How I Track Books and 2024 Weekly Line Up

Today I want to share with you how I track the books I read. This little weeks notebook cover holds two notebooks. One is a Hobonichi Weeks and the other is a Kinbor from Ali Express. Initially, I avoided the Weeks because I thought it was too small. I needed the space, especially in the monthly calendar, to write down books that have come in either through a purchase, a book request, or from the library. I didn’t want a big notebook because I didn’t need all that space and I didn’t want something too small that it would be hard to write in. I was using a Traveler’s monthly notebook and weekly notebook before, but the problem I had with that was that it was difficult to find those inserts and the monthly and weekly notebooks were separate. I wanted both in one notebook.

Earlier this year, I decided to give the Hobonichi Weeks a try. I bought a weeks cover from Chic Sparrow. This green one is a Carroll Hatta. It’s the prettiest green ever (to me). It makes me happy every time I pick it up. This was a limited edition color and I regret not getting it in the other notebook cover sizes. I also have a Weeks cover in the Austen Darcy leather, but it doesn’t get me all excited like the Hatta.

The Weeks notebook I’m using is this soft pink color with a cover-on-cover. I believe the design on the cover-on-over is from the year before (2022). I had wanted it back then but didn’t have any use for it so never got it. I was happy they still had a few left when I finally found a use for it. I don’t know about you, but I’ve suddenly got this urge for really cute things. I was never like this before. I mean, I’ve always liked anything Hello Kitty because I always found Sanrio products so adorable, but that was back then. Now, if I see anything cute, I just want it or least stare at it for ages.

Okay, enough on the cuteness and pretty things. Let’s get into the serious stuff. I’ve been tracking the books I’ve read since 2013 in a generic notebook and then starting in 2014, I joined Goodreads and began tracking there. I didn’t have a calendar or weekly tracker yet at that time because I thought all I needed was Goodreads. I was also reading mainly for leisure so didn’t feel I needed a monthly or weekly tracker. A couple of Goodreads author had sent me books but I was still able to keep track of all the books I was reading. It was around 2016 that I was getting more authors requesting reviews and that’s when things began to get a bit hectic. I was also writing my own stories for publishing so I needed a notebook to keep everything together.

Which brings me to now. I’ve finally found a process that works for me as far as tracking books coming in.

Some months, there aren’t a lot of books coming so there’s not a lot written down, but this just means I get to read books I’ve purchased before that were noted on a calendar in the past. The monthly calendar only shows books that I’ve received that day.

I track books I’m currently reading in the weekly section. I also write down notes on the right side with more information on books that have come in or in process of coming in, like ebooks being emailed, physical books being mailed out, and additional information on the books such as price, type of book, etc.

Here’s another view of the weeks. Sometimes I just don’t have any written on the right side.

I’ve made a section for library holds and leisure books.

This section (the library holds and leisure) looks messy but it’s just something I added this year. Hopefully I’ll find a method that’ll work much better.

Going forward, I’ll need to add a section for books I’ve won in Goodreads giveaways and a section for book clubs I’m in. Currently, I’m in two book clubs. One is on Facebook and one is on Goodreads. I was on two on Goodreads a couple of years back, but I just couldn’t keep up, so it’s back to juts one there for now. In 2019, I went to the Barnes & Noble book club, but after COVID, I stopped going because it was switched from onsite to Zoom and I’m not a huge fan of Zoom…not right now anyway.

In 2021, I started keeping track of books read and reviewed in the Traveler’s Notebook. Before that, I kept track of the books in the same generic notebook I used to jot down notes, rough drafts, and completed reviews. When I switched to the weeks, I transferred those books from 2021 to the Kindbor plan notebook just so I could have all the books reviewed all in one book.

Initially, they were just listed and strangely, it was difficult to keep track. I decided to add the book cover, star-ratings, genre, dated started reading/date finished, and where the books were reviewed and this has helped so much in staying on top of things. I’ve had instances in the past when I’d only list a books I’ve read and not remember what that book was about or what I thought of it. This way, I can see the cover, which to me, helps me remember what the book was about, and with the additional information, I can see how I rated the book and when I finished the book. I also have a bigger notebook where I write out the reviews, the same reviews I share on here, but handwritten. I’ll talk about that another day.

If you want to see a video of me talking about my new Weeks lineup for 2024, you can watch it below. I also talk a little bit about the cute A6 notebook cover (the gray and yellow one). I don’t need it for anything but it was just too cute so I got it. I’m using a generic A6 graph notebook for it for the time being, but will probably get an A6 Stalogy for it in the future.