A reading log with pages, minutes and a recall note per session

Goal

Keep a record of reading that answers, for any book, how many sessions it took, how long they were, where the pace changed, and what the reader could recall at the start of the next session, using entries short enough to be written at the end of every session.

Prerequisites

A notebook or spreadsheet, a clock, and a decision on the page basis per format: printed page numbers for print, the reader application's page or location count for e-books (stated as such, since it depends on font size and screen), and minutes only for audio.

Steps

1. Open a header per book: title, author, edition or file, format, total pages or locations on the stated basis, the date started, and whether it is a first read or a reread.
2. Per session, record date, start and end time as local time with the time zone, start and end page or location on the header's basis, the place (train, sofa, bed) and the number of interruptions the reader noticed.
3. Before reopening the book at the next session, write one line of recall from memory: what happened last, or the main claim of the last chapter. Only then reopen and mark the line with a tick, a cross or a question mark according to whether the text confirms it. Do not edit the line afterwards.
4. Record a session even when it was abandoned after a page; a row with two pages is information.
5. When a book is finished or abandoned, close the header with the end date, the outcome (finished, abandoned at page N, parked) and a short reason in the reader's own words.
6. Weekly, compute pages per hour per book from the rows as a derived column; keep it separate from the raw rows and never compare it between formats.

Expected result

For each book, a list of sessions in which slow stretches, long gaps and abandoned reads are visible, and a series of recall lines whose tick rate can be read as a rough self-report of retention per book or per reading place.

Limits and test basis

Proposed protocol; pages per hour depends on typography, language and the reader's purpose, so it describes this reader with this book and is not a reading-speed test. The recall line is a self-assessment, marked by the same person; it shows change over time, not comprehension in any tested sense. No reading target, method or recommendation is part of the protocol.