I’ve Finally Put Together a Reading Journal (+ 2021 Bookshelf PDF download)

I’ve found a new reading adjacent activity to obsess over and with any luck it will help me to make the most of what I read.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely dipped my toe into bullet journaling once or twice. I like to draw and appreciate the organisation bullet journals offer, so it seems like the perfect tool for someone like me. However, having one often encourages me to keep track of things I don’t care about. Bullet journals are supposed to be functional, yet I would include habit trackers and never use them or put too much effort into making weekly and monthly spreads that I rarely gave a second glance after making. So, I decided to get a basic day-to-day planner for my to-do lists and whatnot, and dedicate my bullet journal to reading, something I track anyway, just not in the same way I’m going to this year. In this post I’ll show you my spreads for my reading journal and explain my reasoning behind including them.

The Bookshelf

I’m sure if you know anything about reading journals you’ve stumbled across a bookshelf or two. This is the most aesthetically focused spread in my journal, and I plan to keep it that way. I enjoy drawing but feeling pressured to make every page perfect with cute illustrations is not my intention. The shelf I’ve drawn has 67 books on it though my actual goal for the year is probably somewhere around 50. It’s not the end of the world if I don’t fill it up, nor if I exceed it. It just looks nice, which is why I’ve included a PDF where you can download a scanned version of it at the bottom of the post! I plan to highlight the books in specific colours that will correlate to the month in which I read it, but will not include the names of the books, which brings me onto my next spread.

Books I read

This spread will be a written version of the bookshelf. I left three pages to be on the safe side, but once again, if I use less space, it will not be the end of the world. This spread will also track what colour I use for each month on the bookshelf. Beside the word ‘January’ I’ve included a teal circle, which is the highlighter colour I’ll use to fill in any books I read in January, and I’ll keep doing this for each month alongside filling in the number of pages and star rating columns.

2021 favourites

I don’t want to do anything fancy on this page, as I have no idea how many books will be on it. I included it here because I had a spare page, there wasn’t any reason beyond that. For now, I can only see myself writing in the names of the books as they come along in a metallic or glittery gel pen. I’ll most likely post updates about this page on my Instagram, so keep an eye out for that if you are interested!

Series to finish

To be honest, the main purpose of this spread is to shame myself into finishing the series I start. I started the Outlander series about two or three years ago and here I am, still only having read two of the books, not because I’m not interested but because I put it off for so long I feel as if I have to restart the series to immerse myself in the world once again. Hopefully having this will have a real impact on guiding me towards the kind of books I should be buying as well as helping me to read some of the books I already have so I can fill in some of the blank squares.

Owned TBR

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to call this page, but this works just as well since TBRs are book you aspire to read, but this is specifically a list of books I own and would like to get around to reading. I plan for it to be a record of every single unread book I own and the books written here aren’t all of them. I’ve input most of the physical books I own but I’m yet to add the books I own on my Kindle (which I buy far to many of). Once again this spread is designed to shame me into remembering how many books I have to read so I stop buying more. No promises though.

July TBR changes

As I said before, I’m interested in tracking how well I do with getting my TBR down this year, so with any luck my TBR should be smaller by July but again… no promises. The page will probably end up looking similar to the last one, with the titles of the books I own shortened if they need to be.

2021 Stats

This page includes a simple tally system that will provide the bigger picture of what I read this year. It will track my star ratings, the genres I read, and the format I read in. The last one is most important to me, because I’m trying my best to read less physical books, mainly because I just don’t have space for them anymore. I do have at least thirty physical books to read though, so I don’t know how successful that will be this year.

Rolling Books I read Spread

This is the most important spread for me. Once again, it’s relatively simple. I’ll included the dates I start and finish reading a book, the star rating, my thoughts whilst reading it (if I have any) and then a mini review. I usually write down my thoughts about a book because I have such a bad memory that within weeks of reading something, the only thing I can really remember is the plot. It’s so important to actually get something out of the books you read rather than just reading them for the sake of it or to add to your yearly total, so I hope this spread will allow me to contemplate the books I read a little more. This is another page that I’ll most likely included an update for on my Instagram at the end of the month, so once again, be on the lookout if you’re interested!

I’m really excited about this journal and hope it actually helps me to find out more about my reading habits by the end of the year. I was just so proud of it I felt the need to share it. I hope you enjoyed this post and if you keep a reading journal, I’d love to know what kind of things you like to track!

Don’t forget to download the PDF version of the Bookshelf below if you are interested!