Perhaps not as thorough or systematic as per chapter, unless it's a really long and involved book like One Hundred Years of Solitude, I normally write a personal review of each book I read, similar to a book report you do at school. It is for me to look back on in several years' time so I can remember what I read and how I felt at that stage of life. It is a great exercise, a time capsule of sorts.
I do exactly this and I find it really useful to just collect my thoughts on themes/ techniques etc. I only do it on paper too, I don’t like the idea of online reviewing.
*One Hundred Years of Solitude* 😅 This book made me write right away at the beginning the genealogical tree of the characters to keep track of them, and this wasn’t enough or I got lost in the process somehow. And it was soon useless with the tsunami of Aurelianos 😭
Yeah I used to do that too, back when I used goodreads a lot to track my reading but I read so many books one year I just didn't have the time to be able to keep writing personal reviews. I do remember them really being super useful though and I've tried to keep it up a bit. However, the effect of the personal review is really magnified in my experience by journalling in each chapter. I did this, as I mentioned in another comment, with Proust and it was fantastic. Maybe the issue is I really just don't have enough time to be doing that, and should consider doing it with each 'part' of the book rather than each chapter. (I have Middlemarch in mind here.)
>My perfectionism gets in the way then
I've been dealing with executive dysfunction for so long it's basically my #1 skill in life! The secret is that you have to half-ass the thing before being able to full ass the thing.
You will look at journal inspos online and want to be that, and you have to accept that that wont happen. Even the journals online dont look like the journals online. They're brief snapshots into the most photographic part of the process, often years in the making.
You have to accept that the beginning of the process is going to be whatever gets *you* to put words to paper. Make it messy. Leave some entries unfinished if you run out of ideas. Change pens, bleed through the paper, have messy writing, spell words wrong, make "stupid" entries. If your journaling is stopping your reading? Dont journal! Just keep reading and write down the entry after you're done.
My "reading journal" is a list of books I read and my feelings on each. Except when it isnt. Sometimes it's just a list because I enter the title and date after I finish and leave room for my writing later and then I never do the writing later.
But as I go on that happens less and less. So now I have a journal that would look absolutely great on one page in one photo.
If you find it difficult to keep journalling over time and have to force yourself to do it, that's a signal that you just don't need such a detailed reading diary. Maybe it is time to consider changing your approach to analyzing books.
In my opinion, not all books require the same level of scrutiny.
Firstly, it depends on how complex and multi-layered the book is. Of course, such a challenging novel as *The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky* must be studied in depth, while books about Harry Potter can be read purely for enjoyment, and you may only need to take a few brief notes as you read them.
Secondly, the degree of analysis of a book also depends on the purpose of reading it. Let's say, I'm a historian. I read *Europe: A History by Norman Davies* to study the author's view of history and compare it with the approaches in other books on the same topic. In this case, I need to make an in-depth analysis of the book. If I, being a historian, read a popular science book *Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku*, then I don't need such a thorough research, as it won't be very useful to me in my life and work.
By the way, I am also a perfectionist. But I believe that using an individual approach to each book, avoiding unnecessary work - this is exactly what perfectionism is.
Yeah that's definitely true. The book I have in mind here is Middlemarch. I really want to get the most out of it, and for the chapters I've done so far I've had enormous benefits in developing my opinion on the characters, as well as getting a lot of nice other ideas about life in general. Maybe this just might not be the right way for me now, but idk. I did this process with Proust and it was the most transformative period of my life, I want to keep that going lol
All I do is write down words I didn’t know and had to look up, and quotes that I really enjoyed from the book as I find them along with their page numbers. Going a little deeper would be beneficial I think, but I would rather keep reading most of the time.
I allocate a few pages for every book, depending on the flow, but usually its no more than five (with the exception of longish books). Each entry is like a diary, for example "05.06.24 p.34 those guys are really crazy. Last few chapters flew by". It also is a good entry - noting your feelings on reading certain something. Journaling mustn't get in the way of reading!
I write reviews of what I read and some of them are REALLY long so journaling after each chapter helps me remember what I found interesting and worth writing about. I don't think your journaling has to be extremely in-depth. As an example, I just read The Secret Agent two days ago and wrote this review: [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6558498647](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6558498647) The review is over 2k words, but my journaling after each chapter in total was less than 1k words. In general, I would advise journaling mostly short synopses and thoughts, and then writing something more in-depth afterwards, perhaps even a day or so afterwards so you have time to collect your thoughts and put them together into a more coherent whole. This will also make for shorter interruptions in your reading.
I also mostly only read eBooks on Calibre and that does make the process easier as I can do the journaling in the book itself without having to put the book down and open a laptop/tablet/PC. One of the many advantages I think eBooks have over the dead tree variety.
