#14 IDEAS FOR CREATING AND KEEPING A BOOK JOURNAL (OR A READING DIARY) 📚

 

#1  INTRO & OVERVIEW

Books are the paper-reels through which we can travel anywhere in the space-time universe.  

 

All those who discover themselves to be book-lovers, will synchronize with how true this feeling is.

 

To read a book is to live so many lives, all at the same time.

 

To read books is not only a leisure activity but also an act of consuming and digesting various forms of energetic data – words and sounds, music and colours, poetry and passion, things like that.

 

There is one thing, that is reading. And then, there is another thing, that is, learning & memorizing data from what you’ve just read; as well as brainstorming creative ideas out of this data in your own style.

 

And one of the super-exciting ways to do so is through a book journal.

 

#2  DEFINITION: WHAT IS A BOOK JOURNAL? 

Also called as a ‘reading notebook’ or a ‘reading diary’, a book journal is nothing but a notebook, or a set of documents dedicated for the purpose of recording your book reading experience.

 

#3  PURPOSE & UTILITY OF KEEPING A BOOK JOURNAL

A book journal is a fantastic way of recording your reading experience & reading response to a book that you’re reading or have read; as well as to jot down all those things that poke your interest or pop in your imagination while reading.

 

You might like to look at a book journal in this way.

 

Book Journal = Memory-keeping + Note-taking + Creative/Art Journaling/Doodling + Reading Response Logging + Tracking your reading habits/schedule + curating your own collections/projects

#4 FORMAT IDEAS FOR YOUR BOOK JOURNAL

When starting off with your first book journal, and thinking about its format, there can be endless possibilities.

Here are some examples for creating your book journal in simple yet creative formats.

Physical Or paper-based book Journal

A physical journal is a journal featuring a paper-based format.

 

You can create a journal of this kind using

a notebook,

a diary,

a sketchbook,

a foldable paper scroll,

a folder with loose paper sheets,

a ring-bound set of index cards, notecards, sticky notes or fancy writable paper of any kind.

 

Two things that make a paper-based book journal most interesting is

the scope of creative/artistic possibilities that this medium offers.

While jotting down your book notes or hand-writing your favourite quotes from the book, you can also decorate the pages with all those stationary & art supplies you have.

You can

Doodle. Draw. Sketch. Scribble.

Paint something.

Hand-letter some words.

Paste stickers & photos.

Do scrapbooking with ephemera.

And so on!

And second, the flexibility it offers

in terms of organizing your notebook space in a way that uniquely suits you. In a way that you can include your unique set of logs & entries, and exclude those which you don’t want.

 

DIGITAL or web-based book Journal

While a paper-based book journal offers us the various possibilities of composing our reading experience in an artistic manner, a digital journal enables us to do the same thing in a much quicker, systematic & portable way.

 

If you select the option of creating a digital-style book journal, there are various kinds of tool options that you have. Such as,

• Create a folder for books or reading notes in Google Drive
• Google docs or Sheets are almost always great owing to the flexibility of device-synchronization that they offer
• Besides while using these tools, you can create your own template with only those entries that you want to include
• Use an existing platform to document and share your reading experience
• Might not have all the entries you want to include
• But are good to connect with a larger group, network or community
• Also every tool comes with its own unique entries which you can explore while you log your reading journey – Use these ideas in your own book journal
• Social Media Book Journal
• Another great idea for making your book journal in a digital style is to create a gallery, page, section or blog dedicated solely to your book reading experience.
• Document your book reviews, share quotes, write & post about the book you are reading and the possibilities are numerous!

• You may even noticed some Instagram galleries or twitter pages dedicated specifically to a book series or a book-turned-movie

Printed book Journal

To create & have a printed style book journal is a great option if you’re someone who likes to have a giant collection of notebooks and journals, and to be able to see and flip through them from time to time.

 

There are various ideas for creating a book journal for yourself in a printed format.

• Design your book journal digitally using any design tools and then print it out.
• If you don’t want to have the entire journal printed out, you can simply print out the pictures of book covers or spines, and print them out to paste in your book journal
• Create a visual book log or reading log page with these pictures
• you can also print these pictures in the form of self-adhesive stickers and simply peel and stick them in your book journal notebook
• Accompany with assortment of related embellishments to decorate your book journal with doodles, photographs, magazine cutouts, collage, scraps, embellishments and Author pictures – other illustrations etc.

