How to Start a Reading Journal (Without Turning It Into Homework)

I used to think keeping a reading journal was for other people.

Organised people.

People with colour-coded pens and a Pinterest-worthy desk and a spare Sunday afternoon.

I have a toddler, a job and roughly 150 unread books.

So no.

Then I realised something.

You don't need a system to start a reading journal

Here's the whole secret.

A reading journal is just a place to put what you thought about a book before you forget it.

That's it.

No rules.

No minimum word count.

No marks out of ten from some invisible teacher.

If you can write one sentence about a book, you can keep a reading journal.

What you actually need

• A notebook (or a proper reading journal, if you want one)
• A pen you don't mind losing
• The book you're reading right now
• Five minutes. Not even ten.

That's the whole shopping list.

Please don't go and buy anything else before you start.

That's just procrastination wearing a nice outfit.

Step 1: Start with the book you're already reading

Not the one you think you should be reading.

Not a fancy classic to make the first page look impressive.

The one that's actually on your bedside table with a receipt sticking out of it.

Starting with something you're already in the middle of means there's no pressure.

You're not starting a new habit.

You're just writing down what's already happening.

Step 2: Write the boring basics

Title.

Author.

The date you started.

Done.

That's a journal entry.

Yes, really.

Some days that's all I've got in me, and honestly, that still counts.

Step 3: Add one thing you felt

This is where the good stuff lives.

Not a review. Not a summary.

Just one feeling.

"I stayed up way too late."

"I didn't see that twist coming and I'm furious."

"I'm 50 pages in and I'm bored, but I'm not ready to admit it yet."

That last one is completely allowed.

What to write in a reading journal is honestly whatever's true right now.

Step 4: Grab a quote, a character or a moment

You know that line that made you stop and read it twice?

Write it down.

The character you'd happily move in with?

Write their name down.

The scene you keep thinking about in the shower?

Yep. That too.

Future you will be so grateful.

Because future you will absolutely not remember.

Step 5: Finish it off when you finish the book

When you turn the last page, take two minutes.

Not two hours.

Two minutes.

How did it end? Did it land? Would you recommend it? Did you cry in the car park?

Give it a rating if you like rating things.

Skip it if you don't.

Nobody's checking.

What if I miss a week? (Or a month?)

Then you miss a week.

Or a month.

Reading journals don't have streaks.

There's no app sending you a sad little notification.

There's no such thing as behind.

Pick it up when you pick it up.

Write down whatever you remember.

The gaps are part of it.

What if my handwriting is terrible?

Mine is.

It looks like I wrote it on a moving train, in the dark, while someone was talking to me.

Nobody's reading it but you.

Messy is fine.

Messy actually means you used it.

Why bother at all?

Because books are gone from your head faster than you think.

You'll finish something brilliant and, six months later, only remember that you liked it.

What was it about again?

Who was the main character?

Why did you love it?

A reading journal is the tiny bit of effort that gives those answers back to you.

It's also just nice.

Having somewhere to put a book once you're done with it, so it doesn't just drift off.

That's honestly why I ended up making Tales in Ink in the first place. I wanted somewhere that felt like a proper home for all of it, the finished books, the TBR chaos and the "I have no idea what to read next" days.

But you don't need mine to start.

Any notebook works.

Start today.

What's the first book you'd write about in a reading journal?

Tell me it's the one you're avoiding finishing because you don't want it to end.

I know that feeling far too well.