If you have time to read this, you probably have already done all your Christmas shopping but maybe there are a few of you who are racking your brains for a small gift for the reader on your list.
Worry no more. I have a wonderful suggestion—reader journals. The Book Table on Lake Street has one that is spiral bound. It’s called Books to Check Out. There are three parts to it: Books to Read, Favorite Books/Passages, and Books Borrowed/Lent. I liked the compactness and the fact that it provided a central place to keep all the recommendations for books and pages or passages of books I want to remember but usually don’t.
I found a bound journal at Bramble on Oak Park Avenue titled The Reading Woman. It is set up as a traditional journal with lovely quotes (“Books are meat and medicine and flame and flight and flower…” Gwendolyn Brooks) and color reproductions of paintings of women reading. It would be a perfect place to write your reactions to a book you’ve just read.
I have often wondered how many books I actually read in a year. I’ve tried keeping lists but lose them after a few months. Maybe something like this would help me keep track. And it sidesteps the problem of buying a book the other person doesn’t like. They would make nice birthday gifts too.
