Today, for the first time in months, I pulled my book journal off the shelf of the bookcase in my kitchen. The reason was that I had just finished another book today and wanted to record it before I forgot it and the other two that I’ve finished this month. And then I remembered that I’d started a Google document at some point with the titles and authors of two other books I’d read earlier in the year but was nowhere near my journal to record them, so I started the doc to record the information in case I forgot about them, which is good because I almost had.
After, I started flipping through it, looking back at past years. There were quite a few books I’d forgotten about, a lot that I had remembered the plot to but couldn’t remember the title, and more than a few I think I want to re-read at some point. Other things, like why I had written “lupus?” in the margin beside Gil Adamson’s Outlander or where exactly did the quote about the head in the jar come from[1. "Hey, is that a head in a jar?" "What gave it away - the head or the jar?" ] and which title-less Suzanne Brockmann book was I referring to when I wrote “almost as good as Troubleshooters books”[2. It's dated summer of 2008, around the time I was in the Maritimes, which means I read it and gave it away and forgot the title but remembered the author. ], puzzle me. And then there are all the different pens, the handwriting, short vs. long descriptions, funny comments – basically, it was a big long trip down memory lane.
But then I got to 2009. Sad, neglected 2009. I only managed to chronicle about half the year, and there are a couple of post-it notes with acronyms I can assume are the titles of books which I intended to memorialize, but never did. There are books I am certain I read last year but aren’t there, and it makes me sad that I didn’t record them and some of them are most certainly lost to me now.
This has given me a renewed sense of responsibility to keep up with my book chronicling. I did a little at the beginning of the year, and now that I remember how important it is to me, how important it is to remember what I have read, I will be more diligent in recording my reading habits.
As a mostly writer (of foolish things) and interweb readist, I have to wonder, why chronicle books?
Maybe I’m just outside the bookosphere, I see other people list the books they read, and give a mild synopsis or review, and a rating out of x stars, but it never moves me to actually read the same thing. So I just wonder, do you read other people’s lists and are moved to seek out the books they listed if they rated them well or the review sounds nifty?
I tend to forget all but my favorite book’s titles that I have read.
That’s why I keep track of what I’ve read – I tend to forget everything and then have vague recollections of plots or characters but don’t remember where they’re from. I may never read them again, or may have hated it with every fibre of my being, but at least I have somewhere I can make a note of this for next time.
I had to read some books in university that I hated with every fibre of my being. Thankfully I don’t remember their titles!
I liked the head in the jar quote. I will have to use that by toting around a head in a jar, just to prompt the opportunity.