This is one of my favorite topics. I keep a spreadsheet of everything I read. I started with books, but now I have separate pages for poems and essays. I have columns for the title, author, pub year, fiction/nonfiction, the year I read it, and my age at the time, and notes. Like you, I include books that I didn't finish, but I mark them with an asterisk. At the end of every year, I compile a list of what I've read. This originated as a family tradition--my dad, brother, husband and I would all share our lists and mention a few favorites. Now I post it on Substack. Keeping a notebook of my reading was time consuming in the beginning, as I tried to go retroactively and list all the books I read when I was younger. But now the habit has become an integral part of my life and my writing practice. People sometimes ask me how I can remember so much about what I read - well, I keep a list!
I keep reading logs of all my reading sessions. When I finish a book, I include a Montaigne Note (marked with 1-5 asterisks as a hot take rating). Then I index books finished:
Within the books themselves I have consistent marginalia symbols and have some questions I ask when I’m done to make sure I grabbed some key elements of the book:
Most of the time I do things “in-series,” so most of book notes ( ◫) are recorded in the order in which the books were read. Personally, I like reviewing things chronologically like that: it helps me relive my life while reviewing my books. Still, I’ve toyed with ideas for a master list or abstracting out books in other ways, but I don’t have a single approach for that—yet. Thanks for sharing your approach.
This chronological approach reminds me of a book I just read called “The Art of Making Memories”- ironically can’t recall the author, from those happiness institute people in Denmark.
The chronological method in order to relive other life things that were happening would be something they’d endorse.
I also like chronological because it helps to know where you were at in your thinking journey. I read books tied by topic, so it’s interesting to look back on notes and think oh this was before I read this other book and I changed my mind on this, etc.
I keep one journal for EVERYTHING. Reflections, daily to-do's, notes on books I'm reading, notes on conferences, random thoughts, etc. I probably should keep a log of books I've read because I have bought second copies of books that I have read, but forgot about (but if I can't remember reading them, did I REALLY read them? <grin>)
I used to buy Rhodia A5 dot grid notebooks, but found a great sale on their old version of A5 size notebooks when they were discontinuing it (about a third of the cost of Rhodia with very similar (if not the same) paper so I bought enough of them to last me about 5 years. After writing with expensive fountain pens for a long time (it was a hobby), my favorite pen now is a cheap hongdian A3 with a longblade nib (architects nib) which works well for this lefty.
Hey Jared, I have been keeping journals for years. I keep three distinct journals, which I recently described in the note linked below, along with some accompanying photos. I have kept a list of books I've read since 1997, and I do include books that I've DNF'd. I simply annotate them as such.
I think it’s interesting you originally decided not to include unfinished books, perhaps because the reading journal is a record of books that “counted” towards reading?
I, always one for getting full credit, include every book- either because I find some value before I stop reading or because I like to write things like “this book sucked”.
The biggest thing for me was to stop trying a standalone reading journal. I keep all my reading thoughts all jumbled up in one of many indexed commonplace books. I like to see all the thoughts weaving together.
I decided in 2010 to write a review of every book I read - I thought long and hard about the best way to do so, and decided at the time to use the blogger software, and create a blog. Much to my surprise I've stayed true to the project and now have nearly 500 reviews on the blog.
My main reason for doing so was that (like many people) I knew that I had read books but couldn't remember much about them. I have found that I do return to my reviews often enough to have made the project useful.
Issues that I've had - like you, what to do with unfinished titles (I decided not to include them). Poetry.... not on this blog.
The fact that the blog is a public website has been a blessing and a curse. It's nice to get comments, but I sometimes find myself writing for the potential viewers rather than for myself, which can corrupt the usefulness of a review for my purposes.
Overall though, whatever method you choose, a reading journal of some sort is a great idea - going back to what you thought of a book is a great way to track the development of your own ideas and taste, and is often a nice trip down memory lane as well.
