{Reading Notebook} August books
I started a new reading notebook that I’m kind of figuring out while I go. I know it needs to do a few things for me.
1. I would like it to be a record of what I read and what I thought about what I read.
2. I also want it to be a place where I can record notes of what stood out to me.
3. I want it to be a place to organize quotes by topic.
So I did what any good bullet journaler would do and got a notebook. (I picked up this specific one at Walmart, but any composition notebook or favorite journal would work.)
Inside I made a reference list for my star ratings.
And then I printed out a small copy of the cover for each book. (I copy and paste a picture of the cover from online images.) And write a few notes below each cover and give it my star rating.
The books that don’t have a lot of underlines (usually fiction books) I will probably put two to a page. But the ones that end of having lots of underlines and highlights, I will do one per page.
These are the entries a journal/memoir, More Readings from One Man’s Wilderness (If you haven’t read the first book by him, start with that!) and a fiction book, California, that I really enjoyed (on the right).
I read Spiritual Mothering this summer with a group of ladies. It was packed full of great information about Titus 2 discipleship. This is a definite keep and re-read and reference book. It’s not 5 stars because there were just a couple things I wasn’t sure I agreed with, but overall it was a great book.
I enjoyed reading Passionate Femininity about Puritan poet Anne Bradstreet. I had been introduced to her poetry years ago when my boys took a homeschool co-op American Liturature class. This started off slow, but ended with a bang. Some great thoughts, great application, and an interesting look at this amazing woman.
In the back of the book, I’m going to title pages with themes I’m learning about or tracing through books. Themes like faith, discipleship, the Gospel, habits, grace, discipline, etc. I don’t have anything written down there yet, but will show you how it works when I post next month’s reads!
Kari . . . I LOVE (!!) the idea of printing small copies of the cover from on-line sources (I already do something like this with little pics pasted into my planner!). Alternately, I could take a pic of a book cover with my phone-camera, send it to myself & then print. AND I also LOVE the quotes on the same page with the book cover–splendid!! I have been using GoodReads on-line app for awhile now & while I do like the idea of keeping all my books listed there, I would much prefer to have them listed in a book here at home. 🙂 I wonder if there’s a way to print my book reviews & put them into a notebook such as you have here? Hmmm…. Anyway! Thank you for sharing these ideas.
Love this. Now I wish I had a color printer! But its a great idea and a b&w pic will work just as well I think. I might start adding the picture to my common place book, plus stars and commentary…… good ideas!
I have tried keeping reading notebooks before – those commonplace books either become too much (so. many. quotes. And summaries), or too precious (too pretty a notebook to just jot things down in on the fly)… love this method. And so much nicer than just my goodreads account!
This is AWESOME!!!! I love this idea. I made a cheap spiral bound reading tracker earlier this year – after I get done I am going to incorporate some of your ideas into my next reading notebook. Last year I did Tim Challies’ reading challenge and made an index card for each book title and then took notes on index cards and filed it behind the original title one and rubber banded it together. This helped me build the habit of reading the titles I wanted/selected and as well as encouraged me to pay enough attention to take some notes. This year I decided it was much easier to upkeep in a spiral bound…but I never thought to make it pretty and include my ratings and a picture of the book cover – SO genius!!! Thanks for sharing this!!!!!
I keep track of what I read and rating in an Excel spreadsheet. I keep quotes in a commonplace book using different papers, fonts, print sizes, etc. to make it visually interesting. I’m going to check out Scriptural Mentoring, I’ve been contemplating Christian mentoring with a younger co-worker, very timely. Thanks, Kari!
I like the rating descriptions – having them written down with detailed descriptions of what each rating means (to you) will help ensure you rate each book with the same criteria. I use goodreads strictly to keep track of what I read. I never use the ratings because, well to be honest, I’m not sure that I always want people who follow me there to know my opinion. Using a simple notebook to record your ratings – that’s a great idea! I’m off to scrounge up an unused notebook. Thank you Kari!!
Follow-up question – how do you (if you do) keep track of books that you want to read?
I feel like sometimes I must send you a silent message across the void, and you get it, and then you write about it. Because this is a subject I have been thinking about a TON lately and wishing I had some good ideas for how other people are doing reading journals. And then here’s this post! This is exactly how I want to do it. I looove the rating system being different for non-fiction vs fiction, and printing out the covers is so fun! I’m copying it all. Plus (!!) I’ve had uncle Toms cabin on my list for three months, I even bought a copy, and seeing your opinion just moved it way up my priority list. I love that you are such a kindred spirit.