Literary Listography: My Reading Life In Lists Book Review

Over the last year or so, I've expressed my love of the Listography books on several occasions here on Polka Spots and Freckle Dots, and I'm here to do it once more.

I recently added a sixth Listography book to my collection, the newly released Literary Listography: My Reading Life in Lists book, and as an avid reader and list-maker, I've been looking forward to this book for months! When I finally got my hands on a copy last week, I wasn't disappointed.

Like the others, Literary Listography is a fun creative journal book full of prompts to create lists from. In this case, all of the lists are reading themed, providing you with a place to record your reading life; the books you love, the authors you admire, the fictional characters you adore and so much more.

There are more than 70 lists spanning 160 pages, and they really have covered everything a book lover could ever wish to document.  I can't list them all, but here's a little taster of some of the lists the book has to offer.

Some of my favourite lists in the book include:

♥ My top 20 most beloved books.

♥ My favourite authors.

♥ Dystopian books I love.

♥ Books that made me cry.

♥ Books I hope they make in to films.

♥ Fictional characters I connected with.

♥ Books I couldn't finish.

♥ My favourite book covers.

♥ Books I could pin a song to.

♥ Favourite films adapted from books.

Each list is given a double page spread, with a water colour style illustration on one page, and the writing prompt and space to list on the other. 

Some pages have a full page of lines to write on..

 ...while some are split in to two columns.

There are also pages at the back of the book dedicated to favourite book beginnings and endings, favourite quotes and books to read before you die. These topics have been given three or four pages of writing space each, and one for the illustrations.

I love the beautiful watercolour illustrations. Just look how stunning the tiger is for Life of Pi!

The reason I love the Listography books is because they're fun to fill in and they get me thinking about a variety of different subjects, some I may never have given a lot of thought to before. I love documenting my life in this way; it's like creating my own autobiography through lists! I think the completed books would be interesting for family members to discover in fifty years time, stored away at the back of the cupboard with old photos and mementos. I know I would have loved to have found books like this filled in by my parents or grandparents. 

I can't wait to work my way through the Literary Listography. I've already filled in several lists, but I'm trying not to fill it in all in one go. I could happily sit for hours and work from list to list. I tend to pick up these books whenever I feel inspired and fill in a list or two at a time.

Literacy Listography: My Reading Life In Lists really is perfect for any book lover, and I think the selection of lists covers everything even the most book-obsessed person would hope to be included. It would be an ideal gift for any book lover, and an even better present for yourself!

Will you be picking up a copy of Literacy Listography?

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Travel Listography Book Review

I've been meaning to review this book for you for, oh, I don't know... five or six months now, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to get 'round to it. Actually, strike that, yes, I can; this is me we're talking about here; I'm hopeless! Better late than never, though, right?

So, today I'm going to be reviewing a fantastic book called Travel Listography.

Travel Listography is basically a journal-style book full of prompted lists (about travel, obviously), for you to fill in to your heart's content. The book is designed to spark your imagination, help you to see how amazing the world is, and provide you with a place to record where you've been and where you hope to go in the future.

It's the type of book you're either going to love or hate; depending on whether you love filling in prompts, planning for the future, and recording the little things in life, or absolutely hate it.

I personally have always loved pondering over things like this. I love to write; I love to day dream and think about things that matter to me. My head is often up in the clouds thinking about all the things I want to see and do someday, and the aspirations have only grown since I injured my back and my life was put on hold. I want to travel all over the globe; see everything; experience as much as possible. I don't want to ever take life for granted again. I thought that this book would be the perfect place for me to start planning some of those goals, so that one day I can go through this book and start crossing things off!

The book is a large paperback and is approximately 160 pages long. That's a lot of lists! Almost every list has been given a double page spread; the left page features an illustration relating to the list on the right.

Some of the lists are given a full page of lines to write in...