I simply write in a Google Docs the books I finish. Recently it's been pretty static, but now that I have started to read 5 pages per day, I'm close to finish Nicomachean Ethics. I've realized that it's a pretty good trick; total of pages isn't a huge problem.
I actually add in that doc all movies and shows I see in the year. When the year ends, I make a tier list of the movies I liked the most
I have a little pocket notebook to track pages read when I’m journeying through a book with an intentional timeline.
I have a midori md notebook (another great paper experience) that I logged books read one year, then started sticking in summaries and reviews and then more extensive notes. I’ll fill that up and then need to decide what to do next. I like using small, 48-64 page notebooks lately for more focused purposes, and then “rolling them up” to some other destination notebook (or digital archive) for reflection and final storage.
I started a reading journal this year and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I include every book I start (well, almost--I lack a bit of discipline still), with its title, author, date started and date finished (or, very rarely, date abandoned), plus a small area for notes. I have separate places where I can take more extensive notes (and one of my short notes might direct me to one of those other locations), so this is meant to be a very quick record with any critical information (such as whether the book requires a reread, main points, or whatever else I think is most important to have a record of).
I tend to start way too many books at once, and while I do think that it's valuable to have more than one book on the go, I take it to unhealthy extremes; one of the benefits of having a log has been to make the cost of starting a new book just a tiny bit higher, which has helped me with my book discipline a little bit. It can also help with the discouragement that sometimes sets in when the to-be-read list seems impossibly long--I can see that I'm making progress all the same (and, usually, that I'm doing a lot more reading than I actually realise).
I'm sure that I'll refine my process as I go on, but I'm happy to finally have the record.
I really like the idea of a book journal. As a fairly young student I've been looking for a way to systematize what I've already read alongside notes on the big ideas, personal takeaways, and what I liked/didn't liked. I'll give the book journal a thought while I try to meet my reading goal this summer!
I have an excel sheet listing every book i've read since middle school (1992). in addition to author/title, i include the date read, year published, # pages, and a 0-100 rating. in another tab i have a hyper-complex rubric i use to award points. in scrivener, i have a reading diary where the more important books get write ups. sometimes a few sentences, much more in others. Huck Finn & Flatland's entries exceed 10,000 words each. but i also track what i read in a physical notebook. running short on pages and i don't like the format, so i need to do what you're doing now, find a new notebook and rewrite everything. i also have physical notebooks for note taking while im reading. i also use Goodreads & Story Graph... i'm surrounded by paper and electronic tracking systems. the reason i can't bring myself to abandoning the electric systems is because i can get crunchy with data that way. how many Richard Brautigan books have i read? how many books over 555 pages have i read? what's the average rating of my non-fiction vs fiction? too hard to do with the physical notebook. but none of the electronic systems are as much fun to look through as my physical notebook. good luck!
I tried to start one back in March here on Substack (https://professortomsoutputlog.substack.com/), but I haven’t recorded anything in it yet. I _might_ make some updates over the weekend, I don’t know.
I wouldn’t quite call this next thing a reading journal, but if I’m reading a book either electronically or physically, I track my reading sessions with an app called Bookly (https://apps.apple.com/app/id1085047737). I also use Libib (https://apps.apple.com/app/id1085047737) for tracking my physical books though I haven’t been very good at keeping the statuses in sync. And, of course, since Amazon owns both Kindle and Goodreads, progress is tracked on the latter for the former automatically.
I actually found your Youtube channel as I was first introduced to the idea of a commonplace book. I started back in May of '24 and it quickly became an integral part of my internal life. (I suppose we'll see if I feel the same after a few more years). In this first year of it, I've settled into using it for:
6. a reading categories page at the front of the journal where I put titles on sticky notes for potential books I want to read next. It acts as a kind of reading queue. (categories: Fiction, History, Theology/Philosophy, Patristics, Book Club, rotating essay collections).
7. logging books I purchase/acquire. I do this a) to note when/where I found something as a part of my used-book-hunting hobby and b) as a way to know that after ~5 years of purchasing if I haven't "gotten around to it yet"... I won't read it and should get rid of it.
