Leaving a Legacy

I remember hearing a story once about a man who left his library to his children after he died. When they went through the books, they found he had inscribed a note to them about each book, explaining why it was important to him and why it might be important to them.

Ever since I heard about this man and his library, I have wanted to keep a record of books for my own children. Since so many of us read books digitally, and so many of my own important reading experiences have been through the public library, recording my impressions on a blog seems more relevant and more helpful.

This is different than reviewing books, of course. It's more a matter of recollection, since many of the books recorded here are very old, and their contents already approved by myriads of readers across history. Some are not so blessed. Some, in fact, might have been either forgotten or ignored by history. Some might be very new. Some might be epic novels, some picture books, and still others might be non-fiction odes to beauty. What unites them is that I have for one reason or another decided to communicate something about them to my children.

I should qualify here that I am not a parent. Much in the vein of 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son, this begins as a project for hypothetical progeny. Nor will I weep over my soup if such bairns are ne'er born (not yet, at least).

Don't expect posts every day here. I will be writing for relevance and quality, not quantity, so please be patient. I will do my best, because I care about you all, but like last year's blog, this is an exercise for me. We'll see how it goes.