A Fun Way to Track Your Reading in a Bullet Journal

My book tracker for 2026

Over the summer of 2025, I attended a virtual week long event hosted by Peggy Dean. One of the artists contributing to the event was Jessica Mack. She presented a Bullet Journal (aka BUJO) spread that she makes every year in her BUJO to track the books she read during that year. I use Goodreads for tracking my reading, but this is waaaaayyyyy more fun. Now I do both.

These are not meant to be a masterpiece. Just a creative and functional page (or spread) to track the books you read. I gave it a try in 2025. It was very satisfying to write my finished titles on one of the randomly colored books on the shelf. Not to mention that it looks so adorable in my bullet journal!

So far I have read 5 books in January. I am currently reading another that I am two-thirds of the way through. I mostly do my reading at night before bed, but I also try to squeeze it in at others times of the day. I have a goal to read at least 20 minutes a day.

New Genre for me

During December, I wanted to read more Christmas type of books. I found a bunch of authors I never read before. I became addicted to reading them, so I still have a bunch in my Kindle queue. I can’t believe I never knew that L Frank Baum wrote a Christmas book! I read that, too!

I like to read books in both the real version and the digital version. I mostly download the digital versions from the library and if I can’t find what I am looking for there, I head over to Kindle. I much prefer the physical book, but reading the digital versions that I only want to borrow saves money, too. Books I actually want to keep, I usually purchase the physical version.

Making the BUJO book page

Jessica Mack makes the page simple and easy to do. Measure out and make shelves, add books and then add plants and decor. And of course, the pet children. I did this mine with black ink and Tombow Dual Brush pens.

In 2025, I forgot to add Cleo to both my Christmas card and the book shelf. My daughter pointed that out so you’ll see that there is also a frame with Cleo for 2026. If you have been following me a while, you’ll remember Cleo as the black kitty who was running in and out of my sketches. She left us for the rainbow bridge in 2020.

Try it for yourself, your way. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Just have fun. You might find yourself reading more, too.

(Oh, if the ink smears a bit. That’s ok, too. Just make sure the black ink you use is permanent to lessen that issue.)

Here is the finished page from my 2025 Bullet Journal.