Happy New Year, everyone!

Something that I love about the new year is the process of setting up new planners, journals, and the feeling of being on top of things while putting them together. And while any time of year is a good time of year to get organized or try something new, it always feels nice to have that reset during the new year.

Today I’m sharing with you my 2022 Reading Journal Setup. I’m still using my Archer & Olive Neapolitian Journal, since I don’t use too many pages at a time for my reading journal/

This year, I actually decided to do away with yearly spreads. I’ve done them in the past couple of years, but to be honest? I never use them or refer back to them! So instead, I’m keeping the few things I want to track on my monthly spread – now condensed to two pages!

As much as I love the process of putting spreads together, this isn’t a journal I go to every single day. But at the same time, I enjoy on-paper journaling and the creative process. So this year, I’m keeping what I track simple.

2022 Title Page

As far as yearly spreads go…this is literally it!  Going with a more vintage theme this time as I wanted to use more of my neutral-colored washi tapes. In a sense, this page is really just a divider between 2021 and 2022.

I also have a collection of stickers that I wanted to incorporate into this spread, as well as a drawing of some book spines. I love these floral stickers and seem to always come back to them – they work with everything!

I also love the stickers I have of vintage ephemera – I’d love to add more of them to my collection (although I don’t need any more stationery, really!).

Something I did like from last year’s spread is using a quote that I resonated with from a previous year. This year, I chose a quote from a poetry collection I recently read by Rumi:

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”

January Reading Journal Setup

And again, keeping things pretty simple! During the Barnes and Noble hardcover sale, I picked up this gorgeous book of stickers that I’ve had my eye on for a couple of years now, and decided on using these ones first. In hindsight, I wish I added some kraft paper into this, but maybe I’ll do that for the next spreads. Then I took some of my Tombow pens and quickly doodled some stars all around to fill the page in and bring in the colors of the stickers.

As far as what I’m tracking goes now, it’s pretty simple. First up are my hopefuls, which are books I’d like to get to this month. As you may know, I used to have a TBR, but needing to stick to it as a mood reader stressed me out a bit (as much as I love to plan). So instead, I have some hopefuls. Most of these are ARCs due to release soon, and then I’ll have other books I’m especially excited for in that moment.

Next are the books I’ve read. Here I’m keeping track of the title, the number of pages, and my rating. This at-a-glance view makes things much easier when I need to write a wrapup and pull together some quick stats.

Last but not least is my physical TBR. This one is pretty important to me, but last year I had it in a yearly spread – so I never looked back on it! Knowing that this is a habit of mine, I decided to keep anything I need to track right on the page that I’m on in that moment.

You might have also noticed that after such a long time, my daily pages read spread is no longer! As fun as it was to look back on this, there were always at least a couple days in a month where I would forget to track it. And while it did help me develop a good reading habit in the beginning, but in reality, as a new blogger, I was also subconsciously using it as a way to ensure I was keeping up with reading every book ever. While content creation around reading books is a time-consuming thing, I also don’t want to encourage stress or a lack of more enjoyment around it.  Finding that balance is important – and I think keeping things fairly minimal here is a good start!

That’s everything I have for my reading journal setup for 2022. Have you made any changes to how you keep track of and/or reflect on what you’re reading? Let me know! 

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