Journals
Reading journal or reading app?
They are good at different things, and the split is cleaner than the argument suggests. An app is a database. A journal is somewhere to think. Most heavy readers end up with both.
By Scooter M. · Published · Last updated
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| # | Gift | Key spec | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Comkiso Reading Journal Two review pages per book, an index, a TBR tracker and a back pocket — the fullest structure of any journal here. | 75 books | The most complete package | 8.3 | Check price |
| 2 |  Hadley Designs Spiral Reading Journal The only spiral-bound journal here, and the largest at 7 by 10 inches — it opens flat, which a hardback does not. | 150 pages | Lying flat while you write | 6.9 | Check price |
| 3 |  Lysas Morandi Sticky Tabs, 1,200 Pieces Twelve hundred writable PET tabs in six muted colors, sized and specified properly — the most-used gift on this list, per dollar. | 1,200 tabs, 6 colors | Someone who annotates | 8.0 | Check price |
This gets argued as though one has to win. It does not, and the reason is that they are not the same tool: one is storage and the other is a thinking exercise that happens to leave a record.
What an app is genuinely better at
What paper is better at, and it is only one thing
Handwriting is slower than typing, and that is the entire advantage. Writing one sentence by hand forces you to decide what the sentence is before you start it, where a text field invites you to type three vague ones and move on. The entries people reread years later are almost always the handwritten ones, and they are usually shorter.
There is a second, smaller thing: a paper journal has no other tabs in it. Opening an app to record a book puts you one notification away from not recording the book.
The split that works
- App: to-be-read list, currently reading, the star rating, the date. All the fields that are facts.
- Journal: the sentence, the quoted line, who you would give it to. All the fields that are opinions.
That division also solves the duplication objection, which is the usual argument against running both: you are not writing the same thing twice, you are writing different things in the place each belongs.
If you are buying this as a gift
The relevant question is not which is better; it is whether the person already writes things down. Someone who keeps a notebook, journals, or has ever taken handwritten notes on something for pleasure will use a reading journal. Someone whose entire life is on their phone will find it charming for two weeks.
If you are not sure, the lower-risk version of this gift is a good bookmark or a pack of annotation tabs — both feed the same habit without asking anyone to commit to a blank book.
A middle option worth knowing about
Annotation tabs plus an app is a genuinely good setup for somebody who will not keep a journal. Tab the lines you liked as you read; the book itself becomes the record, and the app holds the list. It requires no habit beyond sticking a tab on a page, which is the lowest-friction version of the whole idea.
Every pick
All of them, in full
Each write-up shows the gift-fit score broken into its five parts, the specs the seller actually publishes, and who should give it a miss.
No. 1 — The most complete package
Comkiso Reading Journal
Two review pages per book, an index, a TBR tracker and a back pocket — the fullest structure of any journal here.
| Spec disclosurecomputed | 14 / 20 |
|---|---|
| Gift readinessour call | 18 / 20 |
| Works for any readerour call | 17 / 20 |
| Materials and buildour call | 16 / 20 |
| Everyday useour call | 18 / 20 |
| Total | 83 / 100 |
| Page count or review count | 75 book reviews, two pages each Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
|---|---|
| Trim size | A5 Seller’s product title, read 2026-09-07 |
| Cover material | Linen Seller’s product title, read 2026-09-07 |
| Binding | Not published Not published |
| Paper weight | Not published Not published |
| Prompted or blank | Prompted — title, author, start and finish dates, star rating, plus an index, daily reading pages, challenges and a TBR list Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
| Extras included | Pen loop, ribbon bookmark, elastic band, back pocket Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
Two review pages per book instead of one is the structural decision that separates this from the rest of the category. Seventy-five books at two pages each is a book you write paragraphs in, not one you fill in like a form — and for a reader who actually has thoughts about what they read, that is the whole point of owning one.
The index is the underrated feature. A journal with 75 entries and no index is a journal you cannot search, and after two years that is exactly what you want to do with it. Very few in this category include one.
Everything a stationery person checks for is here: pen loop, ribbon, elastic closure, back pocket for the loose things that accumulate. The two blanks are paper weight and binding, and paper weight is the one that would decide it against the SIMVIA for someone who writes in fountain pen.
Give it if
The reader who annotates, has opinions, and will use both pages. Also the best of these for a book club.
Skip it if
They want to record a title and a star rating and move on. Two pages a book is a lot of paper.
