[lelandfe]

Does keeping a record of things necessarily imply vanity?

It seems to me that your problem was with your own feeling toward the list - “I felt proud about my list” - and not the list itself. Where does that feeling come from? It might be worth exploring.

[cafard]

No. The record I have kept of my reading, more or less, over the last roughly fifteen years, is in handwritten notebooks. They are accessible chiefly to me, though certainly if my wife a) can read my handwriting and b) could be bothered to do so, she would be welcome to look.

It is true that one can be vain with oneself as the sole audience, but I wonder how common that case is. I'm going to give myself a pass on that, since the purpose of the list is mostly to remind me.

[denton-scratch]

Publishing your list on your website does imply vanity. I have long thought that Art held himself in high regard (he was certainly a fantastic harmonist though).

[cafard]

When you walk into a house you haven't visited and that house has a bookcase visible, do you look to see what's on it? Do you, perhaps, make judgments about the host or hostess's taste based on what you see? (A friend was unimpressed by a gubernatorial candidate's shelves, which ran to Reader's Digest condensed books.) Every Sunday, the New York Times Book Review has an author interview that concludes with "What's on your bedside table?"

If you have a bookcase in a common area, do you take any thought to what's in it? I confess to taking a little: a bias in favor of hardbacks on one table; biographies and letters on a shelf; etc. (And I confess to being slightly flattered that when my son was working from home during the pandemic some of those he Zoomed with were favorably impressed by the books behind him, most of them mine. I did not set up that bookshelf to be a Zoom background.)

What strikes me as odd here is simply the lack of context. If you've read a book, tell me why you read it, and tell me what you thought about it. It's great that AG read The Inimitable Jeeves, but how did it stack up against Leave it to Psmith or Uncle Fred in the Springtime?

[supersrdjan]

I agree. I think it comes from school and parents instilling the notion that reading books is virtuous. The idea of being "well-read"

[hamburglar]

I actually think being well-read is virtuous. Feeling superior about it is what isn't. I think in your position I might have continued keeping the list but under no circumstances let anyone else know I'm keeping it.

[Wistar]

Perhaps a public list of what one has not read is the more humble choice?

[jrochkind1]

Not necessarily. It depends on the purpose(s) of the list.

What are the purpose(s) of keeping a lifetime list of books read?

[lelandfe]

Erm, keeping track of how far you are through an author’s works (I know a guy who did this to work through Michener’s entire catalogue over many years), seeing your reading taste evolve (I’ve been trying to read more non-fiction), graphing your reading over time (are you meeting your goals for yourself?) and thousands and thousands of other great reasons.

It’s not masturbatory to create goals for yourself, and lists are a great way to track those goals.

Having that data even allows future insight into things you haven’t even thought of yet.