REPURPOSED & DECORATIVE book Journal

This is very similar to the paper-based or printed style journal. But here instead of a fresh notebook, you use an old book or an old notebook by repurposing them with crafty embellishments and paper notes

• If the book is a one-time read then you can also convert the same book to create a book journal for it – just letting the important points from the book to remain highlighted – and using the rest as space for your notes & crafty decoration. 

#5 ENTRY IDEAS FOR YOUR BOOK JOURNAL

There can be as many entries in your book journal as you like to have.

And there are as many ideas for these entries as you can imagine.

The sky is the only limit.

 

Here are a few examples of what you can or what you should include in your book journal

CREATE A READING BOOK LOG

o   The List of Books

• You have in your book collection
• You’ve read
• You want to shop
• You want to read

MAKE A READING CALENDAR

o   Highlight dates

• For starting and completing a book
• For purchasing a book in the future
• For reading a book in the future – from your reading list or at a local library

 

CREATE A SECTION FOR BOOK SPECIFICATIONS

• Format/Type of book
• What type of book you’re reading or have read
• Paper/Print books
• Ebooks
• Audiobooks
• Book Owner
• Do you own this book or have rented from a friend or a library or a book shop?
• Mention the Title of the book
• Mention the Author(s) name(s)
• No. of pages
• If you're a writer yourself and aspire to publish a book some day, you can also note down the names of Editor, Publisher or Publishing house. 

WRITE YOUR READING NOTES FROM THE BOOK

• Write a brief summary of the book or a book review or a book report
• Capture your overall reading response in your own words

 

#6 SOME INTERESTING EMBELLISHMENT IDEAS FOR YOUR BOOK JOURNAL

And here are some super-interesting ideas that you can have in your book journal, especially, if you have some spare time or when you’re looking to participate in some spontaneous creative activity.

 

The idea of including these elements is to reflect who you are, to discover your own interests, and to keepsake your personal elements, something that you liked while reading your book

 

ADD YOUR FAVOURITE QUOTES FROM THE BOOK

While reading, highlight your favourite quotes and lines from the book, and thereupon, you can curate

passages and dialogues you loved

if you’re a writer, then you can note down some inspiration for writing

 

CREATE A VISUAL OR TEXT-BASED MOODBOARD BASED ON THE BOOK'S THEME

If you are into graphic design or any other form of visual art, then this is a great exercise to take note of the visual elements of the book such as the color theme of its cover & spine, the typography & fonts used in the book, the texture of book’s papers, or other design elements that you can notice in the book. You can also add the theme, mood & genre of the book as well.

 

If you’re a writer, you may like to extract & add your favourite words, phrases, adjectives, etc. from the book

 

WRITE SELF-REFLECTIVE INSIGHTS & LESSONS FROM THE BOOK

If it is a non-fiction book, you can write a list of lessons, insights and thoughts that you had in your mind as you were reading through it.

 

CREATE A STORYBOARD

If it is a fiction book, you can create the book’s storyboard outlining plot, scenes and characters

 

CRAFT CHARACTER SKETCHES IF IT IS A FICTION BOOK

Craft characters sketches from the book with drawings, cuttings from magazines, and details like dresses they wore, how they looked, what they ate, what they liked and didn’t like, how they think, what they say, etc. Invent meals/drinks/food/colors/dress/anything related to the characters or anything from the book, and jot these down in your book journal!

 

#7 COLLECTION & PROJECT IDEAS FOR YOUR BOOK JOURNAL

You don’t have to limit your reading journal to only the book summary and your notes.

You can also utilize the book and your reading of it as a prompt for starting a new project, a challenge or a collection. The main idea is to focus on any or all of the ideas that were popping in your head while you were reading the book.

Here are some ideas for that!

 

USE RANDOM WORDS FROM THE BOOK AS PROMPTS

Randomly flip the pages of the book, select a random word from the page and use it as a prompt for writing, art journaling, sketching, painting, or brainstorming.

 

You can also use a set of random words to write a poem, a short story, or even your own manuscript!

 

USE CHARACTERS & SCENES FROM THE BOOK AS PROMPTS

Select a random character, scene, setting or descriptive element from the book and use it as a prompt for your writing practice. 

