A Reading Journal For Me?

For several years, I have set myself a reading goal on Goodreads. I set the goal low because I haven’t been reading as much as I usually do — but I have to stop and ask myself, exactly what is my “usual” amount of reading?

I sometimes go on reading sprees, where I will read for several days in a row, several books, typically a series, that has me caught in their web for a bit.

But, since I had children, I read, but not so much as I used to…and then I found handcrafts, like knitting, embroidery, and crochet. I can’t read and work with my hands as well.

I know. I can hear everyone asking if I have not heard of Audible and whatnot. I have. And I have tried that. Having books read to me does not engage my brain and I find myself concentrating more on other things and getting lost when it comes to what is going on with the book.

However, this year, I am sinking back into reading—trying to find a balance between my reading and my handwork.

Typically, my reading goal for the year has been twelve. I figure, when those moods to read and do nothing else hit me, I can reach that goal easily. Plus, I always feel as if I am cheating when I include my crochet and knitting books, but I do tend to read and re-read those like novels when I get them.

Not this year. This year, I realized, thanks to BookTube, that our two oldest children are actual adults and not part of our household, so I don’t have to worry about taking care of them or anything. Our youngest is nearly a teenager—Oh my god, I cannot believe that…sigh…but that does mean I do not need to follow him around and make sure he is not destroying the house or himself in any way.

I am not an empty nester, but I am dealing with a lot of those issues.

This year my goal is to read fifty-two books throughout the year.

Reading is where it began.

I can just sit and read, for no other reason other than I want to read.

And, I can read all the dark horror and fantasy that I want to without having to worry about anyone else reading it (especially if that person is too young for what I am reading) or anyone denigrating me for what I read.

But, do I need a reading journal?

BookTube has me hooked with reading challenges, end-of-year flip-throughs of their journals, tracking statistics about their reading, setting up new journals, TBR lists, haul videos and unhaul videos (I don’t watch haul or unhaul videos for anything; it’s just me.)

Now, I wanted to track my reading, as I have a tendency to lean on my Kindle tracking what I read on Goodreads…which can lead to my ‘currently reading’ section looking huge, as if I so much as open a book, Goodreads snags it and dumps it into my ‘currently reading’ section. I accidentally opened about a dozen Kindle books in the past year, dragging my fingers over the screen randomly because I lack tactile sensation in my fingertips most of the time .

But, when I own a print book, or borrow one from the library, I don’t always remember to write it down. I want to make sure I keep track of that.

So, I took the Lauren Phelps Designs planner that I had originally used as my writing tracker/planner before I found and fell in love with the Papertess Manager’s Notebook and I started to use it simply to make lists of my books. I use that Lauren Phelps planner to make lists about the books I read.

Since I fell down the rabbit hole of BookTube reading challenges for the year and whatnot, I decided I needed a dedicated space for making those lists.

It is sort of a hodge-podge. It is an organized hodge-podge though.

Since I started all of this in December, I made a list of the books I received over the December holidays.

I made a list of the books that arrived via subscription boxes.

I made a list of books that I bought during December that were for reading challenges in January.

I made another list of the books one subscription service released throughout the year, as we have only recently subscribed, marking the ones I own, leaving the rest open to be bought later on.

I made a list of books that I pre-ordered thus far…and there is plenty of room for other pre-orders.

Boxing Day, Half-Price Books always holds a twenty percent off sale. I love that sale. So, I made a list of those books. Because I want to read at least sixty percent of all the books I buy in 2025—and the books I bought in December count towards that list.

I made a list of the digital purchases that I made during December—because my Kindle kept teasing me the whole month and I could not help myself.

And then I made a page where I wrote January in big bright letters so I would know that this is where the year actually begins.

This planner is an undated planner. There are twelve blank monthly spreads in the front. The rest of the pages are blank gridded pages.

For January, I started new lists.

I made a list of my reading goals for the year.

I have a list of books that I purchased in January, for reading challenges or whatever.

I have a list for books that I borrow from Libby.

I have a list of books I had read with a date I finished reading the book.

My Christmas box from my dad, which was all books, was about five weeks overdue because of USPS shipping issues, finally arrived. I made a list of those books-after I hopped up and down in joy over receiving them, and the box was completely intact and uninjured.

There is no set-up for evaluation of books, or anything like that…and as I read more books, I sort of want to have a place where I can write that out.

I want to have a space, other than the back of my Journey planner, to keep challenges and Bingo boards and other things.

It’s like my bookshelves. I wish I had all my writing books in one place. I wish I had all my crochet books in one place. I wish…you see my point.

So, I am very much leaning into creating my own reading journal.

I have a beautiful A5 dot grid journal with the two fishes of Pisces on the front cover. I received this over the December holidays. I love this thing and … am a bit trepidatious about using it.

I am also pondering buy a B5 or A4, but I cannot exactly pinpoint my why, except that I am afraid of setting something up and not using it…so of course, buy a new journal to mess up and feel bad about. Yeah.

That’s a stalling technique. I buy the journal online; I have to wait for it to arrive. Could I buy it in person? I have no idea. I could buy a Moleskine darn near anywhere locally online, but I think I want a nice 160 GSM paper journal. I might want a B5, or … maybe a B6 … and I … already have plenty of journals that meet that criteria in my possession.

See what I mean?

I have analysis paralysis …

And the fear of screwing up a perfectly pristine journal.

But I wanna do it.

S0, I think I will. I will make that a priority to set up a reading journal before my birthday (which is at the end of February).

Now, to stop worrying about ruining a ‘good’ journal, just pick one, and start setting up the things I want in my reading journal.

I need to remember that it is ok if the journal isn’t perfect. This will be my first time creating one. I will leave out things I want to include—or find things to include that I never thought about in the beginning—no matter how many videos I watch.

I need to remember that perfection is not the goal. Process is the goal. The doing is the important thing.

So, off I go.

I will keep you updated.

Until next time.