A reading journal is a book where you write about the books you read. Not just which ones and when — that is a reading log — but what you thought, what stayed with you, and what you want to remember.
The reason people start one is almost always the same: they finish a book, love it, and eleven months later cannot say anything about it beyond "I think it was good". A reading journal fixes that, and it takes about five minutes per book.
Reading journal vs reading log vs book review
Three words for three different things, used interchangeably by almost everybody.
| Records | Time per book | Good for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading log | Title, author, dates, rating | 30 seconds | Counting, streaks, school requirements |
| Reading journal | All of the above plus your reaction | 5 minutes | Remembering books |
| Book review | A structured verdict, written for someone else | 20 minutes and up | Recommending, posting, book clubs |
Most people who say "reading journal" want the middle one and accidentally build the third, then stop after four books because writing a review about a book you read on the train is a chore.
What actually goes on a page
Six things, and only the first two are compulsory.
- Title and author.
- Date finished. Not started. Started is the date you will never fill in.
- A rating. Out of five, and let yourself use halves.
- One sentence on what it was about. Yours, not the blurb.
- What you actually thought. Three or four lines. This is the whole journal.
- One line or moment worth keeping. A quote, an image, a scene.
A free printable reading journal page
Print one of these per book. It fits the six fields above and no more, which is deliberate — the constraint is what keeps you filling it in.
| Title | Author | ||
| Finished | Rating |
|
What it was about One sentence, in your words |
|
| What I thought | |
| A line worth keeping | |
| Who I would give it to |
That last field is the one people leave off and then miss. It is what turns the journal into something you consult when a friend asks what to read.
Prompts for when the page goes blank
"What did I think" is a surprisingly hard question. These are easier.
- What surprised me?
- Which character would I not want to sit next to at dinner?
- Where did I stop being able to put it down — and where did I want to?
- What did it remind me of?
- Would I read it again, or is once enough?
- What will I still remember in a year?
Answer one. Not all six.
What to do about the books you did not finish
Log them. Title, date, and one line on why you stopped.
It feels like admitting defeat and it is the most useful page in the journal. After a year of DNFs you will see the pattern — that you never finish anything over 500 pages, or that you abandon literary fiction and finish every mystery. That is real information about what you actually enjoy, as opposed to what you keep buying.
What to keep it in
Whatever you will actually pick up. A few things that make a difference:
- It should open flat. You write in this with a book still in your other hand.
- One book per page, not per line. A page gives you room to say something; a line gives you a log.
- Pages that move help. A disc-bound or ring book lets you keep the to-read list at the front and shuffle finished books into order, which a bound journal cannot do.
- Leave the first few pages empty for a contents list. In two years that is how you will find anything.
Our Everyday 5x7 disc-bound notebook does all four, and 80 pages is roughly a year of reading for most people.
The rule that keeps it going
Write the entry the day you finish, before you start the next book.
Not that evening, not at the weekend. The gap between finishing and starting the next one is about four minutes long and it is the only moment when you have anything to say. Miss it and the book is already fading, and an entry written three weeks late is a summary of the blurb.
Where to go next
If a full journal is more than you want, start with a log: free printable reading logs by age has four to print, including one for kids. Our Reading Log Notepad is the same thing in pad form, and the Book Review Notepad is the journal version with room to write.
Everything for readers is in bookish accessories and reading journals, and gifts for book lovers who journal is the post for buying one for somebody else.