Bible bookshelf tracker: a coloring-page chart of all the books
A free printable Bible bookshelf tracker: every book drawn as a spine to color in when you finish it. One page, Letter and A4, for Bibles of 66 to 80 books.
The short answer
BibleRing's free Bible bookshelf tracker draws every book of the Bible as a spine on a shelf, taller the more chapters it has, in outline for you to color in when you finish that book. Three shelves follow the Bible's divisions: Law and History, Wisdom and Prophets, then the New Testament. It is one page, as a PDF in US Letter and A4, for the Protestant (66 books), Catholic (73), With Apocrypha (76), Orthodox (78) and Ethiopian (80) Bibles, with no email or sign-up.
In this guide
A chart with a box for every chapter is thorough, but 1,189 boxes is a lot to take in at a glance. The Bible bookshelf tracker asks for one mark per book instead: every book of the Bible is drawn as a spine on a shelf, and when you finish a book you color its spine in. Over the months the shelves fill with color, and you can see from across the room which parts of the Bible you have read and which are still ahead. Each edition is a free one-page PDF, drawn from the same book table the BibleRing app counts against.
- 66books on the Protestant shelf
- 73on the Catholic shelf
- 80on the Ethiopian shelf
- 5editions, each in Letter and A4
Download the Bible bookshelf tracker (free PDF)
Every edition of the Bible bookshelf is a single page, as a PDF in US Letter and A4, with no email or sign-up. Pick the one that matches the contents page of your Bible: if it lists 66 books, it is the Protestant edition; if it also lists Tobit, Judith and Sirach, it is the Catholic edition or one of the wider ones below.
Protestant Bible: 66 books
The 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 of the New. The top shelf holds the 17 books of Law and History, the middle shelf the 22 books of Wisdom and the Prophets, and the bottom shelf the whole New Testament.
Bible bookshelf to color in, Protestant (US Letter)PDF · 164 KB · 66 books on three shelves, one page Bible bookshelf to color in, Protestant (A4)PDF · 164 KB · 66 books on three shelves, one pageCatholic Bible: 73 books
Tobit, Judith and 1 and 2 Maccabees join the History shelf, Wisdom and Sirach stand with the Wisdom books, and Baruch sits beside Lamentations among the Prophets. Esther and Daniel are a little taller than on the Protestant shelf, because Catholic Bibles include the Greek additions to both books; the sheet counts them at 16 and 14 chapters. Our guide to the Catholic and Protestant Bibles explains where the difference comes from.
Bible bookshelf to color in, Catholic (US Letter)PDF · 171 KB · 73 books on three shelves, one page Bible bookshelf to color in, Catholic (A4)PDF · 171 KB · 73 books on three shelves, one pageBible with the Apocrypha: 76 books
The Catholic books, plus 1 and 2 Esdras on the History shelf and the one-chapter Prayer of Manasseh at the end of the Wisdom books. Beyond the Protestant 66, these are the books the Church of England’s Articles of Religion list as the Apocrypha. Use it if your Bible has a section headed Apocrypha.
Bible bookshelf to color in, with the Apocrypha (US Letter)PDF · 177 KB · 76 books on three shelves, one page Bible bookshelf to color in, with the Apocrypha (A4)PDF · 177 KB · 76 books on three shelves, one pageOrthodox Bible: 78 books
The books of the shelf above, with 3 and 4 Maccabees added to History and a Psalms of 151 chapters. Orthodox editions differ in which of these books they print, so this shelf follows the widest list, and a book your Bible doesn’t have can simply stay uncolored. The Orthodox Bible guide sets out which editions include what.
Bible bookshelf to color in, Orthodox (US Letter)PDF · 177 KB · 78 books on three shelves, one page Bible bookshelf to color in, Orthodox (A4)PDF · 177 KB · 78 books on three shelves, one pageEthiopian Bible: 80 books
This is BibleRing’s 80-book count of the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Compared with the shelf with the Apocrypha, Jubilees joins the Law, the three books of Meqabyan stand on the History shelf in place of 1 and 2 Maccabees, 4 Baruch and Enoch join the Prophets, and Psalms has 151 chapters. Enoch, at 108 chapters, is the tallest spine on the sheet after Psalms. How the church itself counts its books is explained in our guide to the Ethiopian Bible.
Bible bookshelf to color in, Ethiopian (US Letter)PDF · 180 KB · 80 books on three shelves, one page Bible bookshelf to color in, Ethiopian (A4)PDF · 180 KB · 80 books on three shelves, one pageHow the Bible bookshelf tracker works
Each book is one spine, in order from Genesis to Revelation, with its name running up the spine. The spines are all the same width; what changes is the height, which grows with the number of chapters. The books are grouped under the eight divisions the BibleRing app uses, each outlined in its own color and labeled underneath, and the divisions stand on three shelves:
| Shelf | Divisions | Protestant | Catholic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | Law and History | 17 books, 436 chapters | 21 books, 503 chapters |
| Middle | Wisdom and Prophets | 22 books, 493 chapters | 25 books, 571 chapters |
| Bottom | Gospels, Acts, Epistles and Revelation | 27 books, 260 chapters | 27 books, 260 chapters |
At the foot of the page are two blanks, Started and Finished, for the dates. The guide to the divisions of the Bible lists which books belong to each one, with their chapter counts.
