r/readingjournals

Howdy y'all!

I love reading books a lot. But I noticed how theres some ways of keeping track of what you read/finished reading.

Some do it by

• Having a journal to keep track of it
• Some do it by checking them off a Reading List based on Book, Author, Date, and rate it from 1-5 stars.
• Some color in a printed out bookshelf showing spines of the book.

I originally thought about my own way, my own idea. It involved having a jar and writing on index cards of the book info and put them in said jar as a way to show visually and by info on how many and what books I read. But I was curious about something...

Has anyone thought of tracking them by having mini 3D blank books that they could write on the front or/and spines of?

Like you could write on and erase it with a pencil/whiteboard marker, put it in a jar/mini shelf to show you read it, and have at least 50+ of them to do this.

I thought about it, considered it a fun and creative way to track how many books you have read visually and by names. Let alone it's also reusable for as much as you want, so you never have to buy a new journal or anything to track it.

My issue is that I cant find something like this where its mini books that are blank that you can write on with anything and erase it easily.

I did see the mini books for the "anxiety bookshelf" fidget thing (IDK, that thing gives me more stress just seeing it), went into a little scavenger hunt for an hour or so to see if I could find anything like my idea. The Anxiety Bookshelf fidget thing does have book only options where you could get mini books... but I noticed it either were of books I wont read, were spicy books (I dont read those - I prefer ones with plots that can get by without sexual things), didn't have enough choices, or straight up didn't have the same cover as the books I have (I like to keep it as close to it as possible). So I went deeper into the research just to find some actual mini blank/white books. I thought about using those but I wasn't sure if its writable and erasable.

Annoyingly enough, I found some things but they had clear signs of either it or the ad using ai. My rule, ever since ai came out, i've ended up living by the "If theres signs of ai at all on the product or ad involving it, I dont buy it" thing. So I wanted to see if fellow book lovers thought of my idea, have thoughts on how to do the "visual with names" tracker idea I had, etc!

Any tips for a beginner who has a hard time committing to reading and journaling? I have horrible ADHD and my attention span is not great, but I want to get back into reading again so badly.

For regular journals, I've found that interstitial journaling works for me. Decorating the pages with anything except doodles is just too much work, so I'd prefer simple tips surrounding organization or set-up of the journal itself.

Also, annotating books: Yes or No? I'm always afraid I'll mess something up so I keep my books pristine, but I'm kind of considering changing that up and annotating them.

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a good digital journal that is used on Google Sheets or excel? I have Goodreads & margins as my book tracking apps but wanted something where I can track my reads in a little more detail. I have been using a physical reading journal but have found that I’m not keeping it up to date as much as I should. I have seen ads for a few digital journals but I don’t know how legit they are as they seem pricey to download but I am willing to buy one if it’s a good price. For me, a section for reviews isn’t necessary. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!