Recently as part of some estate work, I arranged for the removal of the contents of the deceased person's home library (she was an avid reader). There was a Journal at the end of the book shelf and when I opened it, it read "The Books I Have Read In My Lifetime". The inception date was 1933; the entries were: date started, date completed, title of book, author, comments. It made me think, how many of us have recorded every book we have ever read? What a legacy to leave behind.
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I am a homeschooler and an "older" mom. I began saving all of our library receipts when my son was still an infant. I have since found the time to began creating scrapbooks of our day to day activities and the receipts are there. Not only his interests but mine as well. I do agree it is quite a legacy and when I am long gone he will have something to remind him of what my interests were.
I've been doing something similar with a spreadsheet on my computer since about 2000. I keep track of the title, author(s) and date read. I hadn't thought about keeping comments with it. It is interesting to see how my reading habits have changed. For instance, it takes a lot longer to finish a book since my kids were born. I can also tell when I was pregnant--lots of baby books.
I never thought about it as a legacy to leave behind. My almost 3-year-old already enjoys "reading". When he gets older, it might be nice for him to see what his mother read and what she thought of it. I do have some blank journals lying around somewhere. Sounds like a new project!
Camilla
I'm a reader and sure wish I had done this, it would be great to look back on.
I am currently saving the hardback books I have read and when I have enough I am going to make a coffee table base out of them. I already have a peice of tempered glass to use as the top. Hopefully my kids will think it's interesting enough to save when I'm gone.
I loved this idea. I've added books I'm reading in my journals. It's always interesting to see what was interesting me during certain times. I highly recommend reading some of the classics, Dickens, Steinbeck, George Elliot, Jane Austin, Thoreau, Victor Hugo just for a change. You see how much life is the same and how much it has changed over time and it's great for educating yourself in literature.
Thanks for sharing this idea. I think I'll start one and try to remember books I've read that I really liked to fill in some of the many years of reading.
Susan from ThriftyFun
What a touching discovery. And what a wonderful idea. It makes me want to make a list of Books I Should Read in My Lifetime, and then get started.
This is an excellent idea. I did start only a few years ago to list the books I read for that year.. but it fell by the wayside. As I've been a voracious reader since I was six years old, and am now just into my seventh decade, I've read literally thousands of books, Sometimes I go to my local library and think 'Haven't they got ANYTHING I haven't read" LOL!
I starting journaling the books I read in 1998. I read an average of 110 books a year. I used to write comments about each book, but discontinued that practice in 2002, due to lack of time. I now keep track of my books two ways - my journals and a great website www.librarything.com. It's real purpose is to make a list of your personal library, but I use it to keep track of the books I've read, whether I own the book or not. It's free to start an account with up to 200 books. A year membership is $10 and a lifetime membership is $25. I didn't want to splurge on it myself so my husband gave me the membership as a Christmas gift. (He even printed a "gift certificate" for me that he made up on his computer.) I started reading when I was three and I wish I had started my list back then.
How many of you voracious readers pick up a book that sounds good, start reading it and realize you've already read it? Since you can access your librarything account from anywhere, you can check your list before you buy or borrow a book.
Ellie, I say the same thing when I go to my library. "They have no new books. I have read everything. People need to write more books." Now when I go to the library I make sure to get at least one classic and one children's or teen book. I also ask my 17 year old brother in law what he is reading in school. I've gotten some great recommendations that way.
That's a great idea. Wish I had started doing that earlier. Reading and books are about the only thing my mom and I have in common and I've been devouring as many as I could get my hands on since 2nd grade.
I have been an avid reader since early childhood- I suppose with a librarian as a mother, I was destined to do so. I love this idea and may start immediately.
I have a file box that I do each author alphabetically and list the books I read; I rate them. This also helps when I get books at yard sales if I have read them, check the file, I pass on.
I began listing my books in 1979, writing them down in a handy steno book with a 1-2-3 rating, 3 being "great", separated by month & numbered. At the end of a page, they go into my computer master file (so I don't have to enter them all at once), then get sorted by title into the master list, printed, and re-sorted by author & printed. I know, it's a lot of paper, but it's a whole lot easier to grab the notebook & take it with to the library when the computer's busy with DH on it.
It's great to look back & see what I read, if it was good, or to send on to friends who beg for "a good book". After 20 years, I began book list 2, as it was so big. They are separated by color in the notebook. In the second list I made a column for the year it was read as well. I also keep the steno books for just pure sentimental reasons. I can also look back then & see how many were read in a given month/year. I credit a friend who asked me that year how many books I read/year. I had no idea. Turns out to be around 110, depending on what else is going on in a year. So happy to see others are doing similar things; great minds...
My mom is a avid reader, and she does keep a alphabetical list of books she has read, but nothing like what you told us about here, she did hers just to keep track and recall if she had read the book before. I do like the part you mentioned about her personal notes of hers of the books she read, neat idea... I bet someone like this person was well organized in many aspects of life.
I just started making a Journal like this earlier this year. I have mine in hard cover 1 inch binder. With alphabetical page dividers, I use to sort the Authors. I use college ruled loose leaf paper, for the list of books.
At the top of the sheet, I will write the Authors name. Then on the left margin lines, I will write down numbers 1- 30, what ever fit on the front of the sheet. On the right margin lines I wrote Dates Read.
Next, I write in the name of the book that I read, in the middle. On the right margin line, I will write the month & year the book was read.
I have a bunch of books saved on the web site: Goodreads.com. It made it easy for me to copy what I had read so far. But, I have been reading since I was 5. I wish I had started it sooner. It would be fun to see all the books I have read in my lifetime now.
I too, was one of those people that would go to the library at school & ask if they had any new books that came in, because I had read everything in there already.
Sheila
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