Diverse Reading Tracker and Journal

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Intro & Setup
Intro & Setup

A reading tracker and journal

A reading tracker and journal

Laura Clark

Welcome to

The Reading Journal,
`Anonymous`
⁠
!

Reading is a revolutionary and transformative act. Reading creates new pathways in our brain and

opens up our mind⁠

. When we explore the inner workings of a beloved (or not-so-beloved) character’s mind, our

ability to empathize increases⁠

. Some

studies⁠

even show that reading helps you live longer!

Have you ever thought what percentage of the authors you read are Latinx? Or, Pacific Islanders? How many main characters have a disability? Or, are queer? Are we reading about different experiences and people? Or, are we inadvertently choosing books that mirror ourselves only?

Marieke Nijcamp

said it⁠

beautifully:

“Diverse stories allow all of us to listen. They are not merely mirrors, but windows, too. Through those windows we see that we all bring unique experiences to the table. By recognizing that, we may learn to better understand and accept each other.”

This is a space that allows you to not only track and journal about what you read, but look at it through a diversity lens. This doc allows you to track author ethnicity, nationality and gender, character ethnicity (if known), LGBTQ+ representation, disability representation and mental Illness representation.

The fields and prompts in this document are not, by any means, an exhaustive list of diversity and representation factors, but rather a starting point. A place to get us started in our journey to read diverse books. You may add as many other tracking points as you want! This is Coda, after all.

So, welcome to your Diverse Reading Tracker and Journal! Keep reading to learn how to use it.

“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” - Mary McLeod Bethune

⁠

This Reading Journal

is a template doc you can use to set up your own reading tracker and journal.

Make a personal copy of this doc so you can customize it the way you want

and I’ll walk you through all the steps you’ll need to set it up.

Once you’re done setting it up, feel free to delete this page, or move it to the bottom.

⁠

Copy this Doc

⁠

📚 Bookshelf

On the

Bookshelf⁠

page you will be able to view all of the books you’ve added to this doc.

You can filter by status, and search for the title.

This is the page you go to when you need to add a book to your TBR (

Want to Read⁠

) list, a

Book Club⁠

or any Reading

Challenges⁠

The

Manage⁠

page allows you to add missing details to the books you’ve added.

🛋️ Reading Central

⁠

Reading Central⁠

is divided in three parts:

⁠

Want to Read⁠

- on this page are all of the books that you’ve added to your TBR list. Their status is “To Be Read”

If you’re not sure what to read next, click on the “🎲 Random Rec” button, and Coda will give a random suggestion from your TBR list.

⁠

Current Reads⁠

- on this page are all of the books that you are currently reading.

The books on this page have the “Reading” status.

Click on each card to update your progress. Don’t forget to put the total number of pages or audiobook length, so the progress bar is accurate.

Click on “DNF” to change the book status to “Did Not Finish”.

Click on “Done” to change the book status to “Read”. This button also updates the day you finished reading the book to whatever date you push it :).

⁠

Rate Your Reads⁠

- on this page you will be able to rate the books you’ve finished. You’ll automatically be taken to this page when you push the “Done” button.

Be sure the book you want to rate is selected in the dropdown menu at the top.

The first thing you will do is input all of the details of the book (publisher, publication year, genre, target audience, mood, pace, etc).

Then, you will rate it. 👇

⭐ Rating System

I often find that a 5-Star rating system just isn’t granular or multi-faceted enough. That is why I opted to use the ESCAPES Rating System. This

Reading Spreadsheet⁠

from

Cat’s Book Corner⁠

served as an inspiration.

Categories in the ESCAPES Rating System

Enjoyment

Overall enjoyment of the book/story/general feeling of the book as a whole.

Start

Did the book hook you from the beginning? Was the start a bit of a drag/boring/hard to get into? Did you have to push yourself to keep going?

Characters

Are the characters well fleshed out? Do they have a backstory? Fears? Hopes? Beliefs? Do they stick to them, or do they do things out of character? Were they just cardboard cutouts to move the plot along as needed, or did they feel like real people performing real actions?

Atmostphere/Worldbuilding

How is the setting? Is it detailed enough to feel immersed but not so full of descriptions that it gets bogged down? Is it original and imaginative (for fantasy) or a carbon copy of everything else? Has work clearly been put into creating this world?

Plot/Logic

Does the plot make sense? Is it original, or is it repetitive of other works? Was it predictable or full of creative plot twists? Were there any glaring plot holes that took away from the reading experience?

Ending

How does everything wrap up? Was it cut off or rushed? Were all the important plot points resolved? Includes the middle of the book, was your attention still hooked or were you ready for it to be over?

Style

Writing as a whole. Did everything flow, or did it feel clunky? Did word choices make sense? Does the plot structure make sense? Are the chapters too long or too short? Was it too info-dumpy and full of exposition, or did the information given feel right? Did the pacing of the story make sense?

There are no rows in this table

⁠

You will rate each category on a scale of 1 to 10, using this table as a guide:

Rating

Description

One of my absolute favorites ever.

Excellent. Near perfect. Maybe one little problem holding it back, but that's it.

Great. A couple of problems, but nothing major.

Good. Solid. Nothing groundbreaking, and it certainly has issues, but I enjoy it.

Ok. Lots of good things and a fair amount of bad things, but the former prevails.

Mediocre. Basically, for every good thing, there's something bad.

Poor. Some good things, but the bad outweighs the good.

Bad. A few good things, but overall not enjoyable.

Horrible. Maybe one potentially good thing but not enough to redeem it.

Abysmal. It shouldn't have been published. Needs serious work.

There are no rows in this table

⁠

Coda will provide an average of the 6 categories, which is the Overall Rating, and then calculate the Star Rating based on this table:

9-10

7 - 8.9

4.6 - 6.9

2.3 - 4.5

1.1 - 2.2

Up to 1.1

There are no rows in this table

⁠

After that, you will answer a series of Diversity and Representation questions.

Finally, you have a place to jot down your thoughts, favorite quotes, etc.

🤝 Social

This doc also allow you to keep track of your book club meetings and book club picks, as well as your reading challenges.

🍵 Book Club

You can add book club picks on the

Currently Reading⁠

page.

Be sure to include the meeting date, the book (previously added to the

Bookshelf⁠

) and the Book Club.

The

Meetings⁠

has a countdown to the next meeting, so you are aware of how much time you have to read the next book club pick.

There is also a calendar with all of the book club meetings.

The

Book Club Picks⁠

is a library of past book club picks.

👀 Reading Challenges

Add the reading challenges you want to complete in the

Challenges⁠

page.

You can do this by clicking on the button on the top of that page.

That button will add the reading challenge to the

Challenges⁠

table, and an automation will also add the challenge to the

Reading Challenge Prompts⁠

table.

The, proceed to add all of the reading prompts in the

Reading Challenge Prompts⁠

table.

As you complete each prompt, change the status to “Done”.

🌷Reading Graph

The

Reading Graph⁠

page is a gorgeous view of your reading stats. You can toggle the dates using the dropdown menu, so you can view everything, this month’s stats, this week’s stats, last year’s stats, etc.