Ever so often, I think it’s useful to have a browse through the library of your mind. Here’s a project that could help to bring those fulminating ideas out on to the page. How To: Record Your Book Life.

A super, simple, satisfying, short, sweet way to spend an afternoon…

You’ll need:

• A strip of short grain paper (Check how to tell grain direction here) I’m using some 170gsm cartridge that’s 42cm by 16cm ( 16 and a half inches by 6 inches)
• Pens/paints
• Paper for notes
• A pen, for making notes

Step-by-step:

Either make a list of book titles that have been significant to you OR make a list of the reasons books have been important in your life. Of course, you could also make a list combining both! Or a list of imaginary titles…. I’m inspired by Anthony Cheetham’s A Life in Fifty Books; a publishing memoir that includes fifty book covers, covering the course of his long career..

Fold your strip into a wonky zig-zag.

As you may have guessed, each facet of your zig-zag represents a book. Begin to add the titles to the spines.

I’m concentrating on getting the words down, rather than creating exquisite typographic forms.

On the reverse, you could write a bit more about these ideas, or simply display them on your bookcase. It would also fit into an envelope to post: Spine poetry for a booklover!

What do the books in your head look like? How would you describe your book life?!