My 2024 Reading Journal (+Free Bookshelf PDF)

I may be a little late posting about it, but I’ve put together another reading journal for 2024 and I’m very excited about it. Once again, I bought a new Ottergami journal to house my reading journal. I like the thick pages which prevent your pens from bleeding through from one side to the other. While I’m not the biggest fan of the bland covering of the journal I’m using for this year, they do have quite a few options.

This is the fourth year I’ve been using a reading journal, and once again I’ve kept quite a few of the same pages, but I’ve also added more pages than I’ve ever had before, though I’ve tried to keep most of them very simple. I wanted to fill out more space in my journal and do more to track my reading in a more personalised way. Hopefully, the new pages I’ve added will expand the scope of my reading, but I should say that some I’ve added purely for aesthetics, but we’ll get on to that as I explain each page.

1. Title page

This is a slightly bigger version of my title page from last year, with additional brown paper that part of me regrets adding. Like last year, I used some plain coloured paper—pink this time, which is my main colour for this journal—washi tape, black pen, and a gold paint pen to create it. It’s very simple but that’s the goal. I think the brown paper interfered with some of this simplicity, maybe because it’s quite dark, which discouraged me from using it in my journal for anything else… but it may return in the future, we’ll see.

2. Map

This is a new addition to my reading journal. I’ve seen quite a few people create maps before and thought it would be fun to do the same. This spread alone probably added two weeks onto the time it might have taken me to finish the reading journal in the first place, so if you’re ever thinking of adding one, be wary of how long it might take, especially if you’re not the most skilled artist. The deliberating over what I wanted it to look like and the fear of messing it up alone added so much time to how long this spread took, but all in all, I enjoyed making it and I thought it turned out okay. Admittedly, I don’t know very much about maps, so it’s hard to tell.

3. Bookshelf

My bookshelf is a place for me to visually record the number of books I read each month. I did the same as last year and squeezed it all onto one page to illustrate my goal of 50 books. I don’t write the book names on the spines or anything, I just keep it very simple and highlight the spines of books I’ve read in a month with the same colour. It would be nice to see it all filled in, so hopefully I can reach my goal.

4. Books I Bought in 2024

To my detriment, I did not use this nearly enough last year. It’s more important now than ever for me to make sure I’m not buying more books than I can ever read. Not only is it a waste of money, but it’s a waste of space and only serves to reduce my excitement for reading. I included little columns for the format and whether I read it or not just to make sure I am keeping track of my habits. So far this year, I haven’t bought too many books, but I’ve probably already bought more than I need, so in the log they go!

5. Books I Read in 2024

This is probably one of my favourite spreads. It’s simple but effective. It’s the written version of my bookshelf, displaying the title, author, number of pages and the star rating I give each book across the year. I always love the look of it, it’s straightforward to keep up with, and it’s probably the most useful page in the entire journal, giving me pretty much all the information about the books I’ve read in a simple, condensed manner.

6. Quote of the Month

This quote of the month spread is a place for me to appreciate the pretty or insightful sentences I get to come across while I read, one of my favourite parts of reading. In last year’s journal, I did not fill this in. This is my redemption attempt. I have to figure out the best way to keep track of these quotes and to get them down quickly, so I don’t end up having to add them at the end of the year.

7. TBR Wishlist

There’s nothing like printing out books and sticking them into your reading journal to make you feel like a child again (in the best way). This is essentially 24 books I want to read in 2024. There are more, of course, but I picked a combination of books I own that I know I want to read, and books I don’t own that I know I want to read. I’ll put the start rating under each book so that when I look back on it I can see how I felt about each book (and whether I ended up reading it).

8. Reading Goals

I made a reading goal spread for the first time last year, and I think it’s good to read with a little bit of intention beyond just a number to help you get more out of it. It may be a little late in the year for me to share my reading goals for this year, but I could always make a more general post or an update later in the year.

9. Series to Finish

Another redemption attempt here. It would benefit me to track the series I read and yet I struggle so much to bother with it, despite it not being hard at all. If I don’t make use of it this year, it will probably be on its way out. At first, I didn’t want to do it because it seemed like a huge undertaking, but I don’t think I’m in the middle of that many series that I intend to keep going with, so it might be a quicker job than I think.

10. Stats

Last year, I mentioned that I wanted to try something different to track my stats and now I just about have. I don’t know how successful this will be, but I’m ready to give it a go. On this spread, I track the Star Ratings, Genres, and Formats of the books I read as well as which months I’ve read them in.

11. Quarterly Check-in

Another new addition, this page will serve as a comparison for how my reading has been split up during the four quarters of the year, which I think might be an interesting thing to see. I kept it simple, with a few statements followed by a box to fill in and decorated it with some stickers.

12. Recommended Reads

To read a wider range of books rather than what’s popular on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, I want to track where I get recommendations from, so I can see what might work and what won’t work in different contexts. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are swearing off TikTok recommendations this year for good reason, but I don’t intend to avoid them completely. I think I just need to put more thought into things before I add them to my TBR or buy them.

13. Book Bingo

A book bingo spread is another one I’ve seen lots of other people do online. This is something else that ties into my goal of reading a bigger variety of books this year, as a bingo page that encourages me to ‘read a memoir’ will result in me reading things I might not usually reach for to try and win at bingo (I hope).

14. Reading Challenges

This reading challenge spread is probably the most important in helping me achieve my goal of reading different books this year. I envision that once I get to the slightly more obscure letters in the Alphabet, I might have to search for books to read if I want to complete the A-to-Z challenge. The Fairytale challenge already has me scouring the internet for books I’ve either never heard of or just haven’t got around to reading to find a retelling for each month, so that’s already looking somewhat positive in expanding my reading.

I picked the A-to-Z challenge and the fairytale challenge simply because they appealed to me, and if you want to expand your reading, I’d recommend searching for a challenge that would be fun for you.

15. Book Club

I have a book club with a friend, and I wanted to track which books we read throughout the year, so I decided to make this spread. We didn’t set a number for how many that might be, but I’ve made six slots which I may turn into four or twelve, but I may also have to find a way to make additional space too. This is going to be the kind of spread that takes shape over time, but I promise I do have an idea for what I want it to look like, however vague that idea may be…

16. Monthly Favourites

My monthly favourites spread is just another opportunity to print out books and stick them in because while it’s a simple concept, it does make for a nice spread. You may notice that it looks like I’ve cut some things out and pasted them back in because I did. Mistakes are inevitable, which I still need to learn as a grown adult in my mid-twenties. I could have let the alignment mistake I made destroy the page for me, but I didn’t. I just covered it up and tried again.

17. Rating Key

I just created this page to fill space. It has a key for how I rate books, and just barely serves a purpose, but it’s okay to look at.

18. Rolling Books I Read Spread

This rolling spread for the books I read each month will require the most attention, as I’ll have to think of a theme for each month. I’ve used the same setup from last year with the inclusion of a small, short TBR. With the reading challenges I’m looking forward to doing, this will come in handy. The TBR will be followed by as much as I want to write about the books I read each month, whether that’s two or five. I’m excited to come up with ideas for the spreads each month! Though I might regret saying that later.

And that is all the spreads in my journal for 2024 (so far). I hope this new set-up works because I had a great time making it and it would be a shame for me to let any of the pages go unused.

What kind of spreads do you have in your reading journal? Or which you’ve used before and taken out? I’d love to know. Thanks for reading!

Get a PDF version of my 2024 bookshelf here!