Books Become Bookmarks: The benefits of maintaining a reading list
Posted by David Duhr in 
In an era in which we routinely track every penny we spend, every calorie we consume, and now every step we take, it strikes me as almost unbelievable how few of us keep a reading list.
Documenting the books we’re feeding our own brains was something I assumed most serious readers did. But when I asked four of my closest heavy-reader friends, I found that none of them maintain any account of their literary intake. A few of them have a running list of books they want to read; but when a particular title’s time comes, they delete it from the list as if it were no more than a chore now completed.
Part of my concern with this is due to my own faulty memory. I’ve read several hundred books in the past six years, and yet when pressed I can summon the titles of maybe two armfuls of them. Thousands of hours of my life devoted to stacks of books whose plot, style, purpose, and role in my life are inaccessible to me through simple recall.
The only solution that has given me any sense of connection with what would otherwise be lost is maintaining a reading list, which I’ve done since March 2010.
Your turn #1: Do you keep a list of books you’ve read? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below.
5W1H
That reading list has been a lifesaver in many ways, reconnecting me with more than just the recollection that, yes, I’ve read that book, or no, I haven’t read that one.
The key, I’ve found, is in listing more than just author and title. A reading list should also provide some much needed context: the month and year you read the book, some plot summary and impressions/opinions, and, most importantly, where and under what circumstances you read it.
Much of the joy of reading is found in the moment, the experience itself. But there’s great pleasure to be had, as well, in the remembrance of that experience, in the ability to reflect on a book years later, and in rediscovering where, when — and this is crucial — who you were at the time.
Your turn #2: When you think back to a book you’ve read, can you recall the circumstances (where, when, etc.) under which you read it, or do you remember only the book itself? Do you even care to remember the circumstances, or is the book itself all that matters?
Self-Indulgence Overload
Scanning my reading list as I write this, here are three book experiences I couldn’t have told you about mere moments ago and should probably continue to keep to myself but won’t:
Our first week in a roach-filled apartment in a comatose Florida town, April 2010. The movers haven’t arrived with our box spring or frame yet; the mattress is on the floor, and at night we leave on all the lamps in a failed effort to ward off the bugs. The light keeps me up, which is how I manage to read Let the Great World Spin in only a few nights. One morning I wake to a roach on my pillow, just standing there immobile like it’s been assigned to monitor my breathing. I swipe it to the floor and squash it with that book. And then I keep hitting it and hitting it until I’m near tears. I miss Boston, and my friends. We ask someone to recommend a local restaurant. With good intentions, she suggests a strip-mall Carrabba’s as our “best bet.” I fold back into the book.
New to New York City, judging it only by pre/misconceptions, I get off the subway at 125th & Lenox to tour the neighborhood and look at some of the buildings Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts writes about in Harlem is Nowhere, June 2014. Wondering if it is OK to do so, a white guy wandering Harlem aimlessly and gawking.
I finish the book in Marcus Garvey Park, overlooking the swimming pool, wishing my pocket of NYC were nearly this alive.
Honeymooning across Spain with my wife, June 2015, lugging an 860-page fascinating bastard of a Lennon biography. As we wait in line ninety minutes to tour a 15th century Madrid convent, John’s mom is wiped out by a car. While he writes “A Day in the Life,” we sit at a café on Barcelona’s La Rambla and split a XeXe, a dessert so good I almost cry.
The return flight coincides with Lennon’s “Lost Weekend.” I too know how it feels to want to return home while also wanting to never return home.
Your turn #3: Share with us a particularly affecting reading experience — where you were, when you were, who you were, and why it sticks with you.
Books Become Bookmarks
It’s true that my life is richer for having experienced those moments even if I can’t call them up so readily. But remembering them through literature is such a tremendous pleasure.
In this way, books become bookmarks poking out of the thousands of days of my life. More than mere diversions, they bring me closer to my own story, even as they dovetail into it.
Write down what you read. Check in on your reading list from time to time. Be aware of how books fit into the narrative of your existence.
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is copy editor and fiction editor at the Texas Observer and contributes regularly to the Dallas Morning News, Publishing Perspectives, the Observer and other publications.
