Sunday 16 January 2011

All My Journals Part 1

I enjoy sorting and categorising, and think I should have been a librarian or worked in a museum maybe. I like to have different books for different purposes and have recently been looking at these and found that I have quite a few! The first one I wanted to show you is my book of books. I have been keeping a record of the books I read for quite a long time now-I think about ten years. My current book was started in 2007. At first I just wrote the title, author and date I finished the book. Then I read a book about a spy and this spy used the first and last lines of books to create coded letters. It gave me the idea of writing down the first and last line of each book. I don't review the books as I just want to remember what they were, and can usually recall how I felt about them. Each year I do a front page for the year. I use one side of the page to write on, and the back to stick in things of interest such as cartoons or newspaper articles, or bits of ephemera such as theatre or cinema tickets, menus and photos. As you can see I have run out of zeros!

The mouse is from a copper printing block I found on Greenwich market.

My New York snow globe provided the inspiration for 2010's cover.

Tracy commented that my book is like a Victorian commonplace book. I had not heard of one of these so have googled. Great explanation here. It is a way that people collected quotes, reflections on their reading, and other varied snippets of information-it sounds like a scrapbook/journal/blog/book of books idea-most interesting! Thanks Tracy!

12 comments:

jabblog said...

It's a good idea to keep your mementoes of theatre and meals and so forth in a book. I wish I'd thought of doing that - but then I'm far too disorganised to keep it up. Your journals are lovely - what fabulous memories they must evoke :-)

Anonymous said...

You have inspired me to do things with all the lovely notebooks that I have! I enjoyed your previous post too - although some of the fishy things were about yucky!!

Yiota said...

I started a journal a week ago but I haven't been very committed; now I'm inspired to use it more!
xo

snoopydogknits said...

What a great way to do it! I used to keep just titles and authors, but that's sooo boring!!! Have a great week. Ros

Gabbi said...

I LOVE! It's horrible when things sort of get read of done and then forgotten... I can just imagine the fun of flipping through these and remembering likes and loves!

Linda Sue said...

So cool- You are an admirable person- I can not keep anything straight nor do I keep track of anything. Scattered- a lot!
I love your pages,you will be so glad when you are a very old lady looking for something great to view...something to remember.

Leenie said...

That is a great idea and I like how you've decorated them.

I should probably do something like that since, as time passes, I am more forgetful of what I've read and what it said. The good thing is I DO remember which ones I liked so I can re-read them and be surprised and entertained all over again. DH says I could hide my own Easter Eggs.

Hey Harriet said...

This is such an awesome idea! I like what you've done there. The combination of such organisation and creativity is impressive! I would never think to do something like that. Have a great week Sarah :)

Tracy said...

Oh, I love this post, Sarah! Such fun seeing your journals. How many do you have? ;o) I'm a lister, organizer too... I wanted to be a librarian too! Can't wait for part two of this post series. Oh, must say too, I really like the new banner. You blog is like a Victorian commonplace book--it has a similar feeling. :o) Happy Days ((HUGS))

Shell said...

Your journal is lovely. I enjoy seeking a peek into yours, it brims with creativity, Sarah.

Kat Mortensen said...

What a fantastic idea - the book journal is great yeah, but the first and last lines - terrific! I'm going to start that (of course then I'll be just so anxious to get to the end, I might actually finish one for a change).

Kat

Anonymous said...

That is so neat! Love it!