Build a reading tracker

Track your reading with a small set of typed frontmatter properties, two Auto Properties for the values you set constantly, and a Dataview table that turns a folder into a bookshelf. You set this up once; after that, logging a book takes a few keystrokes.

Prerequisites

• MetaEdit 1.9.0 or later. The plugin requires Obsidian 1.12.7+ and everything here works on desktop and mobile.
• The Dataview community plugin, for the bookshelf query in the last step. Every other step works without it.
• A folder for book notes. This recipe uses Library/.

Step 1: decide the schema

Each book note carries six properties:

Property	Type	Example	Edited with
author	Text	Frank Herbert	Native text widget
status	Text	Reading	status Auto Property (Single)
started	Date	2026-06-14	Native date picker
genres	List	Sci-fi, Classics	genres Auto Property (Multi)
rating	Number	8	Native number widget
tags	List	book	Native tags widget

Property types live in Obsidian’s vault-wide type registry, not in MetaEdit. Once rating is a Number anywhere in your vault, MetaEdit’s create modal adopts Number for every future rating you add. See Create properties for how type adoption works.

Step 2: define the two Auto Properties

status and genres are the values you will set over and over, so give each a fixed list of choices:

1. Open Settings, then MetaEdit.
2. Turn on the “Auto Properties” toggle (its settings description reads “Quick switch for values you know the value of.” - in practice: named choice lists for properties).
3. Click the row’s extra button to expand the inline management UI.
4. Click “Add auto property”. Name it status, keep the type dropdown on “Single”, set the description to Where this book is in your reading flow., then use “Add value” to add To Read, Reading, Finished, and Abandoned.
5. Click “Add auto property” again. Name it genres, switch the type dropdown to “Multi”, and add your genres as values.

Every change saves immediately; there is no save button.

Paste a whole list at once

Copy a comma- or newline-separated list of genres and paste it into any single value box. MetaEdit splits it into one value row per entry and drops duplicates.

Names match exactly

Auto Property matching is exact and case-sensitive. An Auto Property named Status never fires for a property named status. Use the same casing everywhere.

The full feature, including descriptions and the Single/Multi behavior, is covered in the Auto Properties guide.

Step 3: create a book note and add its properties

1. Create Library/Dune.md and open it.
2. Run the “MetaEdit: Run” command from the command palette. MetaEdit has no ribbon icon, so assign a hotkey if you do this often.
3. In the property picker, choose “New YAML property”.
4. Type rating as the key and 8 as the value. If your vault already knows rating as a Number, the value widget switches to a number input on its own; for a brand-new key the type starts as Text and MetaEdit offers a one-click hint when your value looks like a number or date. You can always switch types manually with ⌘/Ctrl+Y.

5. Repeat for author (Text) and, if you know it, started (pick the Date type).
6. Now add status: type the key and press Enter (or Tab) - the modal replaces the value field with the note ‘“status” uses an Auto Property – press ⌘/Ctrl+↵ to choose its value.’ Commit, and the status value prompt opens with your four choices. Do the same for genres.

The note’s frontmatter ends up looking like this:

---
rating: 8
author: Frank Herbert
started: 2026-06-14
status: Reading
genres:
  - Sci-fi
  - Classics
tags:
  - book
---

Note

A key that matches an enabled Auto Property always opens the Auto Property prompt - it takes precedence over the native widget, both when creating and when editing. Everything else follows the usual routing described in Edit properties.

Step 4: set the start date with the native date picker

When you pick up a book, set started without touching the YAML:

1. Run “MetaEdit: Run” in the book note.
2. Pick started in the property picker.
3. The “Edit started” modal opens with Obsidian’s own date picker. Choose the date and click “Save”.

Because this is a natively edited YAML property, the value stays a real date - no quoting, no string coercion.

Step 5: update status and genres as you read

Moving a book through your pipeline is the same two keystrokes every time: “MetaEdit: Run”, then pick status. The Single prompt lists your choices, filtered as you type.

The prompt also learns as you go. Type a value that is not in the list, say On Hold, and two extra rows appear: ‘Use “On Hold”’ applies it once, and ‘Save “On Hold” as a choice’ adds it to the status choice list permanently.

genres works the same way, but as a multi-select: current values come pre-checked, values not yet in your choice list carry a “new” badge, and typing a value and pressing Enter adds it checked. Tick “Also add new values to this property’s choice list” to keep new genres for next time, then click “Confirm”.

Step 6: the bookshelf query

With consistent, typed properties, the Dataview side is short. Put this in a Bookshelf.md note:

TABLE author, status, rating, started, genres
FROM "Library"
SORT status ASC, rating DESC

Or group the shelf by status:

TABLE rows.file.link AS Book, rows.author AS Author, rows.rating AS Rating
FROM "Library"
GROUP BY status

Because rating is a real Number and started a real Date, sorting and comparisons behave correctly - no string-sorted “10 before 9” surprises.

Going further

• Prompt for status and genres at note creation with a Templater template: Prompt for metadata in Templater templates.
• Stamp type: book on the whole Library/ folder in one pass: Bulk metadata migrations and cleanups.
• More on list-shaped values and Edit Mode: Lists and multi-values.