My Reading Journal is Full

Twenty years ago, when I moved to New Jersey, my book group in Washington, D.C. gave me a reading journal to keep track of the books I read. I just finished my last book of 2011 and have come to the last page of my journal. There were years when I didn't keep track very well of what I read, or added titles in misremembered batches later, but for the last five or so years, I've been pretty good at keeping up to date. The trick, I think, is to just put the author, title and date read. Don't expect to review the book or you will just avoid writing in the journal at all. You can also save your receipts from the library to refresh your memory if you return a book before entering it in the journal. I have also kept track of my reading on GoodReads.com. You can see my list on the rights side of this blog. Sometimes I write a brief review or description of the book for this blog or Amazon.com or GoodReads. A friend recently noted that I don't give many stars to my GoodReads reviews. I'm a hard grader, I guess. So if you look at that list, just consider three stars to be four and four to be five and that will probably be more in line with other raters on the website. I try not to give negative reviews on this blog, because the idea, in my mind at least, is to find good things for our library patrons to read. I do try to tell who I think the book will appeal to, ie: "if you like this, then try that" - linking what are sometimes called "read-a-likes."
In the next few posts, I will write about my favorite books of 2011 and some of the memorable books I've read in the last twenty years.
Happy New Year and Happy Reading!