Many pages are split in to two columns like in the photo above; one list for things you've already seen or done, and the second for things you hope to see or do one day. I love that these pages prompt both accomplishments and aspirations. It's interesting to compare how much I've experienced and how much I haven't, and I think that the unbalanced lists have the power to motivate me in to checking the goals off.

Towards the back of the book, there are also several pages laid out like in the image above, with lots of Firsts to complete.

The illustrations are simple but sweet, and the font used in the book looks like super-neat hand-writing in capital letters.

The book is filled with dozens up on dozens of lists which cover every possible travel subject you could ever think about. It covers cities and countries in every continent, nature, animals, landmarks and wonders of the world, attractions, events, food, culture, people, transport, road trips, travel experiences, mishaps, what you learnt while travelling and so much more. They really have thought of everything!

Here's a little peek at some of the lists in the book, including a few I've started filling in:

I've been to many more beaches as my childhood was full of trips to the seaside... I just need to complete my list.

Going to zoos and aquariums is one of my favourite things to do and I've visited a lot of them.

The beginnings of what will be a very long list on both sides.

Being a big animal lover, there are so many animals I've always wanted to see in the wild. Living in England, I haven't seen many... yet! I've no idea why I've changed between singular and plural in the Hope To See list...

Some of my favourite lists in the book include:

Animals Seen in the Wild.

Beaches, Oceans, and Seas.

Cemeteries and Graves.

Festivals, Parades, and Carnivals.

Ideas For A "Staycation."
Local Weekend Trip Ideas.

Natural Wonders, Formations, and Phenomena.

Outdoor Adventures.

Places I Have Little Interest In Visiting.

Places I Thought Were Haunted or Creepy.

Places I've Travelled Via Books, Films, and TV.

Prettiest Drives.

Silly and Surprising Things I've Done On Trips.

Songs That Inspire My Spirit Of Adventure.

Souvenirs I've Come Home With.

Things I Do While Travelling But Not At Home.
Things I've Learned From Travelling.
Travel Mishaps.
What I Love And Hate About Travelling.
Zoos, Aquariums, Wild Life Parks and Refugees.

I think the Travel Listography is a brilliant book and I'd highly recommend it to anybody who loves to travel and aspires to experience so much of what the world has to offer. It's fantastic for making plans for the future and for recording your travel experiences, and it's such a fun way to document them! This book gets a 5/5 from me!

The book retails for £12.99, but you can find it for much less on Amazon. It's also available from Waterstones and should be available from most good book shops.

Are you a fan of the Listography books?

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Day Fifteen: A Day in the Life

So I'm just about half way through the Blog Every Day in May Challenge... I actually can't believe it's already mid-May. I don't know how that happened, or where the year has gone; I must have hibernated through a few months, or something. Anyway, before I start rambling on about the weather like a little old lady, the challenge for today is 'A day in the life. (Include photos from throughout your typical day- this can be a photo an hour, if you'd like).'

Well, a typical day in my life is currently likely to be a little different to the average person. 
I can't stray far from my bed, due to the amount of pain I'm in. Sitting up in a chair is quite simply agony, and I struggle to remain on my feet for long because the pain is just that extreme. I'm pushing myself to leave the house as often as I can with a family member, but generally, my limit is an hour out of bed, and mostly the destination is the supermarket. How dull?! 
As the pain is so relentless, I also find it difficult to sleep, and have become nocturnal. I'm lucky if I manage to fall asleep by six am, and then have such broken sleep, I often don't rouse until three or four in the afternoon. It's not ideal, but I've made it work.
So my day runs from about 4:30pm Tuesday afternoon until 6:00am Wednesday morning...

Technically, these photos were taken the evening before my day, but I wanted to include them. I popped to the supermarket with my sister on Monday evening, and on the way home there was an enormous rainbow across the sky through the storm clouds. In fact, there were two! I took these photos with my iPod; I wish I'd had my camera with me as it was beautiful.