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This is a very very good idea, David. It would also help you retain those books and, yes, track your life. I’m surprised I’ve never heard of anyone doing this before.
Hiya, pal. It doesn’t help me all that much for retention of plot, style, etc. Which is unfortunate. But it helps me retain the experience, which to me is just as important. If not more so. I have continued to ask around, and turns out I do know some people who do this, or something similar. In fact, it’s kind of weird that I presented this as if I were the only person in the world who does such a thing. Keeping a list also lets me track my habits. For example, it turns out that I read lots of… Read more »
I took a class with Janet Fitch (“White Oleander”) and she told us to keep a list of the books we read and what each book taught us about writing. She said that after a while we would stop reading anything that didn’t have something to teach us. I found this to be a fantastic piece of advice.
Hi Carolyn. Thanks for the note. That’s an interesting strategy. And something I should probably try, since I rarely can articulate what (if anything) I’ve learned about writing through reading a particular book. I’m terrible at the whole “reading like a writer” thing.
I’m curious about this: “She said that after a while we would stop reading anything that didn’t have something to teach us.” Meaning that you’d know how to avoid books that have nothing to teach a writer about writing? Does she think writers should only read books that have something to teach us about writing?
David: I too have kept a reading list since around 2004. I have used it often for recommending books to others, to see what books I’ve read in a series and to refresh my memory as to whether I’ve read a book before. I also keep track of how many and what books I’ve bought or read in a a given year. My list, typed, is 15 pages long currently. I also try to keep up my list on Goodreads.com. It shows what year I read a certain book and which ones I’ve reviewed. I think a book list is… Read more »
Hi Carol. Thank you for stopping by. I’m glad your list comes in handy in so many ways. And marking what books you buy, but don’t necessarily read, is a great addition. I might have to start doing that. I buy an awful lot of books I end up not reading, and so maybe by keeping track of those, I can identify some sort of pattern. And then put a stop to it! I like the movie column, too. How often do you find that a movie is better than the book? Or, at least, that you enjoy the movie… Read more »
I don’t make one, but I kind of would like to now. If I
see a book and remember that I did read it, I can also
usually remember the circumstances, and that almost
always warms me. So to have free and constant access
to that info would be great. Thanks for the tips.
I’m glad you found this useful. Why not give it a shot? The worst that happens is you don’t find it helpful or interesting. But I doubt that would happen, since, like me, you seem to enjoy reflecting on the reading experience itself, rather than just the book. Let me know how it goes! And thanks for checking in.
Yes, a reading list is a really good idea, especially for a literary-minded person. While I hadn’t thought of it as a “reading list,” I have kept one for a number of years in the form of book reviews. I started doing them as an exercise and found I was getting likes, favorable comments, and “this helped me decide” notations on Amazon (where I review as “Ray F”) and on my website. I, too, have found it fun and inspirational to read over my reviews and notes from time-to-time. They are, indeed, memory jogs and associations for where I was… Read more »
Hi Ray. As always, thanks for stopping by. I love that idea of self-pubbing a collection of your reviews. I’ve thought of making an ebook of my favorite clips; not for sale, but just kind of to have. Plus that thing we talked about a couple of weeks ago, a collection of interviews I’ve had the chance to conduct. So in your book, you publish the review and then you write some additional commentary for each? In what form? Critiquing each review (a review of your own reviews!), or talking about how, if at all, your views have changed? I… Read more »
Yes, a big “amen” on the “best books” angle. My reviews and accompanying notes (with quotes and page numbers) are great resources when I’m writing about a book, refering to something in a given book, quoting, etc. Saves the time of flipping through a book again to find something. When I did my “Ray-views” book, I just grouped all the reviews into categories they naturally fell into: Beyond the Usual The Human Problem On Prophecy The Dystopian Potential Inspiration Storytelling and wrote commentary on each, that is, how the books reviewed reflected the category subject, my feelings on it, what… Read more »
That sounds like a lot of work. But fun work. Assuming you don’t mind spending time with your own writing from the past. That would probably be the most difficult thing for me, having to stomach rereading some of my old reviews. Especially when it’s clear upon reflection that I’m trying very hard to sound intelligent or getting cutesy to try to get a laugh.
