[no author]: A Book Lover's Journal

  Amazon  

The first of the two reader's diaries under review (I've moved my review of Reader's Journal to a new post), A Book Lover's Journal is a hardcover, but unfortunately NOT spiral bound. The divisions in the book are not tabbed or delineated in any way. The pages are lined, with a small, designed margin at the top. The book is punctuated by occasional black-and-white, book-related pictures. There are seven sections:

(1) Most of the book is given over to the first section, which has page-long entries for individual books. The fields provided are: Title, Author, Date Read, and Comments, the last of which continues for the rest of the page. This section will be handy for most uses, though it's not good if you want simply to list books read with no comment, or little comment.

(2) Seven pages are devoted to the Books to Read section, with room for notes on three books per page.

(3) The Books Borrowed section takes up two pages, with room for notes on five books per page.

(4) There follows a two-page Books Loaned section (shouldn't that be Books Lent?), also five books per page.

(5-7) Three pages for Bookstore information follow, then two pages for Libraries and two pages for Notes.

A Book Lover's Journal is attractive, and not too ornate, which is a good thing. It could be improved by being spiral bound, of course, and, perhaps, by including a section for simple lists of books and a ratings box on the pages of the first section. Also, how many people are going to be writing bookstore or library information down in a book like this? I, at least, won't find those sections particularly useful.