The reading diary

I started keeping a list of all the books I've read about a year ago, and it is a surprisingly rewarding activity. So far, this just consists of writing down the author, title and date of completion. Even with this little bit of information, it's terrific to look back at what I've read. How else would I know, for example, that in the first year of keeping records that I read 58 books? This also has the bonus of being able to assess when people are telling a wee (or not so wee) white lie about how many books they've read. For shame.

I've been jotting it all down in the back of one of my notebooks, but the time is fast approaching for this little project to have a notebook of it's own. Levenger (again, I know…) and more recently Susan Hill have talked about people who keep a Reader's List or diary. It gives me a nice note of closure to the reading process (put a note it in the book, and shelve).