In fact, I banish most of my published work to an inaccessible corner of our bookshelf. A photo of which you can find here: https://www.writebynight.net/abcs-of-writing/strategies/reading-your-own-writing/
I wonder if there’s something here about looking ahead
vs. looking behind, and what sort of person we are. Like,
keeping a TBR list is for (chronologically) forward-thinkers,
while keeping a have-read list is for those who place
greater emphasis on the past. And people who do both
live equally?
That’s interesting, Billy. There definitely could be something there: I’m often accused of being too nostalgic, so perhaps this is a manifestation of that. Though I also do jot down the titles of books I want to read. Despite the fact that I rarely consult it before going on a book-buying expedition.
What’s your take? Do you keep either kind of list, or both?
Thanks for stopping by.
1. I do not keep such a list, mostly because I’ve never considered doing such a thing. It’s a good idea though, and maybe I’ll start. 2. I can remember some of the where/when (etc) if the book was particularly memorable. For example, and this can answer #3 as well, I read THE IDIOT at a resort in Scottsdale in 2007, and I can picture it completely. Is that because I loved the book, or is that because I loved the resort? Or a combo of both? If I’d read a bad book on that trip, would I remember anything?… Read more »
Hey Mark. Thanks for commenting. For me, setting has a lot to do with my recollection of a reading experience. If the setting is unique, I’m more likely to remember the book. Take the Colum McCann thing above. That was the first book I read in that Florida apartment. The setting — at the time — was unique. Looking at my list, I also remember some of the experience of the next book I read there. But by the third book, that apartment had become familiar. It was just the place I lived, rather than being the *new* place I… Read more »
I finished the Idiot on the flight home, so nope, no other books on that trip. But yeah, that’s an interesting concept: the more memorable the circumstances/setting, the more memorable the book, or the reading experience, as you like to put it. I wonder if there’s something here worth pursuing? Maybe for people who have trouble retaining books it’s as simple as reading each book in a unique location. Tke your book to the mall, take your book to the park, take your book to the far Denny’s. Break into someone else’s car and read a book behind the driver’s… Read more »
I think we need to explore this. I’ll go to the far Denny’s, you break into someone’s car and read a book.
But first I’ll do some Googling this weekend, see if I can find anything.
Book to Movie: I thought they did a pretty good job on The Time Traveler’s Wife; and, obviously, To Kill a Mockingbird was one of the best. In the worst category, I would place The Accidental Tourist – one of my all-time favorite books (and Macon Leary one of my all-time favorite literary characters). It just did not translate well to the big screen.
Good call on To Kill a Mockingbird. Did you read Go Set a Watchman? I did not, but from everything I heard about it, I hope they don’t try to turn that into a film.
We had an entertaining discussion about movies that were better than the book. You might enjoy it:
https://www.writebynight.net/abcs-of-writing/rants-raves/the-book-wasnt-better/
I keep a list, and I love it for a lot of these same reasons.
Mostly recall; like you, I can remember things better if
I’ve written them down. Even if I don’t include plot details
or circumstances; merely the act of writing down a title
and author helps a book stick in my mind. Thanks for
the post.
Hi Kathy. Thanks for stopping by. The fact that things seem more tangible when we write them down — I wonder if that’s part of what makes us writers?
[…] week we had a great conversation about the benefits of maintaining a reading list. Today we want to get all morbid and discuss your final entry on that list. That’s right, […]
I don’t have enough bookshelves! (you can’t have to many books.)To paraphrase a friend, “Too much garlic is almost enough.” so “Too many books…” I never thought to track my reading to see how my reading tastes have changed. I’ve about 3000 books so I’ve thought to keep track of what I own and what I read only for the most practical of reasons; So I don’t re-buy a book I already have,(it happens) or accidently re-read a book already read. I don’t intentionally re-read because there is so much to read and so damn little time. Listing all that… Read more »
Not that I don’t have a dozen bookstore options in my neighborhood alone, but I do miss Half Price bookstores, both in MKE and Austin. Also, I’ve never in my life listened to an audiobook, which is crazy. I should really do it, just to try the experience once. Maybe I’ll love it.
It is always interesting to see who uses “read” and who uses “listened to” when it comes to audiobooks. I’ve heard both.