CREATE ART JOURNAL, COLLAGE OR SCRAPBOOK

If you like to record your reading experience in an artistic format, then creating a page with art journaling, collage or scrapbooking is a wonderful idea!

 

WRITE LETTERS TO AND FROM THE CHARACTERS OF THE BOOK

Write letters to and from the characters of the book if it is a title in fiction.

 

CREATE YOUR OWN BOOK-THEMED ART SUPPLIES

Create book-themed stickers, posters, notecards or any other supplies; and use them to decorate your art journal; or gift it to your friends or readers’ club.

 

LEARN FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK

Make a list of other books or collections written by this author. Research about the author, read & listen to their interviews, learn from the author & make notes out of your learning.

Thank you, Good day & Subscribe to my channel for upcoming videos!

Neha

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

“For when we shall fall in love, we shall make each other our favourite mixtapes, and we shall gift each other our favourite books as presents wrapped in printed paper, and we shall smoke cigarettes perched on the hilltops of the countryside and we shall make each other our favourite milkshakes and we shall talk about things that matter to us, and we shall go on a ride through the tunnels listening to our favourite tunes, and we shall feel infinite…”

These fancies and fracases of sweet sixteen years have been celestially cloaked inside the interior monologues of a school-going boy named Charlie, who appears in the book as the protagonist character, writing letters, thereby, bestowing the author to represent this stirring book in an epistolary format, creating magic with words, which has also found its extension in the form of a blockbuster movie titled the same as the book.

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”

Charlie’s life is as happy as sad; as beautiful as traumatic; as sweet as tragic; as frozen as melting; as broken as unified; as lonely as infinite.

Strangling his way amongst the brash high-school parties, Charlie finds his refuge in the friendship of a brother-sister duo namely, Patrick and Sam. While falling for Sam in the first sight, Charlie remains content with her friendship and watches her go on dates with other boys of the school, because, love, to him, meant ‘sacrifice’.

He juggles his time between making tapes for his siblings & his friends, reading books, writing book reports, watching the episodes of The Rocky Movie Horror Show and offering his shoulder to anyone and everyone who would be in need, who, at times, turns out to be talkative debate-loving girl named Mary Elizabeth, while sometimes his sister who has an abusive boyfriend and sometimes his best friend’s brother Patrick who just had, had a break-up with his boyfriend.

Charlie is “that” student of the class who observes more than others yet talks the least. He is someone who listens to things, and knows the art of keeping it to them. He keeps all these secrets, until, he cannot anymore and breaks open and finds himself in the hospital of his psychiatrist.

You see, many a times, we think that living in the present moment is the best thing that we can do. Many a times, we think that the past is in the past. But the past is not really in the past, but actually converging all-together for us to experience this present reality. As Charlie is growing up, he seems to get annoyed when his psychiatrist doesn’t stop asking him questions, all of which, are about his childhood and his past. Even though, as it turns out in the end, the flick of wounding is revealed to be coming only from his past as he bursts apart however, also, it is only then that he forgives and thereupon, heals.

But this book is not only about Charlie’s sentimental life journey, but also a lot about the chronicles of teen-age, about friendships & affairs, parties & drugs, going to school & growing up amongst friends; about proms, farewells & painting the town red; about gifts & get-togethers, about being sensitive & about dysfunctional family dramas; about listening to radio & about making mixtapes; about writing & about reading books. And so on…

Nevertheless, the character of Charlie represents the archetypal schoolboy finding himself amidst a bunch of whippersnappers and teenyboppers, reckoning himself to be a pipsqueak as he stumbles upon everybody’s secrets, yet willfully surrenders his heart as a gingerbread offering, perhaps…

…perhaps because, as his best friend’s brother Patrick told him once, that he, he was a wallflower.

"You see things, you keep quiet about them and you understand. You are a wallflower."

Just like the character of Charlie, this book too is a comforting shoulder for all the wallflowers out there; for all those who feel like losers, but aren’t really so!

And of course, a brilliant piece of writing in contemporary fiction, with words carousing in the dusky shadows of adolescence & teenage lives; pinpricking at the whirlgigging beetle of our entangled psyche; fringing and bobbing like emotional teetotums, at the uniquely tapes of our life’s bittersweet pains & queer concerns. Nevertheless. All’s well that ends well.


