Reading Diary for 2008

Last year I started keeping a record of the books I was reading on my BookCrossing.com home page. After a couple of months, I gave it up; I figured, "Who cares"?

As it turns out, I do. Comes the end of the year and on the particular BookCrossing Yahoo group that I belong to, everyone lists their favourite reads of the year, what challenges they met, how many books they read, and so on. But I didn't keep records, so I had a hard time participating. I'd been on a roll, too. I was reading 12+ books a month at the beginning of the year.

I did my best with my favourites. I figured if I could remember them, they must be my favourites. But, of course, that isn't true. My memory of what I ate for breakfast this morning is pretty sketchy, let alone what I read, when I read it, and did I love it.

I certainly don't know how many books I've read. Mt.Toobie (my To Be Read accumulation) continues to fill two shelves, no matter how much I read. I buy books, but I also participate in BookCrossing and BookMooch exchanges.

And I get RABCKs -- Random Acts of BookCrossing Kindness -- in the form of more books. And NSS gifts: gift exchanges organised for Christmas (NSSFC -- Father Christmas; NSSH -- Halloween; NSSSS -- Summer Solstice; and other occasions that BookCrossers are good at dreaming up. And there are the twofer and threefer or other special offers from BookMoochers that keep my shelves filled.

I signed up for the BookMooch To Be Read Support Group. You may have read some of my reviews here. Every month I am supposed to designate two books from Mt. Toobie that I promise to read and review on the blog. I have been somewhat remiss lately.

So this year I'm getting organised! I've set up a Google document entitled What I Am Reading. (One day I must really do a post on how much I love Google.) You'll find a link to the left, under Books. I plan to list each book I've read and write a capsule -- or other -- review here. Then I can then use these reviews for my BookCrossing journal entries and my posts on the BookMooch blog.

Is that organised or what?

We'll see.