If you are an avid reader, sometimes it can be hard to keep track of all the different titles that you’ve read. An easy solution is to keep a book journal. It’s something I’ve been doing for a few years now in various forms and it’s a wonderful way to revisit your thoughts on the books you’ve read and to keep track of all the titles you’ve actually made it through.

When I first started keeping a book journal, I dove in. I kept a notebook, and wrote long entries each time I finished a title that listed a bit of the plot and what I thought about the book. In some ways it also acted a bit like a diary of that time of my life. I occasionally revisit that journal and am pleased by how much my compiled thoughts can take me back to the book I was reading and to that time in my life.

After awhile of keeping that kind of book journal, however, I found that I was writing less and less about each title, and not documenting a book at all if I didn’t feel like I had time to put my thoughts down in any coherent form. For me, the biggest part of keeping a book journal is keeping track of what I’ve read. So all the detail of my thoughts about the book isn’t really what I need.