I’ve always been kind of obsessed with journals. I grew up during the height of Dear America books, Amelia’s Diaries, and other epistolary novels, like Bridget Jones’s Diary, that had a profound effect on my identity as a reader and writer. But it’s not really until the last two years that I got serious about keeping a regular journal. Now I look forward to journaling every night before bed. Admittedly, my day-to-day existence is pretty boring, but books, reading, and writing are my greatest passion and life’s work, and I make sure to journal about reading often. There are so many ways journaling about your bookish life can be rewarding, not least because that kind of regular reflection can help shape your personal reading practice. This article will go over some of the benefits of keeping a journal of your reading habits and bookish life. I’ll also include some prompts and journaling questions for readers to get you started today. If you’re a bullet journal person, you can adapt these questions for your bookish bullet journal.
Benefits of Journaling about Books
What are some of the benefits of keeping a journal about your reading life? I’m so glad you asked! It wasn’t until I started journaling about books that I realized it was the missing piece of my diaries (the ongoing record of which I loosely call “The Mad Book”). I often wrote about my daily existence, my medical history, work, relationships, and my ongoing journey as a writer, but once I began including details about books in my journal, I felt like I cracked open another dimension to my life. It’s how I started to develop what I consider a reading practice, much like a spiritual practice. Journaling about books helped me piece together who I really am as a reader, what I want books to be in my life, and how I intend to live bookishly.
Here are four other journaling benefits I discovered in the process.
Benefit 1: Keeping a record of what you’re reading helps you notice patterns
Sometimes it can be hard to see the bigger picture of what you’re reading and how you’re growing as a reader. It’s one thing to have a digital record on Goodreads, but actually being able to recored what you’re reading at the moment and what topics, authors, and genres are interesting you gives you a more complete picture of how your emotional journey and reading journey are aligned. Often these things are difficult to recognize in the moment. But go back and look at your reading life a month, six months, or a year ago and you’ll start to discover the tendencies, preferences, loves, and dislikes that form your identity as a reader.
Benefit 2: Journaling about books makes you engage with what you’re reading more deeply
I know how true it is that writing about what you’re reading forces you to think more critically about those books. Imagine another year goes by and you’ve read 52 or however many books, but it’s just a blur, a wave of data with no direction. When you’re journaling about books, though, you have time and space to reflect on what you’re reading.
Benefit 3: A journal is a private, safe space to let it rip and be honest about books and reading
Ever finish a book and feel like you want to talk about it but, er, you’ve got an unpopular opinion? In the safe pages of your journal, with nobody’s eyes but your own, you can totally let it rip and give your hot take and negative review of a book that’s the literary darling of the moment. Journals are also good places to sort through your very personal reactions to a book, things you might not feel comfortable sharing, maybe something that triggered you or left a bad taste in your mouth, or, alternately, a book you’re embarrassed that you loved. With a journal, no more do you have to feel silenced about your deepest, most secret bookish opinions, nor do you have to let them float off into oblivion. You have a safe space to capture them in your journal.
Benefit 4: When you journal about your reading life, you’re writing a book!
Yes, maybe this benefit of journaling about reading is the most important one. By writing about your reading in a designated space, you are writing a book! This book is the story of your life in paper, something you can touch and feel and go back to again and again. So if you’ve ever said to yourself, I’d love to write a book (and who hasn’t?), keeping a journal about books is a great opportunity to do just that!
Ideas on what to record
Before we jump into the list with a month’s worth of journaling questions for readers, you might be wondering how to get started. After all, journaling is no small thing. It can be very daunting—and it’s extremely brave—to want to think critically and reflect about your life in a journal. But where to begin? You can certainly start with the questions below, but if you want to ease into it, I recommend including some consistent notation of any of these:
- Your current reads.
- How many pages/chapters/books you read today.
- Star ratings and a five-word book review of books you’ve finished.
- Books you bought or borrowed that are on your To Be Read list (TBR).
- Book recommendations that you’ve been given.
- Upcoming new releases you’re excited about, pre-ordered, or put a hold on at the library
- Book reviews, book blog posts, bookish articles, YouTube videos, and podcasts that you read, listened to, or watched.
