A reading list in Obsidian.

What you’ll build

A book tracker that you own, in plain text files:

• One note per book, with your notes and quotes under the properties.
• A Books base with three lists: reading now, up next, and finished this year with total pages and your average rating.
• A shelf board grouped as Reading, Up next and Finished, in that order.
• Author pages that list their books by themselves.

You need Obsidian 1.9 or later with the Bases core plugin on. Everything below was tested in Obsidian 1.14 with no community plugins.

Step 1: One note per book

Make a folder called Books and one note per book, named after its title:

---
type: book
author: "[[Ursula K. Le Guin]]"
status: Reading
added: 2026-09-28
started: 2026-10-01
finished:
rating:
pages: 248
---
## Why I picked it up

## Notes and quotes

• status is one of To read, Reading, Finished or Abandoned.
• Dates use the 2026-10-01 format, so they sort and count.
• rating is a number from 1 to 5, filled in when you finish.
• author is a link, which makes the author pages in step 4 work.

Save a copy with empty values as Templates/Book.md for new books.

Step 2: The Books base

Make a file called Books.base and paste this in:

filters:
  and:
    - type == "book"
    - '!file.inFolder("Templates")'
formulas:
  days_in: if(status == "Reading", if(started, (today() - date(started)).days.round(0), ""), "")
  shelf: if(status == "Reading", "1 Reading", if(status == "To read", "2 Up next", if(status == "Finished", "3 Finished", "4 Set aside")))
properties:
  file.name:
    displayName: Book
  formula.days_in:
    displayName: Days reading
views:
  - type: table
    name: Reading now
    filters:
      and:
        - status == "Reading"
    order:
      - file.name
      - author
      - started
      - formula.days_in
      - pages
  - type: table
    name: Up next
    filters:
      and:
        - status == "To read"
    order:
      - file.name
      - author
      - added
      - pages
    sort:
      - property: added
        direction: ASC
  - type: table
    name: Finished this year
    filters:
      and:
        - status == "Finished"
        - if(finished, date(finished).year == today().year, false)
    order:
      - file.name
      - author
      - finished
      - rating
      - pages
    sort:
      - property: finished
        direction: DESC
    summaries:
      rating: Average
      pages: Sum

• Reading now shows how many days you’ve been on each book, from the days_in formula.
• Up next lists the oldest additions first, so the list doesn’t only grow.
• Finished this year uses .year to keep this year’s books. Sum totals the pages and Average averages your ratings.

Step 3: A shelf board, in your order

Add a board under views: in the same file:

  - type: cards
    name: Shelf
    groupBy:
      property: formula.shelf
      direction: ASC
    order:
      - file.name
      - author
      - rating

Groups sort alphabetically, so “Finished” would come before “Reading”. The shelf formula from step 2 puts a number in front of each group (1 Reading, 2 Up next…), and the board groups by that instead.

Step 4: Author pages that list their books

Add one more view:

  - type: table
    name: By this author
    filters:
      and:
        - file.hasLink(this.file)
    order:
      - file.name
      - status
      - finished
      - rating

Then make a note for the author, such as Authors/Ursula K. Le Guin.md, and put this line in it: ![[Books.base#By this author]]. file.hasLink(this.file) means “books that link to the page I’m on”, so every author page lists its own books with the same line.

Step 5: Your reading on the Home page

Embed the two lists you check most:

## Reading now
![[Books.base#Reading now]]

## Up next
![[Books.base#Up next]]

When you finish a book, set status: Finished, the finished date and a rating, and it moves to Finished this year by itself.

Mistakes that cost us time

• Typing the author as plain text. It works in the tables, but the author pages need a link: "[[Ursula K. Le Guin]]", with the quotes.
• A finished book with no finished date. It won’t count toward this year. Add the date, even a rough one.
• The template showing up on your shelf. The !file.inFolder("Templates") filter fixes it.
• Ratings as stars. Store a number from 1 to 5. Numbers can be averaged; ★★★★ can’t.