The ever-present oppression of time’s ticking hand rarely troubles me, except for when I think about books. The words I haven’t read. The ideas I haven’t met. The plot twists I have yet to experience. I’m haunted by the certainty that I will meet my fate with chapters left to read. 

You would think, that given this fear, that I would read 100 books a year. Sadly, that is not the case. For one reason or another, I’ve read very little in the last few years.

This reading journal is an attempt to remedy the situation. To waste no further time and to read as much as I can. To open a new book at the close of each I finish, and choose the next title based purely on what I want to read most.

Why keep a journal when I could spend the extra time on reading? I love books for the ideas they introduce and for the knowledge they let us explore. And if I want to carry the ideas and knowledge with me, then nothing works better for me than to read paper books and take paper notes. In bringing those ideas here, to share with you in my own words, I get to practice another thing I love but rarely make time for: writing. 

And in this, we have the outline of my project. To read, to learn and to write. A ship’s log from a reading voyage. 

Wishing you fair winds and a slight sea for your own journey. 

~ Pen