It’s the end of the year, and I’m reconsidering how I track my reading… again. I’ve decided to move away from bullet journaling in 2021. I know. I’m shocked as well. But, I need something with a little more structure that can help me stay on track with several different goals and projects next year. So, I bought a Passion Planner Weekly.
My idea is that I’ll use my weekly planner to keep track of what needs to get done each month / week. Then I’m going to have a separate journal for daily (or semi-daily) journaling, doodling, and general brain dumping. I could use that journal for keeping track of my reading, or I could keep doing something more like what I’m doing now.
Right now I keep track of “book logistics” in Goodreads. Things like: what I’ve read, what I want to read, what’s on my Kindle, what’s unread on my bookshelf, what’s on hold at the library, what’s on my must-read TBR, etc. But I don’t review books on Goodreads. I give books I read a star rating, which is almost always four or five stars, and that’s it.
I also have a reading spreadsheet kind of like this one, where I keep track of my book stats. Things like: how many books did I read by authors of color, or by queer authors, or how many books were fiction vs. non-fiction, and how did my reading break down by genre, etc. I like data. I like having quantitative information about what (and whose) stories I put into my brain each year.
I recently added a few columns to the end of my reading spreadsheet where I can rate the book I’ve read on a few different factors (characters, world-building, plot, enjoyment, etc.). The ratings on each element compile into a total score for a book. This allows me to have a more definitive ranking of which were my favorite books that I read, and why. But, I don’t write down my thoughts about a book there, either. It’s just a bunch of numbers.
So here I am, thinking about why I keep track of what I read and what I want to change (if anything for next year). I feel like I need a place where I can write down my thoughts about a book, uncensored and not to be published for public consumption. Something like a book journal. But, I’m hesitant to add yet another method for tracking my reading. It already seems like way too much.
Tell me, what do you think? How do you track your reading? Do you have a book journal or do you just post reviews on a blog/vlog? Do you even differentiate between public and private thoughts about a book? Are you still using Goodreads or do you use a spreadsheet? Or are you using both?
Post a comment and let me know what you think. And if you have good resources that you would recommend for this sort of thing, let me know.
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