Rachel Caine

Do you keep a reading journal? I do! I am currently using one of our secret diary journals to keep track of all my book details. I do use Goodreads, but I know from experience that you can’t trust a third-party to keep your records (you never know when the company could decide to fold and all of your records could be lost) or manage your personal details, so I also keep a master spreadsheet of books I’ve read, along with a few notes, as well as a reading journal.

Pictured below are some sample pages that I use in my indexed reading journal. I like to keep a written record of some book quotes that particularly strike me. This list is from Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” I keep the index updated with the title of the book and date read or noted. If I REALLY loved something, I will also tab out the indexed reading journal so it stands out to me even faster when I go to search later.

I also keep a list of anticipated book releases for the year, with space to highlight and note when I have pre-ordered. I just ordered Rachel Caine’s third installment of The Great Library Series, “Ash and Quill” this morning, and I am SUPER EXCITED ABOUT IT! The anticipated release date is July 11. Other books that I am eagerly awaiting for the rest of this year include: Sleeping Beauties (Stephen King and Owen King, expected release date: 9/26/17); Before the Devil Breaks You (Libba Bray, The Diviners #3, expected release date: 10/3/17); After the End of the World (Jonathan L. Howard, Carter & Lovecraft #2), expected release date: 11/14/17); and The Lost Plot (Genevieve Cogman, The Invisible Library #4, expected release date: 1/8/18).

I also manage and index a master list of “Must Reads” in my reading journal for the year, to keep better focused on what I for sure want to read for the year versus the Goodreads everything I ever marked to read list. I keep my working “must read” book list small, and will only update it once I have completed the 10 or so “must read” items.

Lastly, I also keep a running list in my reading journal of books read for the year. I am already up to 50 for the year, and that’s about right for me. The picture below is the beginning of the list, and the items that I have highlighted are books that I particularly loved. I will also use highlighting on my master spreadsheet in case I want to go back and search that way to find authors I may want to research for composing other “must read” book lists!

Yes, I am an obsessed (but highly organized) reader! And I love it.

I finished Ink and Bone earlier this week. This is book one of Rachel Caine’s The Great Library series. This was a thought provoking read about what could have happened if the Great Library of Alexandria had survived; had kept Gutenberg’s printing press from existence; and had kept control of the dissemination of books and knowledge (making personal ownership of books illegal).

A truly terrifying and captivating read! The post-it notes mark all of the passages that reference the personal journals that the characters kept. Oh yes, the Great Library issued electronic journals to its citizens. Parents were diligent about their children “writing” in their journals every night, and when citizens died, the journals would be seized for The Great Library to archive them.

Page 34: “..the Library provided them free on the birth of a child, and encouraged every citizen of the world to write their thoughts and memories from the earliest age possible. Everyone kept a record of the days and hours of their lives to be archived in the Library upon their deaths. The Library was a kind of memorial, in that way. It was one reason the people loved it so, for the fact that it lent them a kind of immortality.”

Meanwhile, the Library also used the electronic journals to spy upon its own citizens. Really, really scary. And timely. These people should have kept handwritten journals, not electronic diaries! Perhaps a secret diary journal?

Ink-and-bone-rachel-cain — Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

Thankfully, we still mostly have the right to be secure in our own papers. Can you imagine what the world would be like if we didn’t have that anymore? Chilling!

Jamie Davis Writes

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Keeping a Reading Journal

On My Bookshelf: Ink and Bone, by Rachel Caine