The last few times I’ve gone to visit my parents they have graciously loaded me up with old keepsakes or asked me to go through some ‘stuff’ to decide if it is worth holding onto. This past weekend I plowed through some old boxes that didn’t get unpacked after a move home.

I discovered my own Book Review Book that I started writing back in 1997. I tried to keep track of books that I read, where I got them and what I thought of them. My reviews are really horrible and not too descriptive, but are also hilariously funny. I have such allegiance to the characters in some and others I tear apart without thought.

Turns out I really did hate Gone With the Wind, but loved I Know This Much is True. I felt it necessary to give a synopsis of each book, how it connected to my life at the time -this is the funny part – and if I’d recommend it to someone else. I also kept track of where I got the book or who suggested it.

While I worked as a nanny in Delaware and New Jersey I got to know where all the used bookstores were and the people that ran them. According to my Book Review Book, I read furiously during those summers and passed many books with the soccer moms I spent my days with and also frequently went to the used bookstores.

Interestingly, the last book review is from a book that Barry loaned me in 2002 while we were on a road trip  together. It was a book about a computer hacker and I think I was more shocked that I was reading a computer nerd book than anything else.

Now that I’ve rescued my Book Review Book from the darkness of my parent’s attic, I’m going to start writing in it again. This time I’m going to attempt to not be so dramatic.

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