Sunday Salon: Keeping track

The Sunday Salon

I spotted an open invite recently to complete a survey about book blogging and it highlighted something that had already begun to concern me – I don’t keep track of where my books come from.

I would guess that the majority (or at least a large proportion) of my books were given to me as presents but if the giver didn’t write a note on the inside cover (which they rarely do), I have no record of this and when I come to read the book a year or more later I have invariably forgotten whose kind present it was. This is sad both in terms of me being able to show full appreciation and in terms of the lost memory.

So I have decided to tackle this in two ways. One, all new books added to the TBR shelves get a little note written in them about where they came from. And all my reviews this year will include a mention of the source of the book.

If I can, that is. Where I have happened to blog about book buying I should have a reminder of when I bought books for myself, so with a little bit of memory power more recent additions should be easy to identify, but what about those books that have sat unread for four, five or more years? I’ll have to get delving through all the old photographs of birthdays and Christmases to see what I can deduce!

Do you keep note of where your books came from? Do you write anything in the books themselves? What about when you’re the one giving books as presents?