My Book Journals

You may be wondering how I know what books I read when for basically my entire life. Let me tell you my secret. I keep book journals.

I have a huge collection of book journals. I've been keeping a book journal since 1987, when I got my first one. I didn't really read much for fun in high school and college, but after I graduated I reconnected with my love of reading and have kept a book journal faithfully ever since.

My book journals are just lined blank books. I keep a collection of blank books in store for when I finish a journal and have to start a new one. They come in all sizes and price points. People give them to me for gifts. It's lovely. I have some really nice ones, but in a pinch, even a spiral would do.

When I finish a book, I start at the top right side of the page and put the date. Then in the middle, I write the title and author. Below that I give a short review of what the book was about and whether or not I liked it. Just enough so I can remember later what the thing was about. At the very bottom, I write where I got the book: whether I borrowed it from the library or a friend, or if I own the copy. Then I label it as Fiction, Non-fiction, Mystery, YA, Sci-Fi, etc. If it's non-fiction, I also label it with the type of non-fiction it is: books and reading, self-help, history, biography, etc. If it's a book club book I mark that here as well. Lastly I write down the number of pages the book has. And that's it!

I use one page per book. I use the journals up at varying speeds based on how many pages the book has and how fast I'm reading at the time. In 2008 I blew threw a zillion journals because I was reading about 3 books a week. These days, not so fast.

I also keep a log in Goodreads, but I don't put reviews there very often. If it's a really great book, I'll review it here. Although, I haven't done that much recently. Really should get on that.

So that's my book journal system. How do you log your books? Or do you?