Anyone keep a reading journal?

[BionicGriff]

I'm curious if anyone keeps a sort of journal, or summary log while they're reading?

Basically along the lines of a short summary of each chapter, and then maybe a little longer (but not necessarily extensive) book summary at the end.

I envision each chapter entry being really simple, just anything notable with characters that occurred (new character introduced, something major brought to light, character death, etc) and then a short synapses of what happened in the chapter that made it important, and where these events took place.

At the end of the book you could review these chapter entries to write a nice summary/review of the book in whole.

I've been thinking this could be helpful to really get more out of my reading, as far as comprehension and recollection, but I could also see it becoming a tedious nuisance more like a chore.

Interested to see if anyone else has tried this, or something similar, and how it worked out for them.

 

[Danny McG]

Nah, I rely on good old fallible human memory. Just the same when travelling anywhere, a quick look at a map beforehand and off we go. Always interesting though, adventures guaranteed.

 

[hitmouse]

Nope. What a horrible idea.

 

[nixie]

No I feel it would spoil the reading experience. I once bought a second hand book and someone had circled words, why on earth would you do that ?

 

[Extollager]

Usually I wouldn't keep a running summary of chapters. I have done that a couple of times when reading Phyllis Paul novels, partly for my own reference, because she is more subtle than many of the authors I'm used to, and partly for the convenience of others who might be interested in Paul but not have the opportunity to read her books.

Phyllis Paul: Twice Lost, Pulled Down, Invisible Darkness, A Little Treachery, more

Otherwise, no, I generally don't keep a reading journal, but I have kept a log of the books I have read since January 1974. I refer to it pretty often. I started by keeping a paper journal, and still do, but I transcribe entries into a Word document from time to time. Nothing fancy. I refer to it fairly often, for one reason or another.

 

[tinkerdan]

I do something similar to this because I do reviews and it helps refresh my memory.
However I do this on the Kindle, because it is so convenient.

 

[BionicGriff]

Based on the responses here, I think my suspicions are largely correct. I've heard of people doing this, but I wasn't sure how wide spread it was, I imagine it's mostly done for academic or professional reasons, I don't think I'll be trying that experiment...

I'm curious @Extollager just how long your list is?

 

[Extollager]

The list is a little over 48,000 words, but it includes a bit of narrative at the beginning and a little repetition, in that along with the 1974-2017 list I list the books read for the campus-community reading group that I hosted for 11 years and all the Shakespeare plays I've read in one place. (I consider a Shakespeare play to be a "book.")

Atypical entry would look like this:

2008

12-13 Apr Gunn The Listeners sf 1st rdg

Once in a while I'll include a very brief note, but very few of the entries have more than the dates of reading, the author's last name, the title, etc.

I wish I knew when I first read Tolkien, one of my most favorite authors, but that was several years before I started keeping records. However, I was pretty sure, when I did start, about how many times I had read The Lord of the Rings, so I have been able to keep track.

I imagine the list has some errors, but it should be pretty accurate.

It has incidental value. For example, I wanted to remember when it was that I took a bus trip to see a friend. I was pretty sure I'd taken a certain novel along, so that helped me to place the time of the trip.

I usually haven't recorded the short stories I've read. If the reading of a collection of stories was dragged out over several weeks, I probably didn't record that.

 

[dask]

I used to keep track of when I started a book and finished it in a spiral notebook but don't bother with it anymore.

 

[anivid]

I do, meticulously - but only for non-fiction
First I underline and write notes in the margin, next I go through it in front of the PC, tapping in the interesting stuff with proper references.
The beauty of this is, that I can use all the time I want for engulfing the book, nothing is lost
Nor afterwards where I keep my resumés - and can toss out the book, to great delight of my (overloaded) book cases

 

[BigBadBob141]

Life is just too short.

 

[Randy M.]

I mark pages with interesting passages with pieces of paper and sometimes I'll write notes to myself if I intend to review a book, but I rarely write up anything detailed as I'm reading.

Randy M.

 

[pambaddeley]

I started reviewing each book I'd read on Goodreads a couple of years ago but only because my memory's so bad I wanted to be able to see what I'd thought and why!

 

[Theophania Elliott]

I review most of what I read on Goodreads, or at least give it a star rating. (Except for the books I don't want to admit in public that I read, of course... ;-) )

I mostly read on Kindle, and I've found that I really like the Kindle for non-fiction, because I can make highlights and notes without, you know, actually making highlights and notes. Plus, you can do that thing where you look through all your highlights. Very useful if you need to mark pertinent facts for later. So I generally read fiction on my Kindle Oasis, but non-fiction on my tablet, since highlighting and so on is even easier on the latter.