A few weeks ago, a friend who is a fellow writer and reader asked me if I kept a log of the books I read. I do, but unlike her, I’ve only been keeping mine since 2002. She began hers when she was in seventh grade, and said she started it because she learned her grandmother kept a log of the books she read and thought it was a neat idea.
At the time I started my reading log, I was working in a library, and I noticed a few different library patrons, usually older women, who kept notebooks of the books they had read, in some cases so they didn’t mistakenly read the same book more than once. Since, I don’t usually consult my reading log to see if I’ve read a book or not (I usually rely on my memory), I’m not sure what the purpose of my reading log is, but I still dutifully keep it.
What about you? Do you keep a reading log? Why do you keep it? When and why did you start it?
My Books
Is that a picture of your log? Very cool.
I don’t keep one, though I have a file on my computer with a list of books I’ve read for the year. I’m terrible about updating it, and sometimes I’ll write notes about what I liked/didn’t like. I’ve always been an inconsistent journal writer.
I think the benefit of keeping one (and you would know better since you do keep one!) is that you have a chance to reflect on what you’ve read. Even if you just write the title and date, the act of writing it down might cement some of the ideas you’ve had about the book. That’s what I love about discussing books with other people; ideas that I didn’t know I had come together when I’m actively talking or thinking about the book. It’s too easy, given all that we have to do, to “shelve” the book once it’s done and forget the feeling it created for us.
Wow, that was a long comment saying not much of anything. ;-D Anyway, back to the beginning: cool idea, thanks for sharing!
I agree with what you wrote. When I was flipping through my log to find a page to photograph (I wanted to find one without any cross outs or blank lines – a book that I forgot to write down) I started reading through my log and it jogged my memories not only about books but about different things that were going on in my life at the time. Things like, hey I remember reading that book, that was when we got that big snowstorm, or that was when I was staying at Grandma’s house came to mind. So it is sort of like a real journal in that way, which, like you, I am pretty inconstant about keeping.