- Bookish adaptations on TV or film that you’ve seen.
- Notes on book clubs and discussion groups.
- Your daily, weekly, or monthly progress on your reading goals and any challenges you’re participating in right now.
- A quick book review or instant reactions to a book you’ve just finished reading.
- Keywords for books you’ve finished so you can easily scan for what you’re looking for.
While I first fell in love with journaling through Moleskines, my new favorite journal is Leuchtturm Hardcover Medium A5 Ruled Notebook. Right now, I’m journaling in one of these in Royal Blue. I like this notebook because it includes extensive indexing tools, good quality paper with plenty of space, and a solid hardcover.
31 Journaling Questions for Readers
Now let’s dive in with a month’s worth of bookish questions about your reading life and philosophy.
- What was the first book you read on your own that made you love reading? Why?
- What was the most significant and impactful book someone has ever given you as a gift? What books that you’ve given have had special meaning?
- Do you finish every book you read? Why or why not?
- What quotes from books or poems have stayed with you? Which lines of literature can you quote verbatim? Why do you think they have made such an impact on you?
- Who helped encourage you to read? What books would you share with them now?
- What’s a 5-star book for you? 2-star? 3? Define your philosophy of rating books.
- If you had to pick one book to recommend your whole town, city, state, or country to read as a “One Book, One City” selection, what would it be and why?
- If you could have any kind of bookish job what would it be? If you could invent a bookish job, what would you do?
- What is your system like for recording books you’ve read, bought, plan to read, etc.? Would you change anything?
- If you could get a bookish tattoo, what would you get it of?
- Ready for a dare? Give yourself a reading dare and a month to complete it. Track your progress and note how it’s making you feel to be pushed as a reader.
- If you could either (a) read 100 books in a year, some great, some not-so-great, or (b) read only 40 fantastic books in a year, what would you pick and why?
- If you were to teach a class on books, literature, reading, or writing, what would you choose? What would you call it? What books would you’d add to the reading list?
- Do you blog about books or share your reading online? If so, how does this fulfill you? If not, would you ever consider it?
- Set a timer for 20 minutes and write down your philosophy of reading. Keep writing. Don’t correct yourself or stop to edit it.
- Who is a person you trust to give great book recommendations? What is it about their reviews that always make you listen and get excited about reading? (Learn more about recommending books in my guide.)
- What’s one book you were surprised that you loved? What made you take a chance on it?
- How does reading offer you Comfort? Enlightenment? Escape? Joy? Thrills? Peace? Love? Free write what books come to mind when you think about each of the words.
- What are some of your bookish bucket list ideas?
- Write a letter to yourself and give an update of the last few books you’ve read, bought, borrowed, added on Goodreads, or put on your TBR. What kind of topics are you enjoying reading about? Seal the letter up and open it in a year. Journal about the experience of writing and reading that letter. How are you different as a reader today vs. then?
- Do you feel like you’re part of a community of readers? What’s an encounter you’ve had with a total stranger or acquaintance who you’ve bonded with about books? What friends have you made through books?
- What is your favorite book of all time? Just one. No, really. Why did you pick that one above all others?
- What’s a personal reading challenge goal you have that doesn’t have to do with amount of books read? Why is it significant for you?
- Mindfulness and meaning. What would “reading meaningfully” and “reading mindfully” be for you?
- Think back to the last book that gave you The Feels. “The Feels” are often indescribable, you just know them when you see them, but if you had to choose some emotions to describe them… what would they be? It’s interesting to consider what “The Feels” means for each individual reader.
- What authors do you admire and why? What makes someone more than just a good writer, but a partner in reading and advocate for books?
- What’s one book you think should be banned? Or does this question make you realize you’re against all kinds of book bans? There’s no wrong answer here.
- Which books do you wish you could read for the first time again? Was it more about the experience of reading the book or the book itself?
- Give yourself a code name. If you could name yourself after any fictional characters (first, middle, and last names), who would it be and why? What would it feel like to actually live with that name?
- Think about the reading accomplishment you’re most proud of in your life. What gives you pride about it? Could you push it further?
- If this bookish reading journal is your book… what’s the title?
