Hi friends! Jules here from bujowithjules on Instagram and Tiktok. :)

I’m so happy to show you how to create a monthly reading tracker with only a few supplies. I believe this can be a useful spread for everyone, whether you’re a bookworm (like me) or not. Here are the essentials you’ll be needing in order to achieve the same result as me:

• an A&O notebook (I chose an 8x8 one, but feel free to use any format you’re comfortable with)

• a few acrylographs (you can find here the ones I used)

If you want to save a little bit at checkout, make sure to use my code ‘’Jules’’ for 10% off your order. :)

Optional supplies in case you have them around the house:

• a paintbrush

• a pencil and eraser

• a fineliner

• a ruler

Instructions:

First, I made a light sketch using only the pencil, just to make sure I was happy with the proportions and the overall layout. I recommend watching the video if you want to see the whole sketching process, but you can skip this part in your bujo if you feel really confident. 

Let’s start with the top left side of the spread, which is the calendar. Here I drew a rectangular box and I added the days of the month. I left some blank spaces to note at a later date, the pages I read during the corresponding month. If you’re using a ruler to help you outline the calendar, make sure to let the paint dry for a few seconds, so it won’t smudge when you lift the ruler. However, if this still happens, you can use the white acrylograph to hide the smudge. It also works for any other mistakes, so be prepared to have a white acrylograph close. Accidentally, I drew too many boxes, so I coloured in the extras and using a lighter shade, I wrote ”book space”.

I’ll be using different colours to track my reading habits during the month, filling in the boxes containing days. For the colour code, I went with the same colour palette as the rest of the pages and I used the acrylographs from the Cool Fall Collection.

For the title I decided on modern calligraphy, but as you can see it’s quite simple to recreate. I went with ”monthly reading tracker” for the title, but you can substitute it with ”monthly book tracker” as well.

I noticed there was too much blank space between the title and the illustration, so I added a little quote ”Keep calm and read”.

I always try to add illustrations to my spreads and here’s quite a simple one. I tried to recreate a bookshelf using acrylographs. You can use them to normally colour the drawing, but you can also blend them to create new shades (if you don’t know how to do this, I recommend watching the video for a quick demonstration).

You can create shadows where necessary by using darker shades. This will add depth to the drawing and will make it look more like a proper illustration. I outlined the books using a fineliner, but if you don’t have one at hand you can also use an acrylograph of a darker shade. Draw a few messy lines on each book to represent the title and the author which can be usually found on the spine of a book.

I also wanted to keep track of the titles I read, just in case I’ll need this information in the future. It’ll be also useful when I’ll add these titles to my Goodreads list. I divided the table into three columns: book title, author and stars (or rating). 

And that’s it! You can also watch the whole process in the video I made just for you. And download this free handy printable:

I hope you find this idea interesting and useful. Let me know on instagram at @bujowithjules how your monthly reading tracker turned out. I’d love to see your recreations and talk more about bullet journaling! You can also read more blog articles, about bullet journaling, on my blog, which is linked right here.