When I decided to turn this blog into a repository for the lists of books I’d read, wanted to read, and the quotes from and reviews of those books, I started with taking the lists of books read (which I had kept sporadically) and fill in the blank times using journals since I usually mentioned what books I was reading.

Looking down my list of books read is like listening to songs I haven’t heard in ages–-some so bring back the time I read it that it’s like being there again, no matter the season or current affairs. It’s cold outside right now but I think about reading The Alienist and suddenly it’s hot outside and I’m sitting on the floor of my bedroom-my leg’s fallen asleep because I don’t want to get up; I’m so engaged in the story.

Also, looking down the chronological list of books I’ve read is like looking at my life–-reading rubbish when I was too distracted to read anything else, seeing a title I took five months to finish because I was moving at the time, etc. I see several books of the same type or on the same subject and remember what led me to start down that path-whether it was doing research for a novel or because I’d been turned on to an author for the first time. Good times.

I’ve always been a proponent of keeping a list of books read, but now I have another reason for encouraging people to do so-it’s a journal of sorts. But rather than a journal of activities, it’s more about motivations, emotional states, and the joy of discovering new writers and books.

And there are few joys that compare with that.

[Note about the image: It’s part of Thomas Jefferson’s list of books when the Library of Congress was acquiring his library. More information here .]