After days and days of consideration, I decided I would recreate my 2025 book journal. I cut out the pages that I thought I could reuse and trimmed them down to put them in an A5 notebook. (I had been using an 8 X 8.)
And of course, cutting out the pages and trimming them down didn't work well. There were issues. Some of it was related to the washi tape, some of it was related to all the Scotch tape I'd used to try and hold the journal pages together, but it was an utter fail.
Then I thought about all the book covers and readathon layouts I would have to reprint on sticker paper and run through my sticker cutting machine.
I had the new journal out on the table. I had washi tape with books on it at the ready. I had decorative papers at my elbow, ready to create a charming title page.
And I couldn't do it.
I couldn't spend the time it would take to redo the journal. I need to be writing, not redoing months of work in a journal that I probably wouldn't look at again. I cut out the used pages and threw the rest of the journal away.
My heart is broken, but the journal was already a loss. I wasn't using it because of the condition it was in. Not only how ugly it was, but that it was also half falling apart because I accidentally sliced the binding strings holding it together. It was a catastrophe.
I have a book tracker sticker (okay, two stickers) in the front of my regular planner and I transferred all the book titles, formats, authors, ratings over there. It nearly filled my two pages, but that's okay. At least it's recorded, and since I archive my planners every year, it will be preserved for posterity.
Now I have a new problem. Do I do a book journal for 2026? Or do I just use the notes pages at the back of my planner to keep track?
There are only 20 extra pages, so I wouldn't be able to do a full journal, only a list like in this year's planner. I'm not sure what to do. It takes time to find, print, and cut the book cover stickers for the journal. On the other hand, I really liked keeping track of my readathons in there and I'll lose that if I don't have a book journal.
The wrench in the gears? When I'm writing, I don't feel like reading. The only reason I did so well on the May readathon this year was because Wicked Ambition was in edits multiple times that month. The year-long readathons? I'm failing miserably at them because it's taking me two weeks to read a book.
Right now, I'm leaning toward just keeping a list of books at the back of my 2026 planner, but I'm still mulling. Stay tuned.
