Reading

A post on the Puffin website that celebrates 70 years of Puffin Books led me to think about the books that I read in childhood and what I am reading now. Puffin has chosen a book of the decade for each of the seven decades it has been publishing, I am pleased that I have read six of the seven 'modern classic' titles listed.

The books one reads gives others a picture of one's interests and adds a bit more flavour to dry genealogical facts. If you are a reader and family historian have you recorded your reading for your descendants?

I have kept a reading log for around 30 years, initially I recorded in chronological order, in an A4 tartan notebook, basic details of books I read. In April 2006 I joined the fledgling website Librarything and from that date have recorded my reading there. I said at the time " I'm now moving into the 21st century and transferring my written reading log into a digital format. Now I can classify, sort, search and easily retrieve details of favourites read long ago."In the future my descendants will be able to take a look at what I have read and hopefully gain more insight into the person that was their, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Family historians, consider leaving a legacy of a list of the titles you have read for the future generations of your family.