.

1. Add your core columns. Title, author, rating, mood and tags cover almost everyone; add pages or format only if you will use them.
2. Make mood a drop-down. Use data validation to build your own mood list, and edit it any time the app's fixed moods never let you.
3. Add a free-text tags column. Type anything you like, from slow-burn to comfort re-read, and give one book as many tags as it deserves.
4. Insert a chart. Count books by mood or tag and drop in a bar chart, and you have the mood breakdown StoryGraph is known for.
5. Keep it private. The file lives on your own drive, so your moods, ratings and reading pace stay yours and need no account.

⚠️ A few traps to sidestep

• Copying the app's fixed moods. Fix it: write a mood list that matches how you actually read, then edit it whenever.
• Forcing one tag per book. Fix it: use a free-text tags column so a book can be both literary and comfort re-read.
• Leaving your StoryGraph history behind. Fix it: export it and paste it in, so nothing is lost in the move.

If the numbers are the part you love most, the reading stats spreadsheet goes deep on turning your log into a full year in books.

🎯 Your reading week, sorted

• Build your core columns: title, author, rating, mood and tags.
• Make mood a drop-down you wrote yourself, and edit it freely.
• Tag the last few books you read, as many tags as each one needs.
• Insert a bar chart counting books by mood to recreate the breakdown.
• If you are also weighing up leaving Goodreads, the Goodreads alternative spreadsheet makes the same case for that app.

❓ Frequently asked questions

What is a StoryGraph alternative spreadsheet?

It is a single Google Sheets or Excel file that does what StoryGraph does, tracking your reading by mood, pace, rating and tags, without an account or a company holding your data. You build a few columns, make mood and tags your own, and add a chart, and you get the mood breakdowns StoryGraph is loved for. The difference is that you define the categories, you own the file, and nothing about it can change or disappear in an update. It is the stats-led reading tracker, kept fully private.

Is a spreadsheet as good as StoryGraph for stats?

For the stats most readers actually use, a spreadsheet matches or beats it. StoryGraph's headline feature is mood and pace tracking, and both are simple to reproduce with a drop-down and a chart. What a sheet adds is freedom: you invent your own moods, tag a book any way you like, and chart whatever you want rather than what the app decided to show. You trade the polished interface for total control over the categories and the data.

Can I track mood and pace in a spreadsheet?

Yes, and more flexibly than in the app. Add a mood column as a drop-down and a pages or minutes column for pace, then chart them however you like. Because you set the mood list yourself, you are not stuck with a fixed menu; if your reading is mostly cosy and comfort re-reads, those become your categories. A quick bar chart turns the column into the mood breakdown that drew you to StoryGraph in the first place.

Will I lose my StoryGraph data if I switch?

Not if you bring it across first. StoryGraph lets you export your library, and that file pastes into a spreadsheet just like any other, so your titles, ratings and dates come with you. From there your history lives on your own drive, safe from any app change or shutdown. Many readers keep the app open for discovery while moving their real tracking into a sheet they control.

Happy reading,
Ren

The coffee is properly cold now, but the mood chart on my screen is exactly the shape of my reading, in words I chose. That is the part no app quite gave me.