How I Keep Track of My Reading

Day 19 of #100DaysToOffload

I've been trying to read more. I used to be a prolific reader (weren't most of us all, at one point) and for one reason or another, I let reading fall to the wayside. My most recent excuse was the fact I no longer had a commute. I don't drive so I always took the train to work. As soon as I would step onto the train station platform, I would pull out a book and start reading, only stopping once I got off the train. Sometimes I would attempt to walk and read on my way to the office if the book was juicy enough. Dangerous, I know, but is it really all that different from looking down at your phone and walking? Okay, they're both dangerous but sometimes you gotta take some risks.

I find with all things is that keeping track of something helps me continue to keep doing it. I love seeing hard data and I can always cross reference it with other data I track and look for any connections.

While I do love technology, some things I like to do by hand. I use a Hobonichi Weeks Mega, a fountain pen friendly planner (I use a Champagne Pilot Decimo EF with De Atramentis Document Ink exclusively in my Hobonichi Weeks, kudos if you know what those are) to keep track of my to-dos, events, schedules, and what-not. I try to ascribe to a Bullet Journal-esque method and at the back of the planner, I use the blank pages for dailies and collections.

One of my collections is my reading list. Every time I start or finish a book, I note it down in this table. It's pretty simple: a column for the date I started reading the book, a date that I finished reading the book, and the title of the book. Sometimes I give up on a book and I just denote that with a line through the "finish" column.

Just a couple days ago I finally filled out the first page of my reading table and this morning I created a blank one, ready to be used for my next book.