I also recently decided not to index within the journal/commonplace book itself and instead have a spreadsheet of the indexed books, authors, terms, etc. It helps because I can then search across my several physical books and don't have to dedicate those pages in each journal.
I have recorded mine in Google Docs since 2009. This year, however, I decided to step up by merging it all into a nice little lightweight website. It's something I've meant to do for some time and I'm glad I've done it.
I record only books I've FINISHED. I have an 'honorable mentions' section each year for books read in substantial part but consciously abandoned.
I'm expanding what I do with my reading journal thanks to the website. As well as merely lists (I don't really say "merely" as I find the bare lists and excelleny aide memoire to what else was happening in my life at the time) I now have a little blog where I record quotes and notions that catch my eye. Often they correspond to any sticky notes I applied while reading the book.
When I started keeping mine it was in a spiral-bound notebook and I've since had to copy the whole thing into a new one. I bought a Leuchttrum 1917 for that because I like the uniform look of all the spines lined up on my shelf. I started writing down every book I finished in 1992 and have managed to keep going since then.
My personal journal is more of a commonplace book than a diary, and has all the passages I marked in the books I've been reading copied out along with any thoughts I had. I typically don't make an entry for books I DNF, but I do mark entries for re-reads.
I've been keeping track of books read for more than 10 years now. I have two simple notebooks: one I use for the books read, anotating the date finnished. The other one is for books I want to read.
This is one of my favorite topics. I keep a spreadsheet of everything I read. I started with books, but now I have separate pages for poems and essays. I have columns for the title, author, pub year, fiction/nonfiction, the year I read it, and my age at the time, and notes. Like you, I include books that I didn't finish, but I mark them with an asterisk. At the end of every year, I compile a list of what I've read. This originated as a family tradition--my dad, brother, husband and I would all share our lists and mention a few favorites. Now I post it on Substack. Keeping a notebook of my reading was time consuming in the beginning, as I tried to go retroactively and list all the books I read when I was younger. But now the habit has become an integral part of my life and my writing practice. People sometimes ask me how I can remember so much about what I read - well, I keep a list!
I keep reading logs of all my reading sessions. When I finish a book, I include a Montaigne Note (marked with 1-5 asterisks as a hot take rating). Then I index books finished:
https://armchairnotes.substack.com/p/reviewing-reading-logs-armchair-method
Within the books themselves I have consistent marginalia symbols and have some questions I ask when I’m done to make sure I grabbed some key elements of the book:
https://armchairnotes.substack.com/p/reflecting-on-books
Finally, I keep three main notebooks (⊞, ≈, ◫) that are all indexed and common ideas are synced between them (more on that is forthcoming):
https://armchairnotes.substack.com/p/my-life-in-three-to-five-notebooks
Most of the time I do things “in-series,” so most of book notes ( ◫) are recorded in the order in which the books were read. Personally, I like reviewing things chronologically like that: it helps me relive my life while reviewing my books. Still, I’ve toyed with ideas for a master list or abstracting out books in other ways, but I don’t have a single approach for that—yet. Thanks for sharing your approach.
This chronological approach reminds me of a book I just read called “The Art of Making Memories”- ironically can’t recall the author, from those happiness institute people in Denmark.
The chronological method in order to relive other life things that were happening would be something they’d endorse.
I also like chronological because it helps to know where you were at in your thinking journey. I read books tied by topic, so it’s interesting to look back on notes and think oh this was before I read this other book and I changed my mind on this, etc.
I keep one journal for EVERYTHING. Reflections, daily to-do's, notes on books I'm reading, notes on conferences, random thoughts, etc. I probably should keep a log of books I've read because I have bought second copies of books that I have read, but forgot about (but if I can't remember reading them, did I REALLY read them? <grin>)
I used to buy Rhodia A5 dot grid notebooks, but found a great sale on their old version of A5 size notebooks when they were discontinuing it (about a third of the cost of Rhodia with very similar (if not the same) paper so I bought enough of them to last me about 5 years. After writing with expensive fountain pens for a long time (it was a hobby), my favorite pen now is a cheap hongdian A3 with a longblade nib (architects nib) which works well for this lefty.
