Using a ring planner to track your reading – Part 1

Guest series by Tina

Now I don’t know about you – as you are a Filofax owner I can probably guess, but I like a little bit of order in my life.  I like to know what I’m doing, what I’ve done, where I’m going, what I’m taking but I think most importantly I like to remember what it is I’ve been, done and gone to.  It’s the same with my books, I have always been a busy reader with a bedside table made out of a pile of books, I like to dip in and out but also have a book that I class as the one that I am reading. I am currently reading …… yes well what is it that I am reading, because since moving to Kindle (I know you can’t get everything on it – as some of my pics will show) I find that I am reading in a coverless world, I know the author, I know the content but do I know what the book is called? No.

Looking at my bookshelves (this is a small subset!) I can see the familiar spines and titles shouting out to me like old friends – “hey remember when we spent two weeks in South of France and you couldn’t put me down?”, “I still remember when we found each other in that secondhand bookshop in Tuscany”, “I still hold the flower pressing from our day trip to Edinburgh”.  But looking at my Kindle I get nothing, no invite, no flash of memory, no secret tryst, just a whole lot of nothing.  Now don’t get me wrong I love my Kindle it means I don’t have to carry the book I am finishing, the book I will then start and an old favourite in case I don’t like the book that I will start when I’ve finished the one that I am reading – you get the picture. So in an attempt to retain some visual reminder of what I have been reading I am going to use my Filofax to record my reading, I am not going to attempt to log all the books I already read – hey I’d need some sort of monster truck version of a Filofax for that!, but I am going to log what I read from here on in.

I’ll be using an Aqua mode for this project – super isn’t it? I love how the squares even look like library shelves, as you can see I have some very classy black binders donated by Janet which provide a stark contrast to the fuschia pink interior, the silicone strap is very generous so that means that there will be plenty of room to fill it up with all my book info!

So my set-up will use two sets to A-Z dividers.  The first set will log the Name of the Book and then the Author and the second set will log the Name of the Author and then the name of the book.  Hold on I hear you say is that not just the same thing?  Well take a look at your own bookshelf when you are hunting for a book are you looking for the author or the book title or both?  Yep thought so me too, I am looking using both because even though my books are in almost alphabetical order by author it’s sometimes the name of the book that I hone in on.

The second part of my set up will mirror my Kindle, for those of you not in the know you can add your own Collections to your Kindle and file your books, which sort of makes them easier to find! Here’s a page of my Kindle – it means something to me! So I have 6 blank dividers that I will use for this.

The headings for theses Dividers will be:-

• Arctic/Antarctic – I love anything to do with these parts of the world
• French and Dead – French Authors seem to be my thing, most of them that I like are dead!
• Poetry
• War – I am fascinated by the periods leading up to the two world wars and the times directly after.  There seemed to be a change throughout the world in literature, these books are not about the atrocity of war from personal experience more just the times in which they were written
• Work – I have my own small business and read much more than I should about how to get it right!
• 21st Century – bit of a cop out here but I would like to see what I have read this century!

I think I am going to need more dividers!!! (Filofax shopping – yay!)
Once I have finished a book I will log it in the A to Z’s and then add a write up and a drawing into the appropriate divider area.

Finally I will be including a year planner on which I will note the book I am reading.

So there you have it, next time I will be showing you how I have customised each divider, how I have logged and noted the books I have read and asking you for help with my project.  Here is my front cover for the project hope you like it, see you next time.

Tina.

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