This content details a personal approach to creating and utilizing a reading journal, emphasizing a simple, flexible system for tracking books, recording key information, and capturing personal reflections, alongside recommendations for stationery and reading accessories.
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hi everyone welcome back I'm so excited
for this video because in this video
we're going to be talking about books
we're going to be talking about reading
journaling fountain pens and other fun
reading accessories if you like any of
those things then you are my person
anyways um this is my reading journal
and I have been obsessed with this thing
for the past month or so and this is the
first time that I've actually got in a
reading journal to work for me and my
brain and the way I read I'm going to
move all of this out of the way and we
will talk about this later so the
notebook that I'm using for my reading
Journal is the salad G notebook
um I think this is the A5 size and it's
just their standard notebook it's not
their 365 day planner thing it's just a
DOT grid notebook I do have mixed
feelings about stalagy notebooks I am
enjoying this
as my reading Journal I I didn't want
anything that was like super high
quality paper or anything
um I feel like this is like a mid-tier
notebook and it's great for a specific
journaling prompts like this but if
you're looking for something that is
like top tier quality this might not be
the best notebook for you it is a rather
thin paper so there is a little bit of a
ghosting or shadowing like this so you
can see the writing on the other side of
the page I honestly really don't mind
that and I think it adds a lot of
character to the pages there is
unfortunately a little bit of bleeding
sometimes I don't know if you can see
like just like little Bluffs like this
will sometimes bleed through it's not a
big issue to the point where I wouldn't
recommend this notebook but just like
something to keep in mind
um my biggest gripe with this notebook
though is that the dots are extremely
light like I don't know if you can see
it's a very very light gray during the
daytime it's totally fine but honestly
like I do a lot of my reading right
before bed because that's the only time
I have to read so it gets a little bit
difficult especially because I have very
poor eyesight even with glasses
um it's very straining for me to see the
dots so that is an issue that I realize
with stalagy notebooks other than that I
again am really enjoying this notebook
and in fact I think after I finish this
one hopefully
um I will continue using Stella G
notebooks as my reading journal for some
reason like it just works really well
for me so yeah that is all about the
notebook as you can see see I've also
decorated the cover with a bunch of
emoji vinyls there are two spots left
not too sure what I want to put there
but I'm sure I will come up with
something so there's that
um I haven't done anything on the inner
cover pages but maybe I should you will see
see
um here I put down this like line of
flaw stickers from uh to a little piece
I thought it was just a nice way to
start off the notebook I guess and then
this is the first page I just put down a
reading emoji and I am using this like
wacky bubble lettering font and this is
like a constant throughout the journal
um and this is where I am just keeping
track of books that I've
finished and
um giving a rating for them so I have a
column for the title as well as the star
rating and I'm just very simply drawing
in little stars and the ones that I
haven't filled in I'm still currently
reading so I don't have a rating for
them yet so that is basically it for the
first page nothing too exciting and then
we're diving into the actual reading
Journal portion so I'm really sorry if
this is going to be a letdown but my
system of journaling really is extremely
simple and this video could be explained
in honestly like a minute but basically
whenever I start a new book I just take
my ruler as well as a pencil and I draw
a margin on the first page the only fun
thing that I really have is this rating
sticker from my shop it's a rectangular
sticker with a blank book as well as an
emoji and five empty Stars I just very
simply doodle the cover and then in the
Shaded area I typically write the title
of the book as well as a number of pages
and then when I'm done with the book I
will fill in these stars and typically I
just like shade in the number of stars
that I would give the book but the
reason why the last one's black is
because I initially gave it five stars
and then I changed my mind to four stars
so I just removed one of the Stars by
blacking it out in the margins I
um write down just like any I guess
preliminary information so dead wake by
Eric Larson was the February book club
at my local library so I just wrote that
it was for the February book club and
for all of the books I write down when I
started the book and when I finished the
book and following that I make a section
for preliminary information and I found
this to be a absolute game changer for
me and my brain so I find that um
especially with
like just personally
