My Little Shelf

A reading journal that reflects your reading. Every book you finish goes up on a painted shelf, face out, so a year of reading looks like something rather than reading like a spreadsheet. As the shelf fills, older books file themselves away side-on as spines — the way a real shelf works. WHAT YOU KEEP Rate in half stars. Save the line worth keeping. Write the note you want to find again in a year. Record why you saved a book in the first place, and — when it happens — why you put one down. Setting a book aside is never treated as a failure here. A MONTH, AS A PICTURE Any month's reading becomes a painted scene you can share. January is a seedling garden, July an autumn walk, December a lit library with snow going past the window. Twelve months, twelve paintings, so a year of sharing reads as a set rather than the same picture again and again. QUIETLY KEEPING TRACK Set a monthly goal and…