Are buying books and reading them two different hobbies?
I believe they are and we have a third hobby, tracking our reading! We are going to take a closer look at the Erin Condren A5 Book Lovers Reading Log and Journal (affiliate link – I will earn a commission if you purchase) to see if it will work for you!
The cover is a pastel ombre mid-century circle with gold accents. You can personalize it with your name. It’s a really pretty journal! When you open it, you get a quote page in the same pretty pastels as the cover. Of course you get a how to use this journal, like all Erin Condren guided journals.
What’s included?
You start with two pages with eight goals, which feels like a lot. I usually only set two or three goals per year. Next, you have two pages of monthly trackers. I really love the colors but I know I would not keep up with these trackers.
Next up is the book review sections. You get enough for 58 books, which for me is about a year’s worth. Each book gets a two page spread with star rating, title, author, dates read, type of ook, why read, length (in page or hours), genre, and if you’d recommend. It also has sections for what you thought about the book, your favorite part, and takeaways. You also get a large space for thoughts, quotes, and memorable moments.
I really like the top section but for me, I’d need to re-work the other sections for how I review fiction books.
After the book reviews, you have 12 book club meeting pages each with a two page spread. You have space for the book info, spread (I assume food), what to discuss, what was discussed, memorable moments, your rating, club rating, and next meeting info. I really like how they have space for you to write down what you want to discuss and what was actually discussed. I think we all know how those best laid plans go! I also liked the space for the next meeting.
Finally, you get six pages or favorite books and six pages for to be read. Each page has 26 lines so you get 156 lines for your favorite books, which for me feels like too much while only 156 lines for to be read, which feels like not enough. Maybe it’s just me but I get picky about what books become favorites. It would take me years to fill up the favorites sections. Yet I want to read everything so I’d quickly fill up the to be read pages. My library wish list alone has 825 ebooks.
Yes, I have a problem.
This book feels like it’s meant for multiple years with some sections and one year for others. You get enough pages for multiple years of goals, trackers, and favorite books but only a year’s worth of book reviews and book club meetings.
I do think the journal is really pretty and I enjoy the aesthetic. I had planned to use it as my reading journal but I’m not sure if it will work for me. Or at least I would only use some of it. OK, I would mostly use the book reviews. I would love to have a book club but as of right now I don’t have one.
Are you a reader? What do you think about the Erin Condren Book Lovers Reading Log and Journal? Would you use it? Are you in a book club? If not, would you join one? Should I start a book club? Would you join?