One Woman’s Book Journals

The book journal is where you track all of the books you’ve read, what you thought of them, meaningful quotes, curious words, memorable characters or descriptions.  You could draw illustrations, make your own notes for story ideas you have, create story lines. Or you could do what Mary-Clare Bates does – write an essay for each book she reads in her book journal.

Mary-Clare started doing this in 1998 when she realized that it would be easier to keep all of her thoughts together in one place, so that when she went to reference something or refresh her memory, she didn’t have to scramble to find the book (which she may not even have any more). This must be working for her as she is still writing 12 years later and, so far, has filled five notebooks with her essays.

Mary-Clare's book journals

“Sometimes, I may write just two lines,” she says noting that the main thing is that she tracks all of the books she reads. Her initial entries were fairly brief, overall impressions, but as she continued this habit, she started to expand her writing. Mary-Clare says she always wanted to be a writer and this has become an outlet for that.

“My journal is a place to write about what I found delightful and memorable in a particular book.”

A lifelong reader, Mary-Clare reads a little (or a lot) of everything, but has come to prefer nonfiction. She said that how many books she reads depends on what’s going on with her life.  When her children were younger, she read about 20 books a year. Now she reads about 60 a year, but has recently returned to school, so she expects that number to fall as time for her classwork takes priority.

Unexpected Benefits

Some of the unexpected benefits of her book journaling are:

• Easy recall of what was liked/disliked about a book or author
• Improved writing and thinking skills
• Snapshot of life over time as books, friends, memories are recalled
• Easy to find references, favorite quotes, etc.

Some of her favorite authors include Jane Austen, Graham Greene, Annie Dillard, Franz Kafka and Kathleen Norris. When asked for a list of all-time favorite books, here is what she listed:

1. Power and the Glory (Graham Greene)
2. Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek (Annie Dillard)
3. Cloister Walk (Kathleen Norris)
4. Any book by Jane Austen
5. Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
6. West with the Night (Beryl Markham)
7. Any book by Franz Kafka
8. The Long Loneliness (Dorothy Day)
9. Selected Poems by Langston Hughes
10. Cold Comfort: Life at the Top of the Map (Barton Sutter)

The Reading Room

The Promiscuous Reader

Mary-Clare keeps a notebook with her of books recommended by friends or found at the ‘To Be Read’ shelf at the library. She finds books at used bookstores, garage sales and online. Her sister calls her a ‘promiscuous reader’ because her reading knows no bounds. She relates one story of buying a handful of books and the clerk noting that she had never seen anyone buy such a diverse selection of titles. No surprise that she read a lot as a child and claimed she was the only kid she knew who got into trouble for reading too much. Kids would come to her door and ask her to play, but she declined saying that she would prefer to stay inside and read.

Notes to Herself

While reading a book Mary-Clare will keep notes either in pencil in the back of the book or on a stickee  to help her keep track of quotes, provocative points and other notes of interest that she will later use after she has completed the book when it is time to write in her book journal. Mary-Clare rarely re-reads books, although she used to re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy every winter break when she was in college. When asked if she keeps reading books that are not holding her interest, she said that she used to, but not any more.

“Life is too short to suffer through a book I didn’t like.”