Hello friends! This year I decided to delve into the world of book journaling. I love tracking my reading habits on apps such as Storygraph and GoodReads. But this year I thought I’d try to do it physically as well. I have been doing bullet journaling for about 8 years now and it’s about time I brought reading into that world. I’ve had a lot of fun with it. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing journal I’ve ever made but it’s also my first book journal so I’m letting it slide. That being said, you don’t have to make aesthetically pleasing or artsy journals for either bullet journaling or book journaling, you can literally do whatever you want. Which is what drew me to this art form in the first place.
So to start with here is my front page:
I like to give myself achievable goals based on my personal reading habits for the year. So I made this its own page right at the front. I actually completed all of my goals this year so that was really fun to see unfold! It’s not the prettiest page, but it serves its purpose.
TBR
Now, if I’m being honest my TBR page is a big fat lie. We all know my TBR, like many people’s, cannot be contained to a single page (or even an entire journal for some) so I went more for books I already own that I want to read and books that are new to me that really stand out. But really this page was a fail because I just didn’t keep up with it. I think I will still include it for next year but hope that I’ll do a better job with it.
‘Books Bought This Year’
Pay no attention to the number of books I bought versus the number of books I actually read this year….we just won’t talk about it. Buying and collecting books is its own hobby…right!? Right! (let’s not acknowledge that it is actually two pages long)
Book Shelf Tracker
Here we have my Book Shelf Tracker. I definitely over estimated the amount of space I’d need for books. So we just have a lot of empty space! *slaps forehead* But it’s fine, it’s fine! We live and we learn. Still going to have this page next year but we’ll be a little more mindful of my reading habits! My 2021 Book Shelf Tracker was much better and way cute.
Books Read List
My ‘Books Read List’ page. Self explanatory. I liked having this as it’s own page where I could easily go back and look at when I finished a book and what I rated it. I like having all that info in one spot so I don’t have to jump all around my reviews pages.
Reading Stats
More pages that aren’t the prettiest but I did really enjoy having this as a page. Basically I just stole all this info from my Storygraph app and made it look a little different for my book journal. The pages per month and the genre tracker are by far my favorite things to visually see with my reading. Some books are counted twice in the genre section if they fit into more than one genre I decided to include. This page I would update at the end of every month.
The ‘Rating System’
Again, I’m being honest friends, I thought about finishing this page for this post but I decided not to! It has sat there empty all year with a sticky note on it labeling it as my rating system page. But I wish I had just done it at the beginning of the year because it actually would have been really helpful to have a predetermined scale to look back at to decide on my ratings. I felt like without it my ratings were a little all over because there was no consistency. Next year I will have a well thought out rating system for myself so I can give things a more accurate rating.
‘Favorite Reads Showcase’
I went with ‘favorite reads’ rather than the traditional ‘five star reads’ because some books may not have been a 5/5 read for me but they did stand out and I want to remember that. This one also sat empty all year and I wish I had just made a template of the page that I could just fill out as the year went on. But at the same time it also makes sense to leave it empty to then fill it once you know all your favorite reads. Curses on myself for not being productive and making it harder for future me! But it looks alright and I like that it’s here.
The ‘Reviews’
I really liked doing this. These reviews were purely for myself so that I could look back and see what I thought of these books right after I finished them. It was actually extremely helpful even just on a personal level, I would think about a book and try to remember how I felt about it and the answer was right there. Also extremely helpful for book recommendations to give to others! And I love having the little covers, so cute.
Overall I think it went okay but it's obviously pretty unfinished. I am looking forward to doing my book journal for 2023. Now that I feel a little more comfortable with doing it, I plan to make it a little prettier and more aesthetically pleasing to look at. It was a very fun and casual project that I felt actually motivated me to read. I also felt a lot more mindful about reading and seeing my reading progression throughout the year is so fun!
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