My Book of Books

When I was accepted to college I received a list of 20 books and 20 movies to watch before showing up in the fall. The idea was to read/watch these 40 items over the summer. I did pretty well. I think I got through 18 of the books and 14 of the movies. Some of the movies were older, and I went to college in (gasp) 1995, so there was no Netflix, etc., to find unusual titles.

Before classes began there was a meet-and-greet with the Dean. The first thing he said was: “Please get out paper and pencil. There will be a quiz on your summer assignments.” I shared a silent, panicked stare with several of my new classmates, but we dutifully got out pencil and paper. At that point there was laughter from the staff and it was revealed there would be no quiz. The joke was on us.

I learned a very important lesson that day. Logically, I should have learned the importance of preparation. Nope, I learned that what you read and what you see feeds directly into what you create. In the next couple weeks it was obvious who had read the books and seen the movies assigned. Although we weren’t tested, those books and films had been chosen for their “classic” importance. Many of the themes in those works are found throughout our culture and having  that base of knowledge was a good foundation for many things – regardless of the subject.

To keep a record I started what I call my Book of Books. This is a basic blank, lined journal where I write simply the title and author of any book I read. I don’t review it or add any other information. Because it is simple I’ve kept it up for 15 years. My Book of Books holds over 700 entries now and I can look back through the different periods in my reading life: my vampire phase, my über literary phase, and lately my how to raise children phase.

I realize now that all those words are swirling somewhere in my head and are in great part responsible for why I have such a wealth of ideas now. I need to remember that as important as it is for me to write, to create, it’s still necessary to add to the well by reading.

Of course, this may all just be a clever ploy by my subconscious to procrastinate since I am SO TIRED of writing my current story. I want very much to work on one of the shiny new ideas that came to my mind in the last couple months.