it takes me a long time to actually get
involved in the book like for example I
have a hard time associating a
character's name with their role in the
book and it just gets very hard to
follow also like setting wise like I
have a hard time remembering the time
period a book is in like especially if
it's a historical book so things like
this I find that especially when I read
the first few chapters I write down all
of the key facts from the story it could
be like real facts especially if it's a
non-fiction book or if it's a fiction
book the facts are like who their
characters are where the setting is ETC
and I find that by writing down the
preliminary information
a I retain these facts
um a lot better and it lets me get into
the book a lot quicker and actually
remember these information and to
um if I just happen to
forget who a certain character is I can
quickly refer to the preliminary
information and I'm less likely to just
like move on without fully understanding
the context I really hope this made
sense but yeah um this like preliminary
information section has been I think the
biggest Game Changer in terms of reading
in the past few months if you also have
trouble getting to stories and following
a story especially in the beginning I
really recommend trying this out okay so
that is the sidebar that I start off
every single book with and then moving on
on
um the rest is honestly just like a
continuous stream I don't have dedicated
sections for vocab I don't have
dedicated sections for you know
character development or research or
anything like that I just write it all
down one after the other in terms of for
example new vocabulary I write them down
just because I think it's cool and maybe
if it's like a good enough word then I
will remember it in the future and
integrate it into my own vocabulary but
it's very unlikely for me from past
experience to have you know this entire
list of new vocab that I encounter in my
readings and then do like flash cards
and try to memorize them and I found
that just like having an entire
dedicated section to vocab was
completely unnecessary and it was just a
little bit too much structure for me if
that makes any sense so these days when
I encounter a new vocab word I will
search it up and if it's a word that I
find really cool and I want to maybe
refer back to in the future I will just
like write it down but I'm not like
pressuring myself to memorize these
words if I feel like I need a little bit
more context I will also do a little bit
of searching on the internet for example
um I am very familiar with World War II
but not so much with World War One so I
was just like making a little mind map I
guess of like who the Allies were and
who the Central Powers were just so that
I got a little bit more historical
context while reading this book I will
also write down my immediate thoughts
while reading the book like for example
I read something jarring over here and
then also uh quotations definitely I
write it down as well so yeah
essentially there is no organization my
vocab my research my
um thoughts my quotations that I want to
keep it's all on this one page and for
someone who loves organization this is
honestly a little bit
um shocking to my system but
realistic I realize that realistically
I'm likely never going to come back and
fully read these Pages
um it's more so something that I'm doing
for myself now maybe in the future I
will leave through my reading journals
but I'm not really going to be like
studying what I wrote so I feel like
it's just very unnecessary for me
personally to have a very systematic and
organized entry
um so yeah this just like continued on
and sometimes I will make little Doodles
I would add Washi tapes but it's not
something that I always do it's just
whenever I feel like it
um the story behind this is I was um
reading right after showering and just a
giant droplet of water fell for my hair
onto here so there's that
so I finished
um dead wake and then I read
Frankenstein afterwards this wasn't part
of a book club it was just a personal
read so I just started off with writing
down the start and finish date and again
the preliminary information here I was
making a little map of the character
relationships because I was having a
hard time following and so that's just
for me to reference I really enjoyed
reading Frankenstein and as you can see
I had a lot of thoughts about it also
like if I make an error or something I
currently I'm reading Lust For Life so
this is pretty empty and I left two
pages here
um because I have a lot of thoughts
about this book even though I'm only
like two chapters in so I feel like I
need a lot more space and if I end up
needing more space then
these two blank pages then I can just like
like
um tip in an extra page not a problem a
book that I'm currently reading also is
people we meet on vacation this is the
book that I have here
um I have I think about 60 pages left
and this is a book for our March book
club and honestly I am not enjoying this
book very much but I'm sticking with it
because I definitely want to contribute
to the book club conversation but yeah
um I think this little space is enough