Hey Jared, I have been keeping journals for years. I keep three distinct journals, which I recently described in the note linked below, along with some accompanying photos. I have kept a list of books I've read since 1997, and I do include books that I've DNF'd. I simply annotate them as such.
https://substack.com/@matthewmlong/note/c-105646828
I definitely recommend reading Sam Granger's articles on note-taking. His methods helped me when I recently made some modifications to my process.
I think it’s interesting you originally decided not to include unfinished books, perhaps because the reading journal is a record of books that “counted” towards reading?
I, always one for getting full credit, include every book- either because I find some value before I stop reading or because I like to write things like “this book sucked”.
The biggest thing for me was to stop trying a standalone reading journal. I keep all my reading thoughts all jumbled up in one of many indexed commonplace books. I like to see all the thoughts weaving together.
I decided in 2010 to write a review of every book I read - I thought long and hard about the best way to do so, and decided at the time to use the blogger software, and create a blog. Much to my surprise I've stayed true to the project and now have nearly 500 reviews on the blog.
My main reason for doing so was that (like many people) I knew that I had read books but couldn't remember much about them. I have found that I do return to my reviews often enough to have made the project useful.
Issues that I've had - like you, what to do with unfinished titles (I decided not to include them). Poetry.... not on this blog.
The fact that the blog is a public website has been a blessing and a curse. It's nice to get comments, but I sometimes find myself writing for the potential viewers rather than for myself, which can corrupt the usefulness of a review for my purposes.
Overall though, whatever method you choose, a reading journal of some sort is a great idea - going back to what you thought of a book is a great way to track the development of your own ideas and taste, and is often a nice trip down memory lane as well.
My blog is here - https://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
Roger
I simply write in a Google Docs the books I finish. Recently it's been pretty static, but now that I have started to read 5 pages per day, I'm close to finish Nicomachean Ethics. I've realized that it's a pretty good trick; total of pages isn't a huge problem.
I actually add in that doc all movies and shows I see in the year. When the year ends, I make a tier list of the movies I liked the most
I have a little pocket notebook to track pages read when I’m journeying through a book with an intentional timeline.
I have a midori md notebook (another great paper experience) that I logged books read one year, then started sticking in summaries and reviews and then more extensive notes. I’ll fill that up and then need to decide what to do next. I like using small, 48-64 page notebooks lately for more focused purposes, and then “rolling them up” to some other destination notebook (or digital archive) for reflection and final storage.
I started a reading journal this year and I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I include every book I start (well, almost--I lack a bit of discipline still), with its title, author, date started and date finished (or, very rarely, date abandoned), plus a small area for notes. I have separate places where I can take more extensive notes (and one of my short notes might direct me to one of those other locations), so this is meant to be a very quick record with any critical information (such as whether the book requires a reread, main points, or whatever else I think is most important to have a record of).
I tend to start way too many books at once, and while I do think that it's valuable to have more than one book on the go, I take it to unhealthy extremes; one of the benefits of having a log has been to make the cost of starting a new book just a tiny bit higher, which has helped me with my book discipline a little bit. It can also help with the discouragement that sometimes sets in when the to-be-read list seems impossibly long--I can see that I'm making progress all the same (and, usually, that I'm doing a lot more reading than I actually realise).
I'm sure that I'll refine my process as I go on, but I'm happy to finally have the record.
I really like the idea of a book journal. As a fairly young student I've been looking for a way to systematize what I've already read alongside notes on the big ideas, personal takeaways, and what I liked/didn't liked. I'll give the book journal a thought while I try to meet my reading goal this summer!
