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Welcome to
The Reading Journal, Anonymous!
Anonymous
Reading is a revolutionary and transformative act. Reading creates new pathways in our brain and . When we explore the inner workings of a beloved (or not-so-beloved) character’s mind, our . Some 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?
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.
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
🛋️ Reading Central
⭐ 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 from served as an inspiration.
Categories in the ESCAPES Rating System
1
E
Enjoyment
Overall enjoyment of the book/story/general feeling of the book as a whole.
2
S
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?
3
C
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?
4
A
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?
5
P
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?
6
E
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?
7
S
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
1
10
One of my absolute favorites ever.
2
9
Excellent. Near perfect. Maybe one little problem holding it back, but that's it.
3
8
Great. A couple of problems, but nothing major.
4
7
Good. Solid. Nothing groundbreaking, and it certainly has issues, but I enjoy it.
5
6
Ok. Lots of good things and a fair amount of bad things, but the former prevails.
6
5
Mediocre. Basically, for every good thing, there's something bad.
7
4
Poor. Some good things, but the bad outweighs the good.
8
3
Bad. A few good things, but overall not enjoyable.
9
2
Horrible. Maybe one potentially good thing but not enough to redeem it.
10
1
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:
1
9-10
2
7 - 8.9
3
4.6 - 6.9
4
2.3 - 4.5
5
1.1 - 2.2
6
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
👀 Reading Challenges
🌷Reading Graph
The 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.
🥅 Goals
The section allows you to set your yearly reading goal, as well as giving you an overview of the status of your Reading Challenges.
Use the slider to set your yearly goal. You will get a breakdown of how many books you have to read per month to achieve this goal.
The slider communicates directly with the page. Take a look at past yearly goals, and current in that page.
⚙️ Customization
The section allows you to customize different fields and lookups. Tinker with it to your heart’s content, after all, this is your doc ❤️.
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.