Does Anyone Keep A Reading Journal?

[openionated]

If so, how do you set it up? What do you write/record for each book entry?

 

Do you record all your books, or only ones that impact you in some way?

[Sailor Kenshin]

I used to have a pre-printed, looseleaf reading journal from someplace like Levenger or Daytimers (with Title, Author, Date, a few other headings and sub-headings, and a few lines to record other impressions).

 

It wasn't bad. It was also convenient, but with all the other writing I did, it became Too Much Like A Chore, and I passed the unused part along. These days if a book or passage particularly strikes me one way or another, I just jot it in my journal/commonplace.

[vickiehof]

I've been keeping a written 3-ring binder log with a short description of each book that I've read since 1992. I wish that I had started it when I was a teen.

 

At one point, I wrote everything on the computer, but now I enjoy using my fountain pens to write my short book report and only use an Excel spreadsheet for sorting the data by: date, title, author, and genre with separate tabs that sort the data by author, and another tab for books that were my favorites.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Is TOMOE RIVER Japanese or Chinese?😄😄😄😄

[fountainpagan]

I keep a reading journal.

as entries I have: title, author, editor, number of pages, year of the edition, year I bought it and where (or, if a gift, who gave it to me)

Then I write my impressions on it.

If a passage of the book strikes me, or a sentence, I write it in my daily notebook.

[drv1913]

I've given up on trying to keep a full-fledged reading journal but have had success with a simple reading log. I note the book title and author and the date that I finished the book. Lately, I've also been adding the year that the book was published and noting if I've read the book before (I reread a lot of books and previously never added them to my reading log.) If I feel like it, I write my opinion or impressions of the book in one or two sentences. Every now and then, I am moved to write more. I use blank books that other people have given me for my reading (and movie) logs. People mean well, but I am very picky about paper, and this seems like a good way to use a book that would otherwise just collect dust.

 

Quotes from books (and other sources) get written in the Random Commentary section of my regular notebook. I have tried at various times to take more extensive notes while reading, but it slows me down too much, and I always give it up. I'm going to try again with a book that I'm currently reading, as it is a library book and I really do want to be able to refer to some of the information at a later date.

[sakayume]

I write quotes (good opportunities to practice calligraphy!) and notes in a notebook, but I think of the notebook as more of a commonplace book than a reading log.

[knarflj]

I have kept a reading log for years, and have tried several different methods. When I first started, I just used a three-ring binder, and kept a running list of simply the title and author of every book I read, and wrote the new month in the margin every time it changed.

 

Then I tried a computer spreadsheet - and lost a few year's worth of data in a hard drive crash. I went back to pen and paper.

 

For several years I kept a week-per-page calendar on my desk, and wrote the title and author of each book I read (and when I remembered, each film or play that I watched) in the box for the date I finished it, along with a brief review or comment if I thought it needed one.

 

Recently I've started just writing the titles and authors near the outside margin of my regular journal, with a sort of semi-decorative line above and below, in a different ink from the regular entry for that day, so it's boxed off and easy to spot if I'm skimming back to find when I read a particular book. I've always recorded any deeper or longer observations about a book in my regular journal, so now (at least in theory), those thoughts are in the same place as the simple reading record, but still easy to skim back and find.

 

For a couple of years, I duplicated my reading record on Pinterest, and tried to put a brief review or at least comment with most of the pins. It took time to find images of all the books, so I let that practice slip. But the other day someone asked me "What was the title of that book on stage management that so-and-so loaned you?", and it was so easy to find that data from my pin board that I think maybe it's worth the trouble to start that up again. Here's a link to the last such board I did, in case you're interested to see how that worked: https://www.pinterest.com/noseinabook/books-2014/

 

As others have mentioned, I also keep a separate commonplace book for quotations that particularly strike me. If I want to muse about those quotations, they may go in my journal also. And for certain subjects that particularly interest me, I keep separate notebooks - but that's probably outside the scope of your question.

 

Jenny

[PaperDarts]

I've kept a list of books I read for years, but a few years ago I started jotting a few lines about each book as well as the title and author. Doing this really helps me remember what I read. Right now I'm using a large unlined Kikkerland Writersblox notebook for the purpose.

 

I have another Writersblox notebook I use to make notes on a book if I want to remember the contents in more detail - usually nonfiction books in that case. The latter is more of a commonplace book; the former is just a listing of the books and a few lines about each one to record basic plot and impressions.

 

There are some really interesting systems and methods described here, good inspiration!

[Octo]

Does anyone use Calibre? It is a free database program that allows one to enter information then sort by author, title, date, rank in series, reader's comments, etc. I'm thinking of converting to Calibre from my reading journal.

[inkandseeds]

Over the years, i have kept several different reading related logs and journals.