I have an excel sheet listing every book i've read since middle school (1992). in addition to author/title, i include the date read, year published, # pages, and a 0-100 rating. in another tab i have a hyper-complex rubric i use to award points. in scrivener, i have a reading diary where the more important books get write ups. sometimes a few sentences, much more in others. Huck Finn & Flatland's entries exceed 10,000 words each. but i also track what i read in a physical notebook. running short on pages and i don't like the format, so i need to do what you're doing now, find a new notebook and rewrite everything. i also have physical notebooks for note taking while im reading. i also use Goodreads & Story Graph... i'm surrounded by paper and electronic tracking systems. the reason i can't bring myself to abandoning the electric systems is because i can get crunchy with data that way. how many Richard Brautigan books have i read? how many books over 555 pages have i read? what's the average rating of my non-fiction vs fiction? too hard to do with the physical notebook. but none of the electronic systems are as much fun to look through as my physical notebook. good luck!
I tried to start one back in March here on Substack (https://professortomsoutputlog.substack.com/), but I haven’t recorded anything in it yet. I _might_ make some updates over the weekend, I don’t know.
I wouldn’t quite call this next thing a reading journal, but if I’m reading a book either electronically or physically, I track my reading sessions with an app called Bookly (https://apps.apple.com/app/id1085047737). I also use Libib (https://apps.apple.com/app/id1085047737) for tracking my physical books though I haven’t been very good at keeping the statuses in sync. And, of course, since Amazon owns both Kindle and Goodreads, progress is tracked on the latter for the former automatically.
I actually found your Youtube channel as I was first introduced to the idea of a commonplace book. I started back in May of '24 and it quickly became an integral part of my internal life. (I suppose we'll see if I feel the same after a few more years). In this first year of it, I've settled into using it for:
1. collecting quotes from books/articles
2. poems or impactful lyrics
3. interesting terms or helpful concepts I've recently discovered (e.g. Torschlusspanik)
4. logging the start of new book
5. reviewing a finished (or abandoned) book
6. a reading categories page at the front of the journal where I put titles on sticky notes for potential books I want to read next. It acts as a kind of reading queue. (categories: Fiction, History, Theology/Philosophy, Patristics, Book Club, rotating essay collections).
7. logging books I purchase/acquire. I do this a) to note when/where I found something as a part of my used-book-hunting hobby and b) as a way to know that after ~5 years of purchasing if I haven't "gotten around to it yet"... I won't read it and should get rid of it.
I also recently decided not to index within the journal/commonplace book itself and instead have a spreadsheet of the indexed books, authors, terms, etc. It helps because I can then search across my several physical books and don't have to dedicate those pages in each journal.
That's my two cents on how I do mine currently.
I have recorded mine in Google Docs since 2009. This year, however, I decided to step up by merging it all into a nice little lightweight website. It's something I've meant to do for some time and I'm glad I've done it.
I record only books I've FINISHED. I have an 'honorable mentions' section each year for books read in substantial part but consciously abandoned.
I'm expanding what I do with my reading journal thanks to the website. As well as merely lists (I don't really say "merely" as I find the bare lists and excelleny aide memoire to what else was happening in my life at the time) I now have a little blog where I record quotes and notions that catch my eye. Often they correspond to any sticky notes I applied while reading the book.
Anyway, my Reading Journal website is here if you or your readers would care to see it: https://allthebooks.bearblog.dev/
I'm enjoing reading about the Reading Journals of others here in this comments thread. Nice work, folks.
When I started keeping mine it was in a spiral-bound notebook and I've since had to copy the whole thing into a new one. I bought a Leuchttrum 1917 for that because I like the uniform look of all the spines lined up on my shelf. I started writing down every book I finished in 1992 and have managed to keep going since then.
My personal journal is more of a commonplace book than a diary, and has all the passages I marked in the books I've been reading copied out along with any thoughts I had. I typically don't make an entry for books I DNF, but I do mark entries for re-reads.
I've been keeping track of books read for more than 10 years now. I have two simple notebooks: one I use for the books read, anotating the date finnished. The other one is for books I want to read.