Do you use a book journal? My friend said I'm weird!

[Comfysock]

My friend was gobsmacked I use a journal to write notes about books Ive read, document my fave lines from my fave authors etc. She says Im weird!!!!! Am I???😳

If you are weird, then I am too! I've had a book journal since I was small. I have a record of every book I have read since about age 10.

I think it's a lovely thing to do.

No you are not weird.
I write the titles of books/authors I've read.
Dil writes about the plants in her garden.
And she also draws them.

Everyone does something that others won't
there is no right or wrong, as you enjoy carry on.

I wish I had one.

I was thinking of creating a spreadsheet for books I have read, but comments would be amazing!

Why would your friend's opinion carry such weight? There are people on Mn who claim to desperately want to read, but not to have time, who put on their pyjamas at 5.30 every evening, who ask to be told 'like a child' who to vote for. These things are 'weird' to me. Writing down what you've read is hardly wacky in the scheme of things.

Lots of people do that. It's not weird, it's nice.

I don't, or at least not precisely, but I use Good Reads in a similar way, and write short reviews to remind myself.

Nope not at all, I have one too. I note the books I've read, the date, colour code them by genre categories of my devising (I read almost exclusively non fiction so like history, politics, science etc.) with a few sentences about what I learned or particularly enjoyed. I sometimes might note where I was when I read it if I was on holiday or something. I also use it to keep a note of my TBR list.

I started it in 2020 when I sorted my bookshelves in a fit of lockdown weekend boredom and discovered how many books I had that I'd never read.

I only wish I started it sooner.

It’s not weird at all. I have a journal that I use to write notes about books I’ve read, films watched, exhibitions attended etc

search on YouTube for “commonplace book” and you can find loads of people who do something similar

Not weird at all. I don’t have one but really want to start one. I will have a lot of time to myself over the next couple of weeks and plan to get going on it. I want to sort out my kindle library too.

I've got a book and film/tv folder on my iPhone notes.

I do for book club reads and Goodreads for the rest.

I have a book spreadsheet - shared with others including DH!

No - I wish I did!

I also wish that many years ago I had started a file / list showing what dishes I had cooked for friends.

I probably should! I purchased a book the other day, started reading it, felt it was very similar to a book I read a few years back.....it was the same book with a different cover😬😂😂

I don't go quite as far as you but I use a Bullet Journal and have a book tracker in that

I'm just about to start a new TBR list as well

I think it's sad that your friend is so rude . . . 😖

I don't keep a book journal (wish I had!), but I keep a Quote book, in which I write interesting and meaningful things I have read over the years.
I keep a nature journal of drawings and paintings throughout the year.

Thanks everyone. I like to do it, mine is just a plain page fancy cover journal...it's mine and I just like to add drawnings. I dont like the pre-printed one where it's planned out for you... you have sections to add stuff to etc.... I like to freeflow and add my own to the pages. Yeahhhhh....Im not weird 🤣

You're keeping what's known as a commonplace book and you're in very good company (me included)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace_book

@Comfysock

I don't do this,

However i wish i did though and as organised as yourself too,

I think 🤔 it's a lovely idea too,

Also one person's quirk is percieved as something else to another person

It's just everyone is different that's 🤷 it really,
and mind boring world if everyone was like clones having same thoughts and ideas how weird would be,
there is nothing weird about what you do at all,
I don't get understand your friend saying that either..

She sounds quite peculiar herself too

@Comfysock I’ve spent a happy half hour looking at book journals online (I had no idea you could buy some!). I think I will do as you do and stick with a plain pages hard cover fancy notebook as I don’t want to ‘fill in’ someone else’s plan.

In addition, it's an excuse to choose a really beautiful notebook! Buying notebooks is a particular pleasure.

I do this too! I had some lovely notebooks that I didn't know what to do with, so I started doing it after reading a long thread on here about notebooks.

Mine's a pretty but plain lined hardcover notebook too. I looked at the specific format ones and whilst lots of them are pretty I wasn't too keen on the structure for what I wanted. Happy Book Journalling !

What a great idea!

I keep a book journal every year.

I buy a plain dotted hardback notebook, choosing a different colour cover each year.

I draw up different trackers for stats, keep a note of my library borrowings & when they're due back, TBR lists, lists of books bought, when they're read and what I thought of them. I decorate the pages with doodles, washi tape, stickers, or whatever I feel like, adding quotes and thoughts.

There's a booktuber, Miranda Mills, who's very keen on commonplace journalling and creates printables for people who enjoy it too.

It sounds brilliant, nothing weird about any form of journalling or diary keeping IMO.