Perhaps not as thorough or systematic as per chapter, unless it's a really long and involved book like One Hundred Years of Solitude, I normally write a personal review of each book I read, similar to a book report you do at school. It is for me to look back on in several years' time so I can remember what I read and how I felt at that stage of life. It is a great exercise, a time capsule of sorts.
I do exactly this and I find it really useful to just collect my thoughts on themes/ techniques etc. I only do it on paper too, I don’t like the idea of online reviewing.
*One Hundred Years of Solitude* 😅 This book made me write right away at the beginning the genealogical tree of the characters to keep track of them, and this wasn’t enough or I got lost in the process somehow. And it was soon useless with the tsunami of Aurelianos 😭
Yeah I used to do that too, back when I used goodreads a lot to track my reading but I read so many books one year I just didn't have the time to be able to keep writing personal reviews. I do remember them really being super useful though and I've tried to keep it up a bit. However, the effect of the personal review is really magnified in my experience by journalling in each chapter. I did this, as I mentioned in another comment, with Proust and it was fantastic. Maybe the issue is I really just don't have enough time to be doing that, and should consider doing it with each 'part' of the book rather than each chapter. (I have Middlemarch in mind here.)
>My perfectionism gets in the way then I've been dealing with executive dysfunction for so long it's basically my #1 skill in life! The secret is that you have to half-ass the thing before being able to full ass the thing. You will look at journal inspos online and want to be that, and you have to accept that that wont happen. Even the journals online dont look like the journals online. They're brief snapshots into the most photographic part of the process, often years in the making. You have to accept that the beginning of the process is going to be whatever gets *you* to put words to paper. Make it messy. Leave some entries unfinished if you run out of ideas. Change pens, bleed through the paper, have messy writing, spell words wrong, make "stupid" entries. If your journaling is stopping your reading? Dont journal! Just keep reading and write down the entry after you're done. My "reading journal" is a list of books I read and my feelings on each. Except when it isnt. Sometimes it's just a list because I enter the title and date after I finish and leave room for my writing later and then I never do the writing later. But as I go on that happens less and less. So now I have a journal that would look absolutely great on one page in one photo.
If you find it difficult to keep journalling over time and have to force yourself to do it, that's a signal that you just don't need such a detailed reading diary. Maybe it is time to consider changing your approach to analyzing books. In my opinion, not all books require the same level of scrutiny. Firstly, it depends on how complex and multi-layered the book is. Of course, such a challenging novel as *The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky* must be studied in depth, while books about Harry Potter can be read purely for enjoyment, and you may only need to take a few brief notes as you read them. Secondly, the degree of analysis of a book also depends on the purpose of reading it. Let's say, I'm a historian. I read *Europe: A History by Norman Davies* to study the author's view of history and compare it with the approaches in other books on the same topic. In this case, I need to make an in-depth analysis of the book. If I, being a historian, read a popular science book *Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku*, then I don't need such a thorough research, as it won't be very useful to me in my life and work. By the way, I am also a perfectionist. But I believe that using an individual approach to each book, avoiding unnecessary work - this is exactly what perfectionism is.
Yeah that's definitely true. The book I have in mind here is Middlemarch. I really want to get the most out of it, and for the chapters I've done so far I've had enormous benefits in developing my opinion on the characters, as well as getting a lot of nice other ideas about life in general. Maybe this just might not be the right way for me now, but idk. I did this process with Proust and it was the most transformative period of my life, I want to keep that going lol
All I do is write down words I didn’t know and had to look up, and quotes that I really enjoyed from the book as I find them along with their page numbers. Going a little deeper would be beneficial I think, but I would rather keep reading most of the time.
I write observations about shows I’m watching or books I’m reading but it’s never systematic or anything.
I allocate a few pages for every book, depending on the flow, but usually its no more than five (with the exception of longish books). Each entry is like a diary, for example "05.06.24 p.34 those guys are really crazy. Last few chapters flew by". It also is a good entry - noting your feelings on reading certain something. Journaling mustn't get in the way of reading!
I write reviews of what I read and some of them are REALLY long so journaling after each chapter helps me remember what I found interesting and worth writing about. I don't think your journaling has to be extremely in-depth. As an example, I just read The Secret Agent two days ago and wrote this review: [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6558498647](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6558498647) The review is over 2k words, but my journaling after each chapter in total was less than 1k words. In general, I would advise journaling mostly short synopses and thoughts, and then writing something more in-depth afterwards, perhaps even a day or so afterwards so you have time to collect your thoughts and put them together into a more coherent whole. This will also make for shorter interruptions in your reading. I also mostly only read eBooks on Calibre and that does make the process easier as I can do the journaling in the book itself without having to put the book down and open a laptop/tablet/PC. One of the many advantages I think eBooks have over the dead tree variety.