Reading journal prompts: 60 questions for every stage of a book

The hardest part of a reading journal is the blank page after "I finished it". These prompts are for that moment. They are grouped by when they work best: before you start, while you read, when you finish, and months later. You do not need to answer many. One question and one honest line is a good entry.

How to use them

• Pick one, not ten. Read down the list until one catches you, and answer only that.
• Answer in a line. A sentence you will actually write beats a page you will not.
• Write what is true, not what sounds good. Nobody else is reading it.

Before you start

1. Why this book, and why now?
2. Who or what put it in your hands?
3. What do you expect it to make you feel?
4. What do you already know about it, and what would you rather not know?
5. What is going on in your life as you open it?
6. Is there a book you hope it will be like?
7. What would make you abandon it?
8. Where and when will you read it?

While you read

9. Where are you, right now, as you read?
10. Which line made you stop?
11. What do you think will happen next?
12. Which character do you trust least, and why?
13. What is the book doing to your mood today?
14. Is it what you expected so far?
15. What would you ask the author at this point?
16. Which scene would you show someone to sell them the book?
17. What question is keeping you reading?
18. When did you last lose track of time with it?
19. What does this book remind you of?
20. If you stopped now, what would you miss?

About the characters

21. Which character would you call at 2 a.m.?
22. Who did you misjudge at first?
23. Who would you want as a friend, and who as an enemy?
24. Which character is most like you, even in a way you would rather not admit?
25. What do you want for the main character that they do not want for themselves?
26. Which relationship in the book felt the most real?
27. Who deserved a better ending?
28. Which villain or rival did you end up understanding?

When you finish

29. What did the ending actually do to you?
30. Describe how you feel right now in three words.
31. What did you want to happen that did not?
32. Which scene keeps coming back?
33. Did it change your mind about anything?
34. Who would you give this book to, and why?
35. What will you remember about it in a year?
36. Was it the book you needed right now?
37. What will you read next, and is it because of this one?
38. If the book had a colour, which would it be?
39. What was the best moment, the one you would read again tonight?
40. What would you tell yourself on page one?

Lines and scenes

41. Which line would you underline twice?
42. Copy one sentence exactly. Why that one?
43. Which scene would you like to see on screen, and which never?
44. Which line made you laugh out loud?
45. Which passage did you read twice because you did not want it to end?
46. Is there a line you would like to say to someone?

About you

47. What was happening in your life while you read it?
48. What did this book understand about you?
49. Did it make you think about someone in particular?
50. What did you learn about your own taste?
51. When did you feel most like yourself while reading it?
52. Would the person you were five years ago have liked it?

For a book you did not finish

53. Where did you stop, and what made you put it down?
54. Was it the book, or was it the moment?
55. Is there anything from it you want to keep?
56. Would you try it again someday?

Months later, or on a reread

57. What do you still remember, without looking?
58. What has faded completely?
59. How has your opinion changed?
60. What did you notice the second time that you missed the first?

Keeping your answers in Storyfeel

In Storyfeel the prompts have a place to land. A Diary entry in Feels takes a whole answer, on the day you wrote it. When you save a highlight or a quote, Your thought asks What did this moment stir in you?, and you can give it the colour of what you felt. Your review of a book asks How did it make you feel? And months later, Recall in Games brings your highlights, quotes and summaries back, a few each day.

For the routine around the prompts, read how to keep a reading journal. Or start your journal free: it is encrypted end to end, so nobody else can read your answers, us included.