[no author]: Reader's Journal

Reader's Journal
Stewart, Tabori and Chang © 1998 [amazon]

This would be my clear favorite of the two diaries (see my review of A Book Lover's Journal) were it not that so much of the book is wasted on useless material. This is a great pity, as it is an attractive little book. Spiral bound, with a band attached to the back that can be stretched around to close the book. There are five, tab-delineated sections:

(1) Book Register. Very attractively designed pages with the following fields: Title, Author, Published, Began Reading...Finished, Notes, Recommended to or Lent to, Rated. This is by far the most helpful section of the book, and the longest, but it is not long enough.

(2) Books to read. Twenty-eight pages with room for one recommended book per page. A lot  of room for comments on the book, but how many comments will one have for a book one hasn't yet read? Lots of wasted space here that would be better spent on section one.

(3) Reading group notes. Three pages for names and phone numbers, then just under twenty two-page entries for individual books. If you're not in a book group, you're out of luck.

(4) Book stores and services. An address book, with room for three entries per page, and 18 pages long. Who's going to have 54 bookstores they need to keep information for? This is a ridiculous use of space.

(5) Passages. Blank, lined pages for recording favorite passages. Which is okay.

The ideal reader's diary would be a combination of the two. The layout of Reader's Journal is nicer, and it's spiral bound, but too much space is wasted on stupid things. Still, depending on your specific needs, either of these little notebooks may fit the bill perfectly, and either, aesthetically pleasing as they are, would make a nice gift for the reader in your life.

Tags: book reviews, books, reading journals