My 2024 Reading Journal Project

Reading journals are in my blood. From being forced to keep a journal as a kid, to becoming an English teacher and learning that processing our reading through book clubs and logs helps us remember our reading more, I love keeping track of my reading. I successfully kept a journal for about 6 years, but I fell out of practice in 2020 because… well, 2020.

I yearn for the Instagram-worthy scrapbook/bullet journals I see everywhere. But I know myself. I would spend somewhere between $50-100 on the journal, scrapbook paper, and stickers, and then get too overwhelmed to start.

This year, I’m creating printable reading journal pages for myself and sharing them for anyone else who wants them. This blog page will be my home base for all my resources, so I’ll update this as I polish off page layouts.

My goals for this project:

• Keep it affordable. I am limiting myself to my $10 binder and digital resources.
• Make it low-stress. So many of the reading journals I’ve seen are for people who read 50-100+ books a year. I don’t read that much. I love reading, though. Seeing those kind of numbers makes me feel unaccomplished, no matter how many times I tell myself to stop comparing myself to others. I don’t want to see lots of empty rows of unread books at the end of the year.
• Varying layouts for different energy levels. Sometimes, I’m up for writing a lot about what I read. Sometimes, I’m not. This is where I get bogged down a lot of the time. I want to figure out different options for layouts so I can choose what works best for me on any given day.
• Aesthetics. I want to see the book cover. I want to color in stars.

I’m sharing these for free!

No strings attached. I would love any feedback or ideas you have to share, too! You can give me feedback via this blog page’s comments, through my Instagram (@nerdladydraws), or via the Contact page.

Using these resources with integrity: I have created all of these myself. Use this however you want, just do not charge others for it. Classroom use, library use, workplace use, making a million copies so others read it — all of that is fine. Just no redistribution for sale. You can contact me if you would like me to design something specifically for your sale needs, however!

Downloading and Printing: When you click the buttons to download, it will take you to a PDF file through Google Drive. All documents were created for printing on letter size (8.5x11in) paper. In your printer system dialog, if you choose letter paper, then “fit to paper,” everything should print out at the intended dimensions.

What I’ve Created So Far (last updated 5/25/24):

Reading Log: This has 12 rows to record your reading. Print out as many as you need to track your reading for the whole year. This allows you to rate each book, and record the format you read it in (e-reader, traditional book, or audiobook). Goals achieved: low-stress (you can just read 1 book a month!), low energy, color in stars.

Kids Reading Log: I made this for my 7 year old daughter! Here’s the full post behind the kids log. This includes a one page book tracker, two different types of book journal pages, a list of reading challenges, and a list of children’s classics to choose from.

Free Canva Template: Reading Journal Format for Adults. This is the basic format for my own reading journal! I do variations, of course, but here’s the bare bones. You can see this blog entry for details and some instructions.

Stay tuned for more! I would LOVE any feedback you have! Leave comments for me with tips, ideas, or anything else that can help me with this project! Thank you!