Dear Fellow Journalers,
I fell in love with books at an early age. I liked the feel of them in my hands and the words I heard when my Mother read to me. For all of my life until my late twenties, my Grandmother gave me books for my birthday and Christmas. I have told you in the past of my favorite reading places when I was young. In my Grandmother’s memory, I am carrying on the tradition of gifting a book to our Granddaughter.
I started a reading/quote journal when I was in high school. At the time, I copied phrases that inspired, instructed and stimulated me. Thank goodness I also referenced the title of the book and its author. I found the journal not long ago in a dusty box and decided to re-read some of those books. I reasoned that they would be good for our Book Chat.
My sophomore English teacher, an older nun (yes, I survived Catholic Grammar, High School and College!) formed a book club as one of our after-school programs. We all had to read the same book and report on it. I remember thinking at the time, that we all seemed to take away the same feelings about the characters and the themes. I found myself wanting to read more genres. Strangely, I did not join another book club until this year.
Our Book Chat club is sponsored by our library. We meet once a week and refreshments are served. Unlike the traditional book club, we read by theme. Each January we pick the themes we want to explore and then read a book in our genre of choice that reflects that theme. So far the themes have been: mental health, travel, cooking, banned books, motivation, black authors, women authors and historical fiction. We discuss our books (either hard-cover, e-reader, or audio) and then are free to recommend any that we have read. I started just jotting the theme in a pocket-sized calendar and using scrap paper but soon found this method unacceptable. So I started a Reading Journal based in part on the journal of a fellow member of the club. I bought a small journal at Barnes and Noble and intend to create a cover this year. Here is a sample of one of my pages:
The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury
Rating: XXXXXXXXXX+++++ (obviously I liked it!)
A book about books and the effect they have on those who love them.
Emotions: varied from chapter to chapter. I was sad, over-joyed, anxious, happy, sometimes all at the same time!
Favorite lines: page 34: ” People sometimes need a place like this to bridge yesterday and tomorrow.” and from Molly’s narrative: page 53:
“The Bridge connected the past and the present, the present and the future. Books brought people together and gave them a path to worlds they wouldn’t otherwise experience…”
Favorite character: Molly. She was a strong young woman who knew what she wanted. Very believable.
Recommend?? OH YES!
If you get a chance, join a book club and keep a Reading Journal. You will thank yourself later.
‘Til next time,
~Sallie
Uniquely Yours Craft Journal 
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