Summer is officially here! If you’re anything like us, you’re well into your summer reading. My goal is to read 15 books over the summer. Our sweet little local library, as well as most libraries, provides a list to complete and return for prizes for our children. But libraries also understand that it isn’t only children who benefit from reading, so they usually offer a teen/adult reading challenge as well. Of course there are prizes for us too, which usually include gift certificates to local restaurants and stores. On the teen/adult list from our library, there are 15 spaces available so this is why I choose 15 as my goal. Some summers I don’t make it and other times I need to ask for another sheet. It just depends on how busy our season is.
Over the summer I’m usually filling out 3-4 reading lists from other local libraries and my personal log that I keep for my yearly reading. I’ve always loved reading and we are definitely a family of readers in our home. In the past I bought books and kept them even after reading them. I enjoyed looking at my shelves and seeing all of the books I’ve read and those I had planned to read.
But with the advent of digital readers and audiobooks, the books are on a virtual shelf. That’s when I began keeping track on paper. Each year I create a new way to keep track of my progress through the year. This blends well with our desire for minimalist housekeeping, which I’ll be writing about in a future post.
Now, we borrow books from the library either physically or digitally through the library’s app. We are spending less on books, we have less clutter on our shelves, and we still get to read great books! Plus, it supports our town’s little local library! It’s a WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN situation!
Keeping track of all of those books is satisfying and fun for me. Frequently, I’ll look back on the list and remember reading a specific book. Certain books often bring back memories of when I read it and what was going on in my life at the time. Ann Bogel states it best, “Books are portals to all kinds of memories – but only if I can remember that I read them.”
So today I thought I would offer a free download of a couple of reading logs I made for my own progress for this year. They are digital so you can print a new one each year. If they are printed on heavier paper, painting or coloring are a great way to add to the fun of collecting great titles.
Enjoy and happy reading!
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