Starting Your Journaling Journey (Vol. 5): How to Create Meaningful Reading Journals

For the longest time, I struggled with a very specific question: "I want to keep a reading journal, but what do I actually write in it?"

Recently, I have noticed many friends and fellow stationery lovers on social media sharing this exact same frustration. It is so easy to feel overwhelmed by a blank page after finishing a great chapter. Today, I want to share my personal workflow for taking reading notes, especially tailored for beginners. (And feel free to share your own methods with me, too!)

1. Before Reading: Set Your Intention

Before I open a new book, I sit down with my journal and answer one simple question: "Why do I want to read this book?"

Is it because everyone is talking about it? Or am I facing a specific dilemma in my own life and hoping to find an answer within these pages?

For example, this week I started reading Strangers, a currently popular memoir about marriage. Before starting, I jotted down my initial thoughts: What kind of marriage story makes everyone say it reads like a thriller novel? It was picked up by Netflix for an adaptation just two months after publication—will it be full of endless twists and turns like All Her Fault?

Taking just 5 to 10 minutes to capture these pre-reading thoughts is incredibly helpful. It trains my brain to think actively rather than just passively consuming words.

2. During Reading: What to Actually Record

Once I start reading, I take notes in two specific categories.

The Expected: First, I record the things I anticipated finding. For instance, if I chose a book to study beautiful, concise prose, I will write down any interesting phrasing I come across. Aalongside the quote, I always document my own reaction at that exact moment. 

The Unexpected: Next, I record anything that catches me off guard. This could be a practical method I can apply to my daily life, mind-expanding new knowledge, or even an opinion that completely contradicts my own.

The Golden Rule: Try your best not to just mindlessly copy the original text. I force myself to use my own words to paraphrase and summarize the author's point. The most important metric of a good reading note is that it makes complete sense on its own, even when you review it months later without the book in front of you.

3. After Reading: Organizing Your Knowledge Base

To organize everything, I use a hybrid system: my physical paper journals paired with Notion. You can use Obsidian, Apple Notes, or whatever you prefer. Apps like Obsidian help you build a highly systematic, interconnected knowledge base, while simpler apps reduce friction but might be slightly harder to review later. It all comes down to what fits your personal workflow.

By transferring and organizing my handwritten notes into this digital space, I build my own personal library of thoughts. If you want to dive deeper into this method of active reading and building a "second brain," I highly recommend the book How to Take Smart Notes—it was my absolute greatest teacher for this process.

Final Thoughts

You might be reading this and thinking, "Isn't this too much trouble just to read a book?"

I used to wonder the same thing. But honestly, since adopting this method, reading feels like finally untangling a massive knot in my hair. Everything is smooth, clear, and connected. Whenever I need a specific piece of information, I can easily find exactly which book it came from. I can even link it to relevant ideas from other books I have read over the years. I have taken all that brilliant but fleeting knowledge—the kind that is too hard to store permanently in the human brain—and safely secured it in an external system.

I truly hope you all find books that you deeply love, and that every second of your reading brings you quiet joy. When the path of life stretches forward and you look back at the books you have read, I hope you discover beautiful landscapes you never even realized were there.