I came across a delightful article today in the NYT.  You can read it HERE.  The title of the article by Pamela Paul is “My Life with Bob: Keeping Track of Reading Habits with a Book of Books”.

In the article, the author shares her “BOB”, which is a list of all the books she has read since 1988.

I love to read.  LOVE IT.  The article caught my eye because I, too, have a Book of Books, though mine is in the form of a Spreadsheet.  A friend introduced me to the idea, and I wish I had started it way back when I was in Elementary School.   That would be amazing.

I have to be careful about my booklist, because it can become a source of stress or a source of pride.  Pride in how many books I can devour, stress if I can’t keep pace with myself month by month.   But for the most part, it is just a fun, practical and useful way to track my book reading practices.

My spreadsheet is simple.  It contains how many books I’ve read, their title, author and genre, whether I own it or not, and a section for brief observations about the book, to help jog my memory about what the book was about.  While having a BOB (Book of Books) might be more sentimental, my spreadsheet best fits my personality and time.

I want to challenge you to start your own BOB or spreadsheet or any other type of list for your books that you’ve read.  Just start jotting them down, make a few quick notes about them, and then look back occasionally to remember what you’ve read and to enjoy the accomplishment of reading.

So what have you read lately?  What did you read last year?  What book was a dud?  What book was mindless?  What book was so profound it was life-changing?