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#13 The Masala Pattie & 6 Lessons in the Craft of Writing 🌮 ✍️

Review: Those Pricey Thakur Girls

Those Pricey Thakur Girls by Anuja Chauhan
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

The sponge of my emotional mind is still soaked in the tipplings and blottos of its chocolate-box-style scenes and my belly is still pulsating in the babalaas of sentimental maudlins encased & perfectly tucked in this novel through the wrappings of word embellishments.

I was recommended this book via a reading list provided to us in the creative writing class I was attending at SACAC, Hauz Khas. And I have read it twice till now. But the review is of the second time I have read it.

Part rom-com, part suspense-thriller and all in all, a sweetly honey-dipped love story, “Those Pricey Thakur Girls” is written by Ms. Anuja Chauhan, who is the author who has also penned some of the record-breaking taglines for colas, chips & chocolates.

As the Wikipedia also describes, she is the brain behind Pepsi’s “Oye Bubbly, Bubbly Oye” & “Yeh Dil Maange More” jingles, Kurkure’s “Tedha Hai Par Mera Hai” tagline, Lays’ “Be a Little Dillogical” campaign, Kitkat’s “Kitkat Break Banta Hai”, Mountain Dew’s “Darr Ke Aage Jeet Hai” and more! She is also widely known in the Indian advertising, television and even film industry. Her novel “The Zoya Factor” has been formed into a Bollywood movie. And as I came to know only later on after reading this book, that there is even a TV serial based on this novel. It is titled as ‘Dilli Waali Thakur Gurls’ and it airs on &TV.

Anyhow. Let’s get straight into the novel…

Settled across a posh cream-and-maroon bungalow located in Delhi’s Connaught Place area, the novel’s main storyline features a family comprising of a retired justice man named Laxmi Narayan Thakur, his wife Mamta and their five alphabetically-named daughters.

When it comes to the plot setting and descriptions, the book is a total treat for a desi-Indian reader; a treat ranging from the metaphorical street-style cotton candy to a fine Wenger’s pastry.

Especially if you’re a Delhi-ite, you’d catch while reading that the book presents a potpourri of peppery detailings of the typical Delhi lifestyle. From daily morning trips to the local general store to buy milk, eggs & bread, to eating chaat in the Bengali market, chatting over soup & chowpsey in CP’s Berco’s, pondering about important matters over a cup of coffee in United Coffee House and snacking over pastries at Wenger’s; from street dogs and their little potty-balls scattered all around on the streets, to the enthusiastic rush of the high-school farewell parties; from DU’s students boasting everywhere of their college, to even the common slang-ish words & phrases that people appear to use here on the rambling streets and jammed traffic trails; the book offers a loaded palatte of delicious Delhi-flavours crafted in a medley of Hinglish overtones.

In addition to the exquisite Delhi-belly flavours, the book comprises of several tangy ingredients exclusive to a typical Indian household - A girl reaching the age of marriage & getting consistently flooded by questions-and-suggestions from relatives all over the place telling her parents to get her married & inquiring about her career, her age, her makeup skills, her communication skills, her preferences for the boy & crazy things like that - The various emotional & psychological stages that the girls pass through alone as a consequence of this culture - Parents concerned about their teenage daughter staying hooked on phone all day and turning their fears into suspicions that she might have a secret boyfriend at school - The evil superstitions that form in the minds of the married ladies towards their husbands and their children and their in-laws and about their maids and about everybody – The overmature attitude, tantrums & mischiefs of narcissistic kids causing their elders to frown at them - The usual gossips of aunts & uncles that happen during parties, family functions, & ballrooms.

However above and beyond all of these spicy flavours that the novel makes us taste, the sweetest of them is the love story unfolding between the fourth daughter of this family, Debjani, and a man named Dylan, who is a writer.

This is the era of 1980s in Delhi. A period when people in houses wake up to the mellowish retro-style tunes of DD’s News & Chitrahaar flashing in their antenna-studded old-fashioned television sets. Debjani a.k.a. Dabbu has just joined DD’s Mandi House office as a newsreader. While her character is depicted to be a shy, sensitive, caring & all-by-herself person, her younger sister & the fifth in the family, Eshwari, who is also a high-school student at the Modern School located in Barakhamba road, is depicted to be more of a masculine, aggressive & chuckly kind.

