My Book journal do’s and don'ts

In 2022, I started my own book journal to track the books I've read and make reading more fun! With the new year approaching, I'll soon be starting my fourth journal. Over the years, I've discovered some dos and don'ts, and I'm going to share that list to help you avoid the same mistakes I made! The journal that I use is from Purpuz

If, like me, whole stars aren't enough to rate your books accurately, throw in some half stars! However, when I first got back into reading, I made the mistake of choosing only five colours for my book ratings page. This resulted in:

I learned from my mistakes and used more colours in the following years! But this year, I made the mistake of not making the colours distinctive enough. (Still learning!)

I love a nice monthly cover page, but I can't keep up with them. I see so many beautiful monthly book journal designs, but they're too hard for me to maintain. In the first photo, you see one of the spreads where I was still motivated to make something nice. But mostly, it ended up like the second picture. I noticed it became a big mental block for me to choose new colours, create a new design, and make it every month. Sadly, I'm not that girlie. For 2025, I'm thinking of trying seasonal cover pages and spreads instead.

The next tip is a small thing but makes a big difference in my opinion. On the right side, I used a light grey marker to separate each line better. It made everything much clearer.

Here's something that's kind of obvious, but I thought it didn't apply to me at first: using rulers for every straight line. I know it takes some work, but I promise you it's worth it. Look at the difference!

Make a review structure that works for you! In my first two years it was very messy but look at this year, so much better!

My last tip is: make it fun! Use fun scrap paper, markers, and stickers. Make your own little party out of it. I noticed that the more fun things I added, the prettier it became! And if you want a low-maintenance journal like me, don't make yourself write down the same book on five different pages. Here's the link to the scrapbook paper, stickers and washi tapes I mostly used.

See my Darker Shade of Magic journal page Go to my Poppy War journal page See my Once Upon a Broken Heart journal design

And for more book journal content go to my TikTok page!

Let me know in the comments if you'd like a full journal flip-through!