No. 2 — Lying flat while you write
Hadley Designs Spiral Reading Journal
The only spiral-bound journal here, and the largest at 7 by 10 inches — it opens flat, which a hardback does not.
| Spec disclosurecomputed | 11 / 20 |
|---|---|
| Gift readinessour call | 13 / 20 |
| Works for any readerour call | 15 / 20 |
| Materials and buildour call | 13 / 20 |
| Everyday useour call | 17 / 20 |
| Total | 69 / 100 |
| Page count or review count | 150 pages Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
|---|---|
| Trim size | 7 x 10 in Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
| Cover material | Not published Not published |
| Binding | Spiral Seller’s product title, read 2026-09-07 |
| Paper weight | Not published Not published |
| Prompted or blank | Prompted — titles, ratings, reviews and personal notes Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
| Extras included | Not published Not published |
Spiral binding is the reason to choose this one and it is a better reason than it sounds. A hardback journal has to be held open with one hand while you write with the other; a spiral one lies flat on a table and stays there. If the person you are buying for writes proper notes rather than a star rating, that is the difference between using it and meaning to.
Seven by ten inches is genuinely large — half again the writing area of the A5 journals here. Whether that is generous or unwieldy depends entirely on where they will use it.
The listing publishes a page count rather than a review count, which is not the same thing and cannot be converted into one without knowing the layout. Cover material and paper weight are both blank, and on a spiral book that will be opened flat repeatedly, cover material is the one you would want.
Give it if
Someone who writes real notes, at a table, with a proper pen.
Skip it if
It is going in a bag. Spiral bindings catch on everything and bend out of shape faster than a sewn spine.
No. 3 — Someone who annotates
Lysas Morandi Sticky Tabs, 1,200 Pieces
Twelve hundred writable PET tabs in six muted colors, sized and specified properly — the most-used gift on this list, per dollar.
| Spec disclosurecomputed | 16 / 20 |
|---|---|
| Gift readinessour call | 13 / 20 |
| Works for any readerour call | 17 / 20 |
| Materials and buildour call | 15 / 20 |
| Everyday useour call | 19 / 20 |
| Total | 80 / 100 |
| Material | PET film — non-toxic, odorless, waterproof Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 1.73 x 0.43 in each Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
| Quantity in pack | 1,200 — six sets of 200 Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
| Gift packaging | Not published Not published |
| Care instructions | Writable, removable and repositionable Seller’s listing, read 2026-09-07 |
Annotating with tabs — marking a line, a passage, a scene to come back to — is now how a very large number of readers read, and a person who does it goes through tabs constantly. This is the gift that actually gets used up, which is a better property in a present than it sounds.
PET rather than paper is the specification that matters. A paper tab tears when you peel it off and leaves adhesive on the page; a PET film tab does not, and it can be repositioned. It is also writable, which paper-backed transparent tabs frequently are not.
One and three quarter inches by four tenths is the standard annotation size — small enough to sit inside a paperback margin without sticking out past the page edge, which is the failure mode of the larger office flags people substitute.
Twelve hundred is enough for a year of heavy annotating. The 4,200-piece set below is enough for several, if you want the more obviously generous version of the same gift.
Give it if
Anyone who reads with a pen in their hand, or who has ever photographed a page to remember a line.
Skip it if
They treat books as objects to keep pristine. Not everyone wants to stick things in them.
Answers
Questions people actually ask
Is a paper reading journal better than an app?
They are better at different things. An app wins on searching, lists, statistics and recommendations — everything that is a database problem, including answering “have I read this?” while standing in a bookshop. Paper wins on the one sentence you will want to reread in three years, because writing by hand forces you to decide what you think before you write it.
Can you use a reading journal and a reading app together?
Yes, and it is the setup most heavy readers end up with. Put the facts in the app — to-be-read list, currently reading, rating, dates — and the opinions in the journal: the sentence, the quoted line, who you would give it to. You are not duplicating anything, because each holds what it is good at holding.
Why do people prefer handwritten reading journals?
Because handwriting is slower. That sounds like a disadvantage and it is the main benefit: writing one sentence by hand makes you decide what the sentence is, where a text field invites three vague ones. There is also no second tab in a paper journal, so recording a book does not put you one notification away from not recording it.
What if I keep abandoning reading journals?
Then stop buying them. If you have tried twice and stopped twice, a third journal is not the answer — an app you actually use beats a beautiful notebook you do not. A lower-friction middle option is annotation tabs plus an app: tab the lines you like as you read so the book itself becomes the record, and let the app hold the list.