Debjani meets Dylan on the account that her father is a close friend of Dylan’s Brigadier father. The character of Dylan falls in the kind of a playboy, a ladies’ man and a Bollywood-style sentimental-plus-witty hero category. The two of them together with their respective fathers, meet every day to play the game of kot-piece, sip tea and relish the bowls of Maggi noodles topped with fried onions and peas.

Then those Indian-style sharmeela ladka-ladki moments happen; their eyelids playing hide-and-seek; looking in the eyes of each other and then looking away. To the boy looking at the girl, she is a total embodiment of goddess with her creamy skin, Pears soap eyes, winged collarbones, ladybird-shaped silver ring and what not about her.

While initiating with this perfectly snapshotted filmy romance scenario, the love story later has to go through a jumble of conflicts, misunderstandings and a total break-up, until, ultimately reaching the congruence of the two lovers finally getting ready to marry each other, which, when you’d complete the book will certainly cause some raindrops to roll down from your eyes till your cheeks.

Withal, their temporary period of separation causes the novel to shift gears into the mode of a suspense and thriller. While Debjani is gaining fame for her newsreading countrywide, Dylan is set-up for becoming the target of a dirty conspiracy plotted by one of his colleagues and a fraud minister Motla who’s involved in a mass assassination riot.

D for Dylan ends up in jail with no evidence to prove his side of things. But as they say, love is love. And so, D for Dabbu risks her countrywide fame and even her job to do something which not only saves Dylan but brings this long-held conspiracy to its closure.

These bits of politics, thrill & conspiracy make the novel only more immersive than it already is. And, as you move forward cover-to-cover into the novel, it grips you in, stronger and stronger so as you won’t be able to put this 388-page-volume down till the end.

Spotlighting a bumblebee-hued cover design with legs cladded in beady flipflops and a cat by the side, the novel represents an interesting tangle of relationships, a sneak peak into the misuse of political & authoritarian powers, crime-bribery-thrill & of course, happy endings…

In the end, as patties, pastries & campa cola is being served in the housewarming party of Dabbu’s Chacha-Chachi’s renovated house next door from their house, Dylan hastily leaves a dosa-idli brunch with his newspaper’s director and drives off in his Maruti 800 to reach there just on time to save Dabbu’s Chachiji falling from the sixth floor. Thereupon, proposing Debjani to marry him, which, is an obvious guess, that, the girl can’t say no to!

My review for Those Pricey Thakur Girls wraps up like this - T for Toe-Curlingly Flirtatious, P for Palpably Delicious, T for Tadka-romance & G for Goosebumpily Gigglesome.

So, do get this book, my friend and relish an entertaining chic-lit read!


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#12 The Story of Purple Buffalo & The Pure Matter in the Alchemy of Human Life ⚗️

There was once a buffalo.

 

It fell into a puddle of purple colour liquid and thus, turned into a purple buffalo.

 

Thereupon, the buffalo steps into a brookside and splashes water on itself, thereby, washing away the purple colour off its body and returning to its original state.

 

If you look at all the scenarios of this story, you’d realize that here there are mainly five elements in function.

 

#1  The Buffalo before falling in the puddle, the one with the original color

#2  The Buffalo after falling in the puddle and getting coloured in a false color

#3 The Puddle of Purple Color Liquid

#4  The Force of Nature Causing The Buffalo To First Fall In the Puddle and then to get the puddle color washed off it by brook’s water

#5 The Watcher or the Observer of all the three states of Buffalo’s life

 

Now, this story is not really about some buffalo, but the very reality of our human life.

 

If you’d look at the story through a magnifying glass, then you’d be able to recognize that here, the buffalo is a metaphor for our mind; the purple puddle is the metaphor for the outside world; the force of nature causing the buffalo to move hither-tither is our emotions, shadows & all of our mind’s innate tendencies programmed in it from our life experiences & DNA. Then there is the one known as the self; which quietly observes all the states and scenarios that our mind goes through during the span of our lifetime.

 

This self, a.k.a. ‘pure matter’ is the highest available observer in our mind in a given moment.This ‘pure matter’ is going to be the primary topic of this particular video show.

Watch the full video and subscribe to my channel for upcoming videos! :)

Thank you & Goodbye!