Free Book Log Canva Template

January 3, 2024

If you wanna skip past my little life story, the canva template link is right here!

I was a prolific bookworm as a child. I read and read and read and read! I was never tested, but I was hyperlexic, and read at a level far past my peers. I wasn't really taught to read either, I just decided one day, at my Montessori preschool, when I was 4, that I was going to read. And I was going to do it out loud. So I picked up a Berenstain Bears book and just...did it. I literally cannot explain how this happened, but I was not the only hyperlexic child to do such a thing. I've read loads of stories from other people with similar experiences. My mom read to me regularly, and we watched a lot of subtitled movies, so I had a lot of exposure to words.

As I got older and we were forced to read more books in school that weren't terribly appealing to me, I read less and less. And by my mid 20s I wasn't really reading books at all anymore. I still would read manga online, but books without pictures just didn't make it into my free time.

Fast forward to 2019 at 30 when I decided to buy a kindle paperwhite, because I was sure I could get into reading again if I had a more convenient way to do it. I got a library card, downloaded libby, got a KU membership. And I still barely read anything, oops!

But finally, the reading bug bit me in summer 2023. And I've been devouring books since! I really cannot get enough fantasy romance, especially YA. Strictly popcorn books. I want to have fun, possibly cry a little, and giggle. That's it. I don't want to educate myself or broaden my mind, I just want junk food.

Last year I was just reading whatever I got my grubby mitts on without much thought, but this year I actually want to track all the books I read! Just for fun, to look back on. I don't have any reading goals or anything like that, my only "goal" is to enjoy my hobby.

I thought I might use my planner and draw a cute little book shelf, and fill in the books as I went, but then I REALLY thought about it, and would I? Would I actually put in that effort? Maybe. Maybe not. So forget it, let's be realistic here. I made a digital canva template and I can easily update that every time I finish a book. And it's all colorful and nice! And I thought maybe other people would want to use it too, so I made it into a template.

The leaf corner flourishes at the top, the title, the "month" and the blank stars are all one flat background image. The books you can change the color of to match the actual books, and the yellow stars are there for you to copy and paste and use over the outlined stars. And that "january" up there is of course editable, and you can copy and paste that as you go. It's super easy to use! Oh, and the "template by HELLOhappy" is removable too ;) You don't have to keep that there if you don't want.

The project has 6 pages, but you can just duplicate the last page over and over as many times as you need for the year. Just be sure to always duplicate the final page before you start using it! Only the first page has stuff on it, and I included that so you can easily see how to use it. And yes, that's the actual start of my book log haha.

If you'd like to use this template yourself, here's the link!

You can of course copy this idea and make your own template, I certainly didn't come up with the idea of a book log haha. But I'd absolutely love to see your design if you make one, so if you want to share it, tag me!