Why the heights are not to scale
The heights grow with the chapters, but more gently than the chapter counts do. Drawn strictly to scale, Psalms, at 150 chapters, would be 150 times as tall as Jude or Obadiah, and the one-chapter books would be slivers too short to hold a name or take a pencil. On the sheet every spine starts from the same base height and adds to it in step with the square root of its chapters, so Psalms stands about twice as tall as Jude. Isaiah (66 chapters) and Genesis (50) still rise well above Ruth (4), and every book has room to color.
Ways to color it in
The simplest rule is the one printed on the sheet: color in a book when you finish it. A few variations make the sheet more useful over a long stretch:
- Match the division’s color. Each spine is already outlined in its division’s color, so filling it with a matching pencil keeps the eight divisions easy to tell apart on a full shelf.
- Fill long books from the bottom up. Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah can take weeks. Shade the spine as far as you have read: a quarter of the way up at Psalm 38, halfway at Psalm 75.
- Hatch the books you read before you started. Diagonal lines instead of solid color keep “read some time ago” apart from “read this time through.”
- Use a new color for a second time through, or print a fresh sheet and keep the first one as it is.
An uncolored spine is simply a book still ahead. Nothing on the sheet counts days, so a quiet month leaves no mark at all.
Using the bookshelf with children and families
With one thing to color per book, the bookshelf is the easiest of our printables for a child to start with, and a family reading together can share one sheet on the fridge. Short books put a colored spine on the sheet early, which makes them a good place to begin:
| Book | Chapters | Read aloud |
|---|---|---|
| Jonah | 4 | about 7 minutes |
| Philippians | 4 | about 12 minutes |
| James | 5 | about 12 minutes |
| Ruth | 4 | about 13 minutes |
| Mark | 16 | about 78 minutes in all |
The times come from our word count of the World English Bible, read aloud at 183 words a minute, the average adult rate in a 2019 review of reading-speed studies. Reading to younger children, with pauses for questions, takes longer. Jonah in one sitting gives a child a spine to color on the first evening, and Mark at a chapter a night colors a spine on the bottom shelf in sixteen nights.
For more on reading as a household, see Bible reading plans for couples and families.
Bookshelf, checklist or chapter chart?
The bookshelf is one of three free printable trackers on this site, and they differ mainly in what a single mark stands for:
| Printable | One mark for | Pages | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bible bookshelf | a finished book, as a colored spine | 1 | seeing the whole Bible at a glance, children, reading a book at a time |
| Books of the Bible checklist | a finished book, as a box beside its chapter count | 1 | a plain list to tick, with each book’s length printed |
| Bible reading tracker | a chapter (1,189 boxes for the Protestant Bible) | 1 or 2 | seeing progress inside long books, reading in short pieces |
If you read a few chapters at a time and want to see how far into Isaiah you are before it is done, the chapter chart suits that better, and the two work well side by side. The printable Bible reading tracker page has the chapter chart and the books checklist for every edition, in both paper sizes.
Printing tips
Print the file made for your paper at actual size, since an A4 file on Letter paper (or the other way around) gets shrunk or cropped.
- Black and white is fine. Every spine carries its book’s name and every division its label in print, so the outlines simply come out gray.
- Colored pencils are the easiest to keep inside a narrow spine, and they don’t bleed through copy paper.
- Card stock holds up better if the sheet will spend a year on a fridge or tucked inside the back cover of a Bible.
When the last spine is colored, write the date on the Finished line. A full shelf is worth keeping.
Questions people ask
Is there a Catholic Bible bookshelf tracker?
Yes. The Catholic edition has 73 spines, with Tobit, Judith and 1 and 2 Maccabees on the History shelf, Wisdom and Sirach among the Wisdom books, Baruch with the Prophets, and Esther and Daniel at 16 and 14 chapters. There are also editions for a Bible with the Apocrypha (76 books), the Orthodox Bible (78) and the Ethiopian Bible (80), each one page in Letter and A4.
Why are some books taller than others on the bookshelf?
A taller spine means more chapters. Every spine starts from the same base height and grows from there with the square root of its chapter count rather than the count itself, so Psalms, with 150 chapters, stands about twice as tall as a one-chapter book like Jude instead of 150 times as tall. That keeps every spine tall enough to carry its name and to be colored in.
Is the Bible bookshelf tracker good for kids?
It suits children well, because there is one thing to do per book, coloring the spine once the book is finished. Short books help a first sheet along. Jonah takes about seven minutes to read aloud and Ruth about thirteen, so a spine can be colored on the first evening. There is no separate children's edition; the same sheet works at any age.
How do I mark a book I am only partway through?
Shade its spine from the bottom up as far as you have read, and fill in the rest when you finish. A quarter of the way through Psalms is about Psalm 38, and halfway is Psalm 75. If you want every chapter marked on its own, the chapter tracker gives each one a box, 1,189 of them for the Protestant Bible.
Does the Bible bookshelf fit on one page?
Yes. Every edition fits on a single page in both US Letter and A4, including the 80-book Ethiopian shelf. The books stand on three shelves, Law and History, Wisdom and Prophets, and the New Testament, with a blank at the foot for the date you started and one for the date you finished.
Sources
- Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047.
- World English Bible, verse-per-line edition (public domain), eBible.org
- Esther, introduction, New American Bible Revised Edition (USCCB)
- Additions to Daniel, Wikipedia
- Articles of Religion (Article VI), Book of Common Prayer, Church of England
- Old Testament Canon, OrthodoxWiki
