Life-long Catalogue

I am compiling a list of the books I’ve read...ever, in my life. Anyone else done that? If so, do you have tips about how to scour one’s memory for the textbook used in 10th grade, or the mystery read when nine years old? If I have something to go on, like a title or even a plot, I know some places to search for author and such, but trying to unearth what I’ve totally forgotten is harder!

>1 AlexanderPatico: I've tried to do that, also. It's hit or miss for me. However, here on LT, I often see reviews or book mentions and that sparks my mind that, hey, I have read that!

>1 AlexanderPatico:

When I undertook a similar project, I went through LT's list of the Top 1,000 most-catalogued books to jog my memory.

ETA: I just found out that LT removed access to their list of the Top 1,000 most-catalogued books. That's a shame.

Yes, memory pings around like a pinball machine, and I never know when it it might light up an old book title from long ago. I haven't made a list of books I have read, but sometimes reading those lists of books about some particular topic over on Goodreads or similar reminds me of things I read as a kid.

I have strong memories of certain places, and I was always hanging around the rooms where the books were keptat relatives's houses. If I concentrate for a few minutes and picture the room and the bookshelves, I can remember the titles of most of the books I read there ... and even some titles of books I didn't read, like my grandpa's Zane Grey westerns.

I started using LT with that object in mind, but it was easier for me because I had been keeping a reading diary since I was about 13.

When I started in 2007 I tried to remember every book I had read and it was not an easy exercise. Every night before going to sleep I would try a few authors that I know I had read and next day I would catalogue them. There are certain authors you need to go through i.e. their complete works and see if you can remember reading any.. Don't worry to much for exactness, because you may miss some or include others you may not have read. e.g.. Agatha Christie.

My big problem was books I had read as a child.. I was a prolific reader and knew I had read about 100 Enid Blyton books.. Still have a few.. However I could not remember any of the Biggles or Billy Bunter titles so I excluded them.

I found a diary a few years ago where I had listed every book read between 1968 and 1973 as well as every movie seen in those years. This was a tremendous help and when I looked at a few I had not the slightness memory of every reading them.

What also helps is to go to a public library and look through the shelves. You will be amazed how your memory will be jogged by seeing a book on the shelf and you say," I read that"

All in all at our age its a "good memory exercise"

>1 AlexanderPatico: a very interesting idea. I think I'll try it too. One thing I remember is that a lot of the books that I read in elementary school came from Scholastic Book Services. Each month I would bring home their flyer and ask for a lot of books. The only ones I can remember immediately are Emil and the Detectives and some of the Encyclopedia Brown books. I don't think I still own any of them. Maybe there is a list somewhere of their old offerings.

>4 nohrt4me2: nohrt4me2 - reminds me of going to my uncle’s house — he had many volumes of books by G.A. Henty (mostly historical novels).

>7 Jim53:. Someplace I saved a link with every Scholastic book order. That's how I found a childhood favorite. I'll see if I can find the link again and post it.

One thing I find sort of amusing is that I can't remember all of the titles of books I read, but I have vivid memories of the books my brother had and wouldn't let me read. (And that probably explains why, when I was home from school with a broken collarbone, I colored every page in his Flash Gordon coloring book the lovely magenta.)

>7 Jim53: Here's the link. It may take a lot of clicking to find the covers, but for those of us with some visual memories, it really does help: http://bookscans.com/Publishers/scholastic/scholastic.htm

>10 Hope_H: Oh, that's great! Thanks very much. It looks as if it will take me a while to explore all that. Love the Flash Gordon story ;-)

>10 Hope_H: Jim53: Thanks for the Scholastic lists — I managed to find half-a-dozen books that I had bought through my school’s weekly book sale, all of which I had forgotten!

>12 AlexanderPatico: I did the same! Looking at the covers reminded me of some books I'd forgotten. I think I'm a more visual thinker than I originally thought I was.

I have been reading off the Modern Library list of top 100 novels ever written, and several other lists of winners for book awards for the past 15 years. If you google the Modern Library list it may also trigger some memories of books you have already read.
I never considered making a list of every book I ever read. I think it would be impossible considering all the trashy chick lit novels I read in my younger years.