I have friends that keep a notebook of all the books they’ve read. I kind of wish I had started that years ago. I get most of my books online through the library. Fortunately I can look through my history there and see what I’ve read but those are only the ones I read in the last 12-13 years.

Since joining the Book Club I fee/think/need to keep a record of the books and a brief description of the books we’ve read along with some discussion questions or points that meant something to me.

I like writing on lined paper, specifically graph paper. (That’s the architect wanna-be in me.) I bought ten of these notebooks before I retired and only have two or three left. I use one for my knitting projects. The only thing I don’t like is that they are bound in a way that they don’t lay flat when opened.

Solution: Clamp the book shut. Take a hack saw to the spine and cut it off. Trim the cover and cut pages with a paper cutter or craft knife. Use a special comb-binding machine to make a wire-bound book. Recover the cover (optional). Assemble the book.

Voila!!

I should add some pockets to the inside covers to stash notes. An elastic band to hold it together would be a good idea, too.

I had some plastic rulers from a now renamed bank that I cut down and made into a moveable bookmark.