Dear Diary (Reading Diary That Is)
Some journaling prompts for those who don't like to journal
Hello! This post is a part of Reading While Parenting’s Messy Summer Reading Club, which drops into your inbox every Saturday until August 23rd. If you are not interested in receiving posts on this particular topic, you can opt out by deselecting “Reading While Parenting” here.
Do you write about what you have read?
In the How to Read in Parenthood Guide that was released in May, there are several reading-related journal prompts to document your reading experience. Not everyone is a journaler. I get that. It has never been a fit for me. However, it can be fun to look back on what you’ve read and reflect on your reading life. These prompts can be a different way of chronicling all those pages you’ve read, even for those of us who don’t typically journal.
Journal prompt: Describe the locations where the books you read recently were set
“Recently, I have gone to the beaches of Maui. I’ve visited a small town, farmland, and forest in Appalachia. I traveled to a close-knit community in Minnesota. I went from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to New York City. I stopped over in Michigan. And then, spent time in the city of Minneapolis. Next, I arrived in a small coastal town in Georgia. Texas was the next stop. And finally, in this installment, I went from NYC to Cape Cod and back again.”
Books included in the above journal entry: The Unhoneymooners* by Christina Lauren, Prodigal Summer* by Barbara Kingsolver, Part of Your World* by Abby Jimenez, Our Missing Hearts* by Celeste Ng, Funny Story* by Emily Henry, Yours Truly* by Abby Jimenez, Great Big Beautiful Life* by Emily Henry, Listen for the Lie* by Amy Tintera, and Big Summer* by Jennifer Weiner.
It’s interesting to reflect on where you’ve been and notice perhaps where you want to go next. I saw, for instance, that all these books in this snapshot took place in the US, which is different than the books I read early on in summer, which tended towards being set in Europe.
Alternative prompts to consider…
Describe the foods present in your recent reads (this one is especially fun…and even better, go eat a food from the list)
Describe any elements of nature and environment in the books you’ve read over the last month
Describe the “people you met” in the last five books you read
The comments section is what we make of it. Feel free to answer any or all of the questions below.
Do you write about what you read?
Where do your reads tend to take place? Do you have certain regions that show up again and again?
What are you reading next?
I just finished Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions for You on vacation. I really ignored my children a lot while reading it, so it was very good!
I have a running list of foods that are in some books. It is great fun, because then I can think about why these foods provoke the idea of coziness and goodness, especially if they aren't things that I typically eat. If I wrote a book and used food to set the scene, what foods would I mention?
Generally, I don't write about what I read, though. I'm currently reading both Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones and The Tree Collectors by Amy Stewart.