Do you record your thoughts on the texts you read?
For the past two years, I’ve tried to utilize a book journal, but all I ended up with were half scribbled in notebooks. The process felt tedious - I didn’t like having to put down my book and pick up a notebook each time I wanted to record something that came to my mind - this took too long and disrupted my reading flow. I also wanted to record quotes I liked so I could refer back to them easier, but again, that felt a bit tedious and even redundant.
I abandoned the notion to have a book journal and solely relied on my annotations in my books to help me write my book reviews. However, as my book reviews have become more analytical and *cough, cough* subsequently longer, I began to see the benefit of using a book journal and how to incorporate one into my reading habits.
As I’m reading a book, I annotate; highlighting and flagging passages as I go. If I have additional thoughts I want to include with a particular passage, I write them in the margins or on a sticky-notes. After I finish reading, I then go to my reading journal and make my notes on the book.
I start by writing a couple of sentences summarizing the overall plot. Then I go back through all of my annotations and margin notes and record the themes, plot elements, thoughts, etc. that I want to highlight the most in my review. I only write down the quotes (or reference the page number, if the quote is very lengthy) I want to use in my review, that substantiate the point I’m making. If the book is particularly long, for example a text like The Brothers Karamazov, I will stop and record my thoughts on sections of the book. This makes digesting my thoughts on a 1000 page novel easier.
In a nutshell, my reading journal is used as a way to outline and structure my reviews. I also have a Table of Contents at the beginning of my notebooks so I can easily reference which books are outlined in which notebook (In my travelers notebook I actually have three journals - one for Ancient Greek and Roman texts and any modern retellings or fictional works on these time periods, one for more sociological or philosophical texts, and one for everything else). I do refer back to my notes often, when I want to draw connections between texts.
A major thing that motivated me to be persistent with using these journals is my love of stationary. I’ve always enjoyed pen and paper and there is something about physically writing my notes out that is soothing - I spend so much time on electronic devices that using an actual pen is a reprieve. I like to use fountain pens in fun ink colors to make the process more luxurious and unique. I’ve also incorporated washi tape stickers - matching up images to each particular book. I also use transparent dot stickers to mark where I’ve written quotes. These touches, albeit definitely not necessary and some would say a bit “much,” really do make the process of recording what I’m reading and my thoughts on these texts a very enjoyable, even cerebral process.
If you’ve been wanting to get into the habit go using a book journal, I hope this inspires you! You may have to play around with different methods to figure out what works for you, since we all process and record information differently.
Side note: Fountain pen users, the Midori MD notebooks are fantastic for fountain pen inks. No bleed through whatsoever ever and just a joy to write on.
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