Rant: people keep calling a 'reading journal' a 'book club notes' and it's not the same thing

I was at my local library's book club meetup last Tuesday and someone asked why I was writing in my reading journal instead of 'just taking notes for the group.' I had to explain that a reading journal is for personal reactions, like when I got mad at a character's decision on page 147, not for summarizing plot points for the discussion. It matters because mixing them up ruins the whole point of tracking your own emotional arc through a book. Has anyone else had to defend their own reading system to a group who thinks it's all the same?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthew_owens910d ago

Yikes, a reading journal is for your own brain, not a group project.

susanh469d ago

Right, matthew_owens9 says it's "for your own brain, not a group project," which is totally fair, but isn't that kind of the whole point of a book club discussion? I mean, if you're tracking your private emotional arc, you're still going to share that with the group, so it's just notes with extra steps. Seems like a lot of drama over whether you call it a journal or just notes.