Thank you, Heather! And I am planning an article highlighting those literacy and book-related orgs, so do stay tuned. There are so many good ones doing such good work!
I love your illustrated shelf! I have been keeping a book journal since 2017 and I, too, love looking back on it. Mine is not as visual, but i have gone back to add some stickers and washi tape. In the front of it, I also keep favorite bookish quotes and I have various lists of all time favorites. Each year I save 4 pages for my list of books and then after those I start my commonplace book of noted passages from the book. I tend to write small, but not all books get notes. What I haven’t done is be more reflective about my thoughts…I tend to do that in my regular journal. Over the years, my book journal has been a great resource to me to help remember what I have read. Thanks for sharing your process!
I love hearing about how you keep your book journal, Karen - thank you for your comment! For many years, mine also didn't have any added visual elements - they were solely my notes in regular spiral-bound notebooks. It's only been in the last ten years or so (right around the time I started bullet-journaling, I suppose!) that I've really delved into the decorative and creative side. I love your idea of keeping favorite bookish quotes at the front - what a great section to see each time you open it! Thank you for sharing your process, too!
Oh, and 2 years ago I started keeping track on an app as well. I first catalogued all my library in LibraryThing, a free app that has a very bookish community. Now I not only add my new bought books, but I have a category of “read not owned”. Each year they do a “your year in review” and there is a bookshelf created of all the book covers you have read.
Oooh, I haven't heard of LibraryThing. The year in review filled with book covers would be SO fun. I will have to check that out - thank you for the tip!
This is great! Tracking things in my reading journal is one of my favorite bookish things to do. It brings me such joy! And I'm with you on the monthly favorite not translating to one of the top 10 books of the year... it's why I stopped doing a "book bracket" in my journals because I didn't feel it was accurate. Thanks for sharing your process.
I'm glad your reading journal brings you so much joy too, Laura! And isn't it interesting how the monthly favorites don't necessarily become favorites of the year? I am often surprised that some (and sometimes many) of the books that appear on my year-end favorites list aren't always even my 5-star reads. The reading life is forever fascinating! :-) Thanks for your comment!
It sounds like you've got an awesome system going, Tracy! Does your bookshelf printout include the titles of your books, too? I know some people who print a picture of the book cover onto sticker paper and include that with their review - someday I think I'll add that step, as it looks so cool! Thanks so much for sharing your process!
What a fun creatine outlet, thanks for sharing! I'd love to hear sometime about the reading/literacy orgs you're involved with.
Thank you, Heather! And I am planning an article highlighting those literacy and book-related orgs, so do stay tuned. There are so many good ones doing such good work!
I love your illustrated shelf! I have been keeping a book journal since 2017 and I, too, love looking back on it. Mine is not as visual, but i have gone back to add some stickers and washi tape. In the front of it, I also keep favorite bookish quotes and I have various lists of all time favorites. Each year I save 4 pages for my list of books and then after those I start my commonplace book of noted passages from the book. I tend to write small, but not all books get notes. What I haven’t done is be more reflective about my thoughts…I tend to do that in my regular journal. Over the years, my book journal has been a great resource to me to help remember what I have read. Thanks for sharing your process!
I love hearing about how you keep your book journal, Karen - thank you for your comment! For many years, mine also didn't have any added visual elements - they were solely my notes in regular spiral-bound notebooks. It's only been in the last ten years or so (right around the time I started bullet-journaling, I suppose!) that I've really delved into the decorative and creative side. I love your idea of keeping favorite bookish quotes at the front - what a great section to see each time you open it! Thank you for sharing your process, too!
Oh, and 2 years ago I started keeping track on an app as well. I first catalogued all my library in LibraryThing, a free app that has a very bookish community. Now I not only add my new bought books, but I have a category of “read not owned”. Each year they do a “your year in review” and there is a bookshelf created of all the book covers you have read.
Oooh, I haven't heard of LibraryThing. The year in review filled with book covers would be SO fun. I will have to check that out - thank you for the tip!
This is great! Tracking things in my reading journal is one of my favorite bookish things to do. It brings me such joy! And I'm with you on the monthly favorite not translating to one of the top 10 books of the year... it's why I stopped doing a "book bracket" in my journals because I didn't feel it was accurate. Thanks for sharing your process.
I'm glad your reading journal brings you so much joy too, Laura! And isn't it interesting how the monthly favorites don't necessarily become favorites of the year? I am often surprised that some (and sometimes many) of the books that appear on my year-end favorites list aren't always even my 5-star reads. The reading life is forever fascinating! :-) Thanks for your comment!
It sounds like you've got an awesome system going, Tracy! Does your bookshelf printout include the titles of your books, too? I know some people who print a picture of the book cover onto sticker paper and include that with their review - someday I think I'll add that step, as it looks so cool! Thanks so much for sharing your process!