40 reading journal prompts for any book

Before you start

1. Why this book, and why now?
2. What do you already think this book will say?
3. Who recommended it, or where did it find you?
4. What would make you stop reading it?

While you read (fiction)

1. Which character would you not want to be stuck in a lift with, and why?
2. Where did the author make you slow down?
3. What is the book quietly about, underneath the plot?
4. Which scene do you expect to remember in a year?
5. What does the narrator not know?
6. Where would you have made a different choice than the protagonist?
7. What is the weather doing in this book, and does it matter?
8. Copy one sentence you wish you had written.

While you read (non-fiction)

1. State the argument in one sentence. Now in one word.
2. What would change in your week if this were true?
3. Where does the author reach beyond the evidence?
4. Which example did you find least convincing?
5. What question is the book not asking?
6. Who disagrees with this, and what would they say?
7. Which chapter could have been a paragraph?
8. What did you already believe that this confirmed too easily?

When you finish

1. One line: what was it about?
2. One line: what did you take from it?
3. Who would you give it to, and what would you say as you handed it over?
4. What did the ending owe you that it did or did not pay?
5. Rate it now, before the opinion settles into something polite.
6. What will you do differently because of it, if anything?
7. Which passage would you reread aloud?
8. Did it deserve its length?

The book you did not finish

1. Where exactly did you stop, and what was on the page?
2. Was it the book, the week, or you?
3. What would have kept you reading?
4. Is this a book to return to, or to release?

Looking back

1. Which book this year changed a habit?
2. Which one did you talk about most?
3. What did you read that you would not have chosen a year ago?
4. Which book do you remember least, and does that matter?
5. What are you avoiding reading, and why?
6. If your shelf this year were a person, who would they be?
7. What pattern do your highlights show?
8. What will you read next, and what does that say about this year?

Quick, any day

1. Ten words about today's pages.
2. One word for how the book made you feel tonight.
3. The page number and nothing else — you read, and that counts.

How do you keep a reading journal without it becoming a chore?

Separate the log from the journal. The log is four fields — date, book, page, one line — and takes ten seconds a night. The journal is optional and generous: a prompt when you have something to say. People who merge them end up with a journal they feel guilty about and no log. Keep the log daily and tiny; open the journal when a prompt above catches.

Common questions