In Situ Books
🗓 posted Sep 25, 2024 by Josh Erb🔢 337 words
🏷 #books #brief
The web app I've been using to track my reading — Oku — hasn't solved the problem of book covers for a given edition. Especially if it's an older edition or a less popular book (read: from an Indie Press). I don't hold this against Oku. They are a small team doing this on the side. And they probably don't have the funds or desire to pay a 3rd party for access to a database of cover images.[1]
But as a result, when I pull up the list of books I've read recently on the app, I see a bunch of bland, gray squares where the covers should be. I didn't think this bothered me, but this year, I have found myself taking pictures of the books I'm reading as I'm reading them. Here's one I finished recently:
There's something oddly comforting about this practice of personal record keeping. Rather than rely on someone else to provide an "official" cover image for a book, I have a record of the exact cover in the exact state it was when I read it. Even better, these photos include visual reminders about where I was doing the reading. Here's one I read earlier this year before moving abroad. It immediately reminds me of sitting in my old apartment's living room in the Spring:
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these pictures. Maybe I'll compile them and build my own personal database of books in situ. Maybe I'll just keep them on my phone, and stumble across them from time to time. Each one tied to the memory of a place & a feeling.
Though each blank square brings me closer & closer to just building my own bookshelf.