for me to finish off my thoughts
um I also read chess story which is a
very short Novella this was an excellent
read and I finished it within a day so
yeah there wasn't much preliminary
information that I needed because it was
just such a short book and it was really
easy to get into
and that is basically it again I started
this reading Journal Maybe
three weeks ago or four weeks ago so
it's not a lot
um but I definitely see myself
continuing because it has honestly been
really great for my mental health to be
honest like it's something that I look
forward to filling out but something
else we're not done
um I also
do some journaling from the back so this
is a little like tip that I have for you
I guess
um if you have like two distinct
sections and you're not sure like how
much space you need
my tip is to start from the front and
the back so the back has all of my like
fun trackers and stuff
um also I started off with the
January subscription Washi and the bonus
vinyl which I thought was so cute but anyways
anyways
um to start from the back of a section
for books that I want to read and very
simply I just write down the title as
well as the author and then the general
genre so fiction mystery Classics
non-fiction history
Etc I haven't copied down my entire
books to read list because this is a
rather recent addition to my book
journal but um I have a feeling it'll be
very long so I'm leaving two more blank
pages just for my books to read list so
there's that another spread that I'm
doing are memorable things and these are
quotations from books that I I just
absolutely adore and even though I wrote
them down
in my actual book journaling Pages
um obviously it gets kind of lost amidst
all of my other thoughts and readings
and so if it's something that really
really speaks to me and I want to look
at it over and over again and remember
in the future then this is where I plan
to put it and I'm being very selective
about the quotations that I put down so
far I just have this one quotation from
Frankenstein which I I just absolutely
love so you can pause and read that so
that is all I have from the back but if
I do think of like other fun book
related spread ideas I can just like
continue over here and we don't run into
the issue where I have to like guess how
many pages I want to dedicate to these
fun spreads at the beginning and then I
guess the idea is that eventually the
pages from the front and the back will
meet up and that is when the reading
Journal will be complete okay so I want
to also quickly talk about some stationery
stationery
um and basically the supplies that I've
been using so for all of the thicker
folder titles I'm just using the tombow
foot in Oscar brush pen in the hard tip
and then for the actual writing most of
it is done with the twispy Eco and this
is the fine tip and inside I have
watermen black it's a very boring but
reliable combo I prefer writing with
very dark colors such as black just
because it's more practical for me but
I've also been using my sailor this is
the medium nib and currently I have it
Inked Up with black Violet from Robert
Oster I am currently using this for my
journaling pages with Lust For Life so
here I wrote using a different pen now
and you can barely tell it's like not
black but yeah it's actually called
black violet and it has the tiniest hint
of violet and I think that is right up
my Ellie I do have a lot of fun bright
fountain pen inks but for more practical
writing I definitely prefer darker
colors like this I also use a ruler and
pencil to make my margins
and another recent favorite that I have
is this thing which I don't know if I
can fit under my tripod so this is called
called
re readier
you can see it over here
um it is basically a book stand and I
love this thing so much I got it maybe a
week ago and again it's been a game
changer for my reading sometimes I will
borrow eBooks from the library and read
it on Libby which isn't a problem but
but other times I obviously have
physical books to read and an issue that
I have actually two issues one is that I
don't have a lot of space in my desk so
it's hard to have both a book open and
my reading Journal open and all of the
other stuff on my desk and the second
problem is that I
I tend to have my book open like this
and it really strings my neck
um I can like hold it out in front of me
but then my wrists start hurting after a
while and it's just very uncomfortable
especially if I'm trying to journal at
the same time and it got to a point
where I just couldn't read anymore of
physical books because my neck was
hurting so badly so this has been so
helpful because a it saves a lot of
space and B
um I can just like look up while reading
and journaling and it's amazing so if
you have a similar issue as me I would
definitely recommend looking into a book
stand like this one so anyways this
video was just an entire video of me
chatting but as you can see I'm very
passionate about books and reading and
fountain pens and journaling and all of
that I hope you enjoyed it as well and
let me know if you have any questions
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