 

Starting in 1976, i have kept a running list of books read (over 2,100 books to date). I enter the title, author, length, and date. Each year i start a separate page. Initially, i did not include books read for school, but that changed as i spent years in graduate school. I read mostly non-fiction.

 

At one point, i kept book summaries on the computer (a Mac 512, then a Mac Plus), but that ended when programs kept getting updated. I think i still have those notes in a hard copy somewhere. I also kept notes on academic articles that i read.

 

For a while, i was keeping summaries and notes in large (8.5 x 11) Canson art sketch books. I had trouble keeping up with the notes as reading was more interesting than writing up notes. (That might help explain why i never finished either of those dissertations.)

 

Recently, i have shifted to large notecards to list title, author, publisher, date and a summary. Books that involve more extensive notes are still kept in the Canson books.

 

Through much of it, i have put notes, interesting passages, quotes, etc. in my regular journal. In my regular journal, there are also ideas and/or commentaries on the books as i read them.

 

There will be a lot to burn when i pass.

[flummoxed]

I've experimented with a few models, but for whatever reason, given up on them after a few books at each attempt,

- A phonebook (alphabet index was the reason): with notes on on books, thoughts etc.

- Regular book: Manually indexed (cross referenced by genre, author)

- A wiki with my notes as and when I read them

- An evernote with all the details

- Calibre with associated notes

[dsdavis17]

I've used a Moleskine Cahiers for the last 10 years or so. It is more of a log with

the title, author, date, and any impressions of the book. Longer quotes or musings

go in my journal. I find this very useful to help me remember what I've read and my

impression of it at the time.

[Humanities]

Evernote is another free platform that might appeal to you for keeping any kind of notes. Just keep track of your password, especially if your email changes. Basically, you input info and can organize it in virtual "notebooks"; you can import from any source (web, directly from your computer, even from business card scanner, camera, etc.). There are even special (overpriced) Moleskine notebooks that interface particularly well (they say).

 

Personally, nothing beats the beauty of a tactile object, a journal, that marks an earlier time in your life, or a span of experience. Holding history, your personal history! Risky, for loss or damage, but solid and yours alone!

[Sailor Kenshin]

I found my old reading journal pages, but I'm happy that I switched tactics.

[haruka337]

I do not, but I suspect I should.

I'm horrible with names, so keeping track of it (especially when reading Russian literature) is very difficult for me--add dyslexia to the mix and it can become a nightmare. I think I'll keep a small notebook for when I read character intensive books or when characters use multiple names.

 

Does anyone use Calibre? It is a free database program that allows one to enter information then sort by author, title, date, rank in series, reader's comments, etc. I'm thinking of converting to Calibre from my reading journal.

I use Calibre, but find it impractical for notes (for me). Do let me know how it works out for you!

[openionated]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It seems the type of information varies from a simple log, to a detailed write up on each book. It has given me food for thought.

 

What originally prompted this thread was me trying to solve a problem. I have discovered a batch of authors that I like, and have read at least one book from each of them. Each of these books was part of a larger series. After reading them, I sell the paperbacks to the used book store to fund my reading habit, so with no physical samples to check, I spent about an hour on Amazon the other night trying to figure out which ones I had read, and which ones I still need.

 

I was able to figure it out, but it's not a project I want to repeat.

 

I think I want to capture the following:

Author

Title

Publication date (helpful for keeping a series in order)

Date read

Brief plot synapsis

Any Misc comments that come to mind

 

Then the only problem becomes format. I will probably switch back and forth between authors rather than do a series consecutively. I either need movable pages like loose leaf or index cards, or I need a master index and then some way to color code by author to find entries quickly.

 

Hmm.

[Sailor Kenshin]

What you need sounds very much like the journal I had. I did find some possibly similar ones on Amazon. Maybe they would work.

[cleosmama]

I tried the Levenger series Bookography, but the paper for that really stinks. Almost everything bleeds through it.

 

So I got a fauxdori that I liked, and a Midori notebook, and now I write down that I read there. It's kind of a running journal now, although for many years I vacillated between just noting titles and then doing descriptions. Now it's just a journal of what I am reading, and then at the end, I say whether I liked it or not. I may go back to entries for each book.

 

I did recently order a book journal insert from Yellow Paper House on Etsy to try. https://www.etsy.com/listing/202648423/book-review-reading-journal-travelers?ref=shop_home_active_18

[WaskiSquirrel]

I tried to keep a reading journal as well as a movie journal.

 

 

But, what happened was that I didn't write my entries. For the reading journal especially, my plans were modest: date finished, author, title, quick summary, and did I like it. 4-5 lines at most.

 

Now, I don't know where I even put those two notebooks.