One of the greatest gifts from my husband came right after we started dating. He encouraged me to start a reading log. And so, in the summer of 1975, I began logging my reading in a green spiral notebook. In it I recorded the title, author, date completed and a brief opinion of the book.
I'm always fascinated to look back through my log. Books on adoption when we were considering that. Books on sibling rivalry when my chickies were terrorizing each other. Books on faith before I even came to faith. Pretty much no rhyme, reason, or plan. I'm a spontaneous reader, I guess.
Two years were book-less: 1984 and 1986. Career changes, two babies and two moves were going on. I was doing good to keep us all fed. If you're into stats, my highest average was ten books a year, and in the last ten years my annual reading average nearly doubled.
How many books did I read? Officially: 164. Add in Bible studies and scores of magazine articles and it might be 200. I don't think it's nearly enough: think of all the great ones I've missed!
When the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird rolled around, I decided to read it. Only to discover, looking back over my log, that I'd read it 25 years earlier! Uh, and it did seem awfully familiar after a chapter or two.
It may seem like a pointless pursuit to you. But I treasure my log book and I challenge myself to read more each year.
And maybe someday my granddaughter will find Baba's reading log and get a sense of my love of reading.
3 comments:
What a great idea. Wish I had thought of it and could look back over the years at my own reading selections.
And two years without reading a book? Even with a busy life, that seems nearly impossible for you.
I think your log is wonderful. I think I will start my own. Claire is reading Great Expectations and I thought I might reread it and see if my age, um, wisdom, has changed my reading of it.
Great Expectations - wow - I read that in high school and it almost turned me against reading!
It seems crazy, Dove. Maybe I lost my log for a time. But I know I had little time/energy to read back then!
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