In previous years, I’ve always tracked what I’ve been reading on Goodreads and only Goodreads. Whilst, yes, I post reviews on my blog, I don’t review everything I read so lots goes undocumented. I decided that 2016 will be the year that I create a physical document of everything I read, including re-reads (I’m looking at you, Goodreads!).
So this is my plan: I’ve set out a notebook where I plan on keeping a list of all the books I’ve read, plus a page dedicated to a short piece of writing on each book. Then, I’ll either write up that piece on my blog or write a full review.
I think it’s so important to document everything I read because often those memories you have right after reading a book are fleeting and reading back through them helps to bring them back. I love the idea of keeping a notebook for each year and being able to look back on it in years to come, seeing what I thought on each book I read .
It will also help with my writing, by setting time to write each week. I’d like to improve my writing but I don’t do enough of it, so even writing blog posts is helping. It’s important to me that I keep using the part of my brain that loves writing, but if I sit down all day and write nothing, it’s being lazy and isn’t being worked enough.
I’ve set my goal on Goodreads to read 1 book again this year, which worked very well last year. It took all the pressure off of me to read lots and anything after the first book is a bonus (I actually ended the year on around 105 books!). I’d highly recommend doing this if you don’t like the pressure of set reading challenges because you can still track what you’ve read, but there’s no daunting number.