I had hoped to share my reading list this year. As I did last year, I had tracked it all on a google map, all the settings and cities and villages of each book, labelled all pretty. In mid-November, I clicked to add a new book and its location, slipped to a key, and somehow lost the map in its entirety. Despite a lot of whining, no recovery possible.
So, it is fitting, in a year in which my life turned upside down with the birth of my son, that I have no record of all the books that let me live inside them.
And I had hoped, when I began this post, that I would come to a deeper reflection of this loss.
If it isn't already clear, I have not.
So. I read a lot of books this year.
I lived, for a time, in many beautiful worlds.
There's no proof I did.
Next year, I will track them inside me, instead.
Oh, no, that must have been so frustrating!
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing your map from 2013, I tried to start one this year, but couldn't quite figure it out. Maybe next year!
And I meant to add: happy new year, Melissa!
DeleteOhhhh! I'm so sad you lost it. What a cool and amazing idea. I read a lot of books, too, but tracking them in my head was a total flop. I shall try paper or a word doc next year. :)
ReplyDeleteHope you have a happy new year!
I remember when you lost your map. It reminded me how much we rely on digital information, which somehow manages to live forever (as in tweets and posts that people try to delete, but somehow exist in ethereal space to humiliate them forever) but at the same time can be irretrievably lost in a flash.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest that you get a paper map of the world for 2015 and numbered pins for each book? Sometimes, low tech is best tech!
As a (recently retired) teacher, I still had occasion to cut and paste documents with scissors and glue. ;)
I used to make lists of books I read, but haven't for years now. I read more, and I think more widely, when I made the lists, but I don't *think* those facts are related. Hmm...
ReplyDeleteYou're keeping a baby happy and thriving. You don't need to count books.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
What an unusual post, Melissa! It's sad that you lost all that information, but you're still the same person who is richer for the experience of having read the books. You don't need proof. I never kept track of my reading until I started working at the bookstore in 2002. But I'm sure I didn't read much at all when each of my sons was born.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm with Dianne. I'm very low-tech. I keep an old-fashioned spiral-bound notebook and write down the titles and authors and categories and the date I finished reading each title. No summaries, though (that would take too long).