Review: To Read or Not To Read - A Literary Journal for the Book Lover's Soul

I love reading, and I have written more than my share of reviews on my blog and given lots of verbal reviews to others. Sometimes, though I can't recall what book it was that held a specific quote or idea. I know that some people keep quote journals, but I haven't started one.

To Read or Not To Read: A literary journal for the book lover's soul has a solution for all of that. The journal has a standard format on two-page spreads throughout the book for recording each book that you read. You can list it's author, publishing date, the reason you read it, give it a star rating, include notes from the book, your review, and the main thing you learned from the book.  There is an index included at the beginning where you can list the book title and know what page to turn to for the review. 

 

 

Each two-page spread includes a literary quote, or a piece of trivia about literature, authors, or books in general. 

 

The cover of the book is elegant, with a soft-cover that has a thick, leather-like feel to it. The pages inside are lovely and beautifully designed.  In addition to the book review pages, there are additional lists and rankings  pages scattered throughout the book for you to record your opinions on genres and books. 

Overall, this is a wonderful gift idea for the bibliophile in your life. In our family, that would primarily be my 21 year old daughter. I wish I'd started a journal like this when I was younger. Besides being helpful for my own personal memory, it would also provide a record of my changing tastes and patterns. If you write book reviews online, this can be a starting place to pull your thoughts together before posting a finished review. If you only want to write reviews for your personal and family enjoyment, To Read or Not To Read is also perfect for that.

April E.

Review: NIV Beautiful Word Bible For Girls Gift Set

 

 

We were so excited to be chosen to review the NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible for Girls gift set. My 14 year old daughter had recently been teaching her 10 year old sister to do Bible journaling, but the ten year old didn't have a journaling Bible of her own. Now she does!

The NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible has a hard cover with a leather-style feel to it. The turquoise color is my daughter's favorite color and the floral design on it is feminine without limiting the design to only young girls. The gift set includes four twistable colored pencils and a package of Scripture stickers that can be used to decorate the margins of the Bible or in other craft projects.

Almost every page has wide lined margins for note-taking or journaling. Periodically, one of the pages  has a coloring design in the margin. These usually highlight a key verse on that particular page and only need to be colored in. The pages have a nice thickness to them, though I still recommend using colored pencils rather than markers.

 

 

There are also a few pages with large full-page Bible verse designs on them. These are spaced throughout the Bible, and my daughter was quick to select one to color.

 

 

 

This Beautiful Word Bible For Girls Gift Set is perfect for the tweens and the teenage girls in your life. My 10 year old and 14 year old daughters were both impressed with the Bible. It's sturdy enough to carry to church, has a beautiful cover design, is well-made, with comfortable-sized font, and contains the easily understood New International Version text. My daughter was so proud to be able to use this in church last month!

I received a copy of the NIV Beautiful Word Coloring Bible for Girls Gift Set from Zondervan (HarperCollins Christian Publishing) for this review.  This post is sponsored by Zondervan. 

April E.