A reading goal is a number to aim at: so many books this year, or so many pages or minutes a day. This guide covers how to pick one, then how to track it on your iPhone with Reading Log Cat, our reading log and book tracker for iPhone and iPad.
Pick the kind of goal
There are two kinds, and you can have both:
- Books a year. How many books you finish by December 31. A long book counts the same as a short one.
- Pages or minutes a day. A small target for each day. Pages suit one kind of book. Minutes suit books that vary, or reading in short gaps.
A books-a-year goal says where you want to end up. A daily goal says what to do today.
Start from what you read now
Base the number on what you already read. Count the books you finished in the last few months and scale that to a year. Or log your reading for a week, add it up, and divide by 7 for a day. Set the goal at that or a little above. You can raise it later.
Do the arithmetic
- Books a month. Divide a books-a-year goal by 12. 24 books a year is 2 a month.
- Pages a day for a year. Multiply books by the pages in a typical book, then divide by 365. 24 books of 300 pages is 7,200 pages, or about 20 a day.
- Pages a day to finish one book. Pages left ÷ days left. A 310-page book with 120 pages read has 190 left. With 10 days to go, that's 19 pages a day.
Track it for free
Reading Log Cat keeps your books on three shelves: Reading, Want to read and Finished. Setting them up is covered in how to keep track of books you've read. For a goal, the free app gives you:
- Books finished. The Finished shelf shows its count, like Finished · 9 (all years, not just this one), and each book's date, like "Finished Oct 12, 2026".
- Pages and minutes. Tap Log reading on the black Today panel, pick the Book and Day, and type the Pages, the Minutes, or both. The Today panel shows today's totals.
- How far through a book. With a page count, a book on Reading gets a progress bar, like "120 of 310 pages". Take the first number from the second for the pages left.
- The streak. The Today panel counts the days in a row with some reading logged.
- Totals for a week or month. The printable log for This week, This month or Last month adds up pages and minutes at the bottom. See how to keep a reading log.
Set a goal in Pro
With Reading Log Cat Pro, the app keeps the goal for you. Tap the chart button (Stats and more) at the top left of the main screen, then Goals.
- Type a number for Pages a day, Minutes a day, Books this year, or any of them. Leave a field empty, or type 0, for no goal of that kind.
- Tap Save.
Daily goals show on the Today panel. Under today's pages it says "of 20 pages", with a thin bar that fills as you log. When you reach the goal, a check mark appears.
Watch it in Stats
Pro's Stats is in the same menu. The black panel at the top, This year · 2026, shows a ring with the books you've finished this year, and "of 24" when you have a books-a-year goal. Next to it are this year's pages, minutes and days read, and your longest run of days ever.
A book counts when it's on the Finished shelf with a date in this year. A book that moves to Finished when you log its last page is dated the day of that session. A book you move there by hand, or add straight to Finished, is dated the day you save it. So books you read before you had the app count for the year you add them.
Under the panel, pick Pages or Minutes. The Last 30 days chart has a bar for each day and, if you've set that daily goal, a dashed line at it. The chart below shows this year's pages or minutes month by month.
Change or miss a goal
To change a goal, open Goals, type the new number and tap Save. To drop them all, tap Clear goals. The app keeps only the current goals, not a history, so the dashed line in Stats is drawn at today's goal for all 30 days.
If you miss a goal, nothing happens. Today's numbers and bars start from zero each day, and the books-a-year count starts from zero each January. The streak counts days with any reading logged, not days you met the goal. A whole day with nothing logged sets it back to zero.
What the app doesn't do
Reading Log Cat has no reminders or notifications. It has no friends, groups or reading challenges. It doesn't record which days you met a goal.
What it costs
Everything in "Track it for free" is free, with as many books as you like. There are no ads and no account.
Reading Log Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase. It adds Goals (pages or minutes a day, and books a year), Stats (this year, the last 30 days and month by month) and Export CSV. Losing Pro deletes nothing: daily goals you've set still show on the Today panel, and you can still change or clear your goals. More on the Reading Log Cat page.
Your books are kept on your device and in your own backups, and leave only when you print, share or export them.
Quick answers
How many pages should I read a day?
For one book, pages left ÷ days left. For a year, books × pages per book ÷ 365.
How do I set a reading goal for the year?
Count what you finished in the last few months and scale it to a year. In Reading Log Cat Pro, type it under Books this year in Goals.
Do books I add as already finished count?
Yes, for the year you add them. They're dated the day you save them.
Will the app remind me to read?
No. There are no reminders or notifications.
Try Reading Log Cat
Try Reading Log Cat: free, no ads, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/reading-log-cat