The Soothing Order of Bookish Bullet Journal Videos

We’ve covered bullet journals a lot, including reading bullet journals. If you’re not familiar, it’s an organization system that is flexible and often quite artistic. Bullet journals are usually used as a variation on a planner, but there are all kind of specific directions you can take them. A reading bujo might track your TBR, the pages you read in a month, your favorite reads of the year, and so on.

There are no rules for how to design a bullet journal, and they can absolutely be stripped-down, basic tools. What they’re known for on the internet, though, are elaborate, artistic iterations, often ones that require a backlog of supplies, including washi tape and a variety of markers. They are beautiful and (hopefully) functional, and they often become a hobby in their own right.

Here’s the thing, though: I am never going to start a reading bullet journal. I am not an artistic person, I get frustrated trying to do most kinds of crafts, and I’m not very visual. I do all my planning online, and the idea of switching to a paper format, although very pretty and a neat memento, is counterproductive for me. I track my reading on my blog and Goodreads, where I can easily sort and search for the information I need. I am trying to add a spreadsheet as well, but there’s no way I’m going to start a bookish bujo.

So why do I keep watching these videos? Why have I spent hours watching people artfully tear craft paper, make calligraphy headers, and draw bookshelves to fill in? (Okay, to be fair, some of those hours I was actually asleep.) I think I know, and it has nothing to do with any interest in actually starting a bujo myself.

I watch these reading bujo setup videos when I am feeling overwhelmed and scattered, because they depict a life that appears carefully and artistically ordered. In a bullet journal, everything is in its place. TBR lists suggest that the user will dutifully follow the plan, and not wake up in a sweat because they’re months behind on ARCs and think publishers hate them now. (Not that I’d know anything about that.) It’s the same reason I will watch videos of a woman organize dollar store shelves for 45 minutes at a time — I highly recommend them, if you like that kind of thing. It is oddly satisfying (which is another kind of video I fall asleep to) for my scattered mind. I especially like watching the set ups, where they’re all potential. I don’t want to see where the user didn’t meet their goals or forgot to fill out a spread; I like to imagine that everything followed perfectly as it was laid out.