I recently shared some photos of my reading response notebook over on bookstagram with a few of my favorite lists that I track in there.
I’d like to give you a more in-depth peek into that notebook here today!
The Inspiration for My Notebook
First off, I was inspired by the Get Lit(erate) Podcast at the end of last year to start a reading journal with the bonus episode: Creating a Reading Response Notebook.
That’s also the podcast that inspired my reading life bucket list for 2023!
Keeping this reading notebook has been one of my favorite things off that bucket list.
I’ve kept the practice going even when other tracking goals haven’t worked so well for me. Goodbye reading spreadsheet – I prefer ink and paper after all.
I Love Function and Lists!
Something else you probably already know about me is that I’m a function over fashion type of gal.
So when I couldn’t find any cute notebooks in my tiny town in the last week of 2022, I picked up a standard black notebook and got to work!
You can make it as pretty, fancy, or customizable as speaks to your soul.
In the future, I’ll probably take out the “response” part of this notebook.
I saved the last quarter of my journal for reading responses (i.e. personal reactions and thoughts) to each book I’ve read. I filled it in for three books and then didn’t use it at all. That’s ok.
What I’ve discovered is I love keeping a note on my phone dedicated to my current reads.
This allows me to easily note my thoughts, feelings, and questions as I’m reading a book. It also makes writing my reviews (for the blog, goodreads, bookstagram, and occasionally fable) a lot easier to do.
What I love using my reading notebook for and what has been so helpful when creating bookish content are my lists!
I love lists! Some of these help with efficiency by listing all the titles in one place and some of these are just plain fun.
Throughout the year as new ones come to mind I add them to my table of contents and start listing!
What’s in My Reading Response Notebook:
My Table of Contents Breakdown:
- What Kind of Reader Am I? (a question to reflect on throughout the year)
- My Why as a Reader (a question to reflect on throughout the year)
- Goals for my Reading Life
- A Checklist for my 2023 Reading Life Bucket List
- 2023 Reading Life Reflection Questions
- A List of Authors I Love
- A List of 5 Star Reads
- Seasonal TBRs
- Monthly Hopefuls
- Monthly Wrap Ups
- A List of Places Visited Through Books
- Pearls of Wisdom Book Club Selections
- A Dose of Romance Book Club Selections
- 2023 Buddy Reads
- Book I DNF’d
- A List of Nonfiction Reads
- A List of 4.5 Star Reads
- Romance Book Club Pick Ideas
- Nonfiction Book Club Pick Ideas
- Book Suggestions for my Husband
- Authors on my Radar to Try
- Immortals After Dark Series by Kresley Cole (where to borrow and ranking)
- Kindle Unlimited Reads (from 5/27 on for my newest goal)
- Series I’ve Started and Want to Continue
How It’s Going
I probably refer to the monthly wrap ups and the 5 star reads list the most often. They are very helpful when I’m creating book posts.
I’ve done better keeping up with some of these lists than others. At the moment I’m not choosing monthly hopefuls and I need to update my list of places visited through books.
I love seeing my book club picks and buddy reads for the year listed out!
My Immortals After Dark system for figuring out where to borrow the books helped me devour the series just the way I wanted. And the ranking afterward was so fun for me do!
When I’m in the mood for reflection, it’s been nice to add my thoughts to the first two journal questions.
They helped me work through my feelings when I looked at why I was suddenly reading so much more than previous months and whether it was a good thing or a way of checking out of real life too often. If you’re curious where I landed on the matter, check out my mid year check in.
I think the 4.5 star list will be very helpful at the end of the year. If I’m still thinking about one of those reads it might be time to elevate it to a 5 star!
I’m such a nerd, I can’t wait to ponder the reading life reflection questions at the end of 2023!
Let me know if you keep a reading journal. What lists would you put in yours? Share a fun one and a functional one!
2 responses to “My 2023 Reading Response Notebook”
Love this! I started keeping one this year too, but mine is a mixture of reading response and lists. I didn’t want to overthink the functionality (as you know I often do) so I decided to intermix them as they come up rather than have sections. I really wanted to keep track of the places I visited in books, but I always forget to update that list 😬 the reading response pages have helped me make quick notes on themes or tidbits of books that I might find useful when recommending a book to others. One fun list that I’ve enjoyed is when I listen to the GetLiterate podcasts, I like to keep track of her recommendations that speak to me, so I keep a running list with the podcast theme.
I love that! I’m always trying to track my rec sources but haven’t found a way to be consistent. That’s a great idea!
I’m glad you’re finding the response part helpful too. I want to start tracking common tropes in a similar way 🤞🏻