About five years ago I started noting down each time I finished a book with a simple “rating” (ranging from Bad -> Excellent) and some quick words about how I felt about it.

I can’t remember where I read about this concept, but it was called maintaining a “book of books”. It’s been an interesting experience thus far, and from observing and summarising the data I have the following conclusions:

  • I used to read a lot more “unknown” content than recently. I can tell by the huge range of authors, genres and ratings I gave books from 2018 to 2021. I recall back then I used to just absorb books, I also spent a lot more money snapping up second-hand books (thanks to the Lifeline Bookfair where I would literally fill the boot of my car with books!).
  • I have shifted from non-fiction to fiction in recent years. I guess living in a non-English speaking country has reduced the options available in bookstores, so I opt for the easy options - like Stephen King, Ann Cleeves etc. These are books I know I will enjoy.
  • The amount of books I read has reduced significantly! I read maybe half the amount in a year that I did before. I guess having a child will do that :)

I have started also journaling the games I’m playing in my reMarkable in a “Game Journals” section. This has been good to note things like core mechanics, the feelings of the experience as it happens and techniques and tricks I can adopt in my own game designs and prototypes.

I do watch a fair few films (nothing recent … ) and am thinking of maybe noting these down somewhere as it’s often hard to remember if I’ve seen something or not :D (and if it was good).

Journaling like this I’ve found is great as a way to get things out of your head as well. If you aren’t sharing them with others it makes the process a lot more introspective and less about social pressures and “showing off”. Something about the Spotify yearly review, and thinking about how my tastes throughout the year will influence this bite-sized snippet produced in December feels inherently stressful. Getting off Spotify has helped shape how I listen to music, but perhaps that is a topic for another day!