So welcome to the introductory post for ‘Reading Journal’, another new feature I’m bringing to RobAroundBooks, and I’ve got to tell you from the outset that this is one I’m really thrilled about, not least because it’s a feature that’s going to help me to provide a more thorough record of my journey through books, which I know will be of huge benefit to me and hopefully of some value to you too.
I’d like to think that I’m already quite intimate when it comes to recording my bookish journey. As many of you know my main book reviews are a two-part process – the first part being a post on my initial thoughts before reading a particular book, the second being my considered judgment on the book once I’ve read it – and these two join together to make an encapsulated whole; an individually-wrapped ‘bookish travelog’ if you will.
However there’s something missing. We have the setting out on the journey (forethoughts), and we have the arrival at the destination (afterthoughts), but we don’t really have anything in between which documents the most important part – the journey itself; no sights or sounds, no off-the-cuff or forming opinion, no outbursts of delight or dismay, no instant reaction to new discoveries, just a silent shrouded bit in the middle, which is of no use to anyone, least of all me. So enter the ‘Reading Journal’ which I hope is going to lift that shroud on the middle bit, and provide a fuller picture on my reading life.
Journaling is no new thing for me. I’ve done it for years and consider it a mainstay of my personal development, and what I love most about it, aside from it giving a ‘life document’, is the rawness of the form; the unedited snaps of thought that are recorded in the instant, and this is exactly what ‘Reading Journal’ is going to be. It’s going to be an unedited, on-the-fly record of the bookish highlights of my day. It’s going to record what I’m reading, when I’m reading it. It’s going to capture fleeting thoughts and opinions, and it’s going to share the discoveries I make along the way, along with anything else that comes to mind in the course of my reading day.
So I really hope you enjoy this new feature, and that you find it of some use to you. I’d like to think it’s going to provide a catalyst for more discussion and debate, for more opinion and commentary, but who knows what will happen? As in the spirit of personal journalling itself, we’ll just have to run with it and see where it takes us.
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