Starting a reading journal can be the missing piece on your reading journey!
As a book lover, I love my reading time. But I’m also obsessed with any book-related activity. I love collecting books, organizing my shelves, writing notes and reviews, preparing my reading nook, and yapping about my reads to anyone I meet. And I’m sure most of you readers can relate. Because at this point we just want to live in a world where everything is bookish.
And then, I discovered reading journals. I started one for fun since I already love journaling, but now it’s helping me track my books and organize my reading life. So let’s see how and why you need one ASAP:
Why do you need a reading journal?
Reading journals is one of the strong tools for readers. It makes it easier to track your reading life, with some sparkles of art and fun.
Journaling alone has so many benefits that reflects itself on any type. Reading journals are no exception. They allow you to reflect on what you read by providing that space to write, quote, review, and even analyze books if you want to. And reflecting on your readings will eventually make you a critical reader who better grasps feelings and lessons.
Keeping track of your reading journey also becomes so easy with this journal as well. Because, similar to bullet journaling, you can create logs, lists, and pages to track the number and dates of everything you read. This helps you notice the progress, remember what you read, and keep your reading tidy and organized. It’s also a practice to reinforce your reading habit in your life. Since you journal about your books every time, it becomes exciting and special to read more often.
In little words, starting a reading journal will only upgrade your reading and make it more effective. So let’s jump right to the tips and steps:
How to start a reading journal:
1- Find a journal:
As always, the first step to journaling is finding a notebook that suits you. You can pick a lined journal, a dot journal, blank pages, or a simple book you are comfortable with.
The goal is to be satisfied with the notebook you pick and excited to personalize it with your style and readings!
Here is mine! A simple square grid notebook with a beautiful shiny title “All you need is Love”. Isn’t that adorable?
2- Make your first page:
Like any other personalized journal, your reading journal needs a first page. And since we are creating art, there are no rules, or restrictions, just vibes.
As you can see, that’s how I made my little title page. I covered the page in a yellowish journaling paper, wrote my title in a calligraphy style, doodled a little reading nook, and added some stickers on the side.
3- Update your old reads:
If you’ve been reading books for a while, including your fav reads would be a great start. Maybe you want to rate them by stars, make a bullet list, or even write short reviews about them.
I personally go with these little paragraphs. I like to remember the circumstances of reading it and how it felt for me. And I did that for 15 books I previously enjoyed.
4- Add your TBR List:
A To-be-read list is a reader’s favorite list to make. And since we’re making this journal our reading corner, it would only make sense to include the books we want to read. Making your own TBR is a whole other story. But for now, we want to add it to the journal.
I’ve seen people make their TBR pages with big designs, drawings, and trackers. But I preferred to keep mine as simple as that. A list of book titles with a box that I can easily check when complete.
5- Start adding your books now:
At this point, your reading journal is ready to receive your new reads. So you go read your books and come to journal about it. Feel free to create a system that works for you, whether it’s a monthly update, a series review, a fanart collage, or any other style you enjoy.
Here are some of the styles I follow to make my pages:
Page By Genre:
Series Review:
Of course, the famous Harry Potter Series Review… Such a Potterhead behaviour!
Latest Reads:
A fav Book Review:
Well, when you enjoy a book to some extent, it’s never enough to annotate it, talk about it, review it. So go ahead and make it a piece of art! The highly sensitive person is the book I liked the most lately.
6- Add your art (special pages):
As someone who admires the art of journaling, I can’t keep a journal serious and strict. It has to have some artistic pages to serve the aesthetic. A collage, a sketch, a quote, etc…
This reading journal must feel safe for you and your sense of art. It must reflect your reading journey to some extent, so feel free to express yourself however you want.
Here is mine, and honestly one of my fav pages ever! Check it on my Instagram.
Conclusion:
To sum it up, you will never regret starting a reading journal as a reader. Whether you’re a beginner, don’t read very often, or a professional bookworm, it will always be fun and beneficial. So now that you got your inspiration dose from my journal, pick up your stationery and start your own!
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I’m an avid reader and I’d like to start a reading journal! Thank you for these suggestions 😁
Yees I recommend it. I am happy to help!
Your journal is so cute! I love journaling and I’ve never thought to add reading to it! This is a great idea and I think I’ll start tonight as I think it would be relaxing as well. Thank you for the idea!
This was a lovely post! I have had reading journals and lists many years ago, but I should definitely start again! I love your beautiful handwriting for your notes, and I enjoy too reading the Alchemist. I have read it in Spanish and Finnish I think, I reread it every five years or so it would be lovely to read the French version next time. Thank you for this thought awaking post ❤️
Thank you so much! I’m glad you are starting your own, keep us updated on how it goes, Leslie.
I sincerely appreciate your comment! And yes, the Alchemist is an iconic book, and it always hits the spot no matter the langage.
I used to keep a reading journal but I got out of the habit. This breakdown of how to set one up has me wanting to do it again.
I love the idea of creating a reading journal! This is a fantastic way to keep track of what you’ve enjoyed reading and then reflect on your thoughts on each book.
I never thought of having a reading journal. Love the idea of making it pretty and decorating it.
Wondering where you get the book stickers? Like of actual real books?
Love this post!
Hii Amy! I just look for the book covers online, combine them in a word file, and print them out 😊