Re-thinking Reading Logs as an Adult

My Mom is one of the most avid readers I know, and it was her example of reading for pleasure that spurred me on to a lifetime career as a school librarian.

​Mom lives about a 12-hour drive from me. When we have a chance to get together, one of our questions to each other is always, "What are you reading right now?" Mom always has a couple of magazines or books stacked on my old dresser to pass along to me—texts she thinks I will enjoy. I usually have a couple of books in my suitcase ready to hand over to Mom.

I've never been a fan of reading logs. As a school librarian who spent her entire career helping kids enjoy books because they are fun to read, not because they are an assignment, I've simply had trouble supporting regular reading logs that build a compliance mindset. But, I started to re-think that notion recently because a reading log would make sense for Mom and me at this point in our lives.

So, I gave my Mom a reading log. Two, actually—one for fiction books and one for nonfiction books.  She and her friends like to share books, so now Mom can have an easy way to record titles of books and who she thinks might want to read a book after she finishes it.

As for my own reading habits, I usually have several books going at one time. So, I've started using the logs to help me remember key ideas (particularly the nonfiction I read for work), as well as reminding me to recommend a great thriller/suspense novel to a friend. Or to my Mom :)

As an adult who doesn't have to keep a reading log like I did as a kid, I'm having fun creating a record of my thoughts about books to pass on. And, I know that I will have the wonderful treasure of my mom's reading logs one day, too.

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