I didn't fall off to sleep until almost 9am yesterday morning, which was really frustrating, but I managed to read several chapters of the book I'm reading, 'Instructions For a Heatwave' by Maggie O' Farrell. I'm really enjoying it. I continued to read when I awoke late in the afternoon.

I filled in a little more of my Listography book. I started filling in the page of 'celebrities I've encountered'; although I'm struggling to recall them all. I worked in retail in the Cotswold's, and celebrity customers were a common occurrence. For instance, I sold pet ducks to Ronnie Barker on multiple occasions, and pet chickens to Jeremy Clarkson.

The Graze box I forgot to cancel came in the post. If anybody wants a free Graze box on me, go to Graze.com, and use code: DXQZDF6D!

I spent some time writing out birthday cards for a few friends' birthdays.

I then spent three hours or so making album sleeves to package a couple of discs I burned for friends. This photo sadly doesn't make them look that good, as it was taken about 10pm when there wasn't daylight to capture them properly.

I watched a few programmes on TV during the evening including The Big Bang Theory, Family Guy, and The Hunger Games.

I spent an hour catching up on Tumblr, and all the amazing images on my dashboard.

And I briefly got absorbed with Pinterest, repinning photos of cute puppies, outfit inspiration, quotes, and Modcloth dresses. The photos of the dog eating an ice cream are my current favourites of the week.

I then worked on putting my Wednesday Wish List post together, using Photoscape to bring all the pieces I'm coveting together and turn them in to a collage. I rarely use a template when making wish list collages like this; I arrange them all by hand to get the look I want.

I discovered a website called Art Box whilst catching up on my reading list. They're a company who sell stationary, clothing, and other gifts, including a huge selection of Moomin products. I wanted to buy it all, but settled on a couple of boxes of Moomin bath confetti (one for me, one for a present) for now. I then found a Care Bears folder which I plan on giving to my sister for her birthday as a silly, novelty gift, as she loved the Care Bears growing up. Who didn't?

And before I went to sleep, it was time for my fourth and last dose of medication of the day.  May I add, this is prescription medication, (not recreational), for my back injuries.

And after I took the last dose of medicine, I shut off the laptop, and settled down with my book again until I fell asleep.

And that is pretty much my Tuesday in a nut shell.

Listography Book Reviews

Lists; I live by lists.

I've always been the girl who organises her life by them. I use them to plan, remember, organise, and record.

I'm the girl with a Mission 101 list, a bucket list, a 30 by 30 list (in the making), and an ever growing list of things I want to do when my back heals.

So, when I heard about the Listography books, I knew they were for me, and set out to get myself a few of them.

The Listography books are large paperbacks packed full of lists to fill out to aid us to create our own autobiographies. The books were created by Lisa Nola, who wanted to create a place for us to record and capture the little, nostalgic details of our lives like our favourites, and experiences.

I bought four of the books over time, including:

Listography: Your Life in Lists

My Future Listography: All I Hope To Do In Lists

Music Listography: Your Life in (Play) Lists

Film Listography: Your Life in Movie Lists

Each book introduces all of the lists it features on a two page spread. The books are each roughly 160 pages long; now that's a lot of lists!

The lists are each given a double page spread. One page is sweetly illustrated to relate to the list, and the other is a full page to fill in to your heart's content.

I think the illustrations are lovely, and I like the font which has been designed to look like very neat hand-writing in capital letters. It adds to the journalistic feel of the books.

As each book is a little different, I'm going to briefly feature on each one, and share some of my favourite lists from each book.

Listography

Listography is the original book in the series, and has been "designed to help create your autobiography through list making..." Most of the lists are focused on past experiences, and current favourites, so I'd say it's best suited to nostalgic souls, like myself. It has a varied selection of topics to think about, and it's a great little book.

My favourite lists from the book include:

List bands you've seen live.

List the things you're glad you did.

List famous people you've encountered.

List your personal fashion trends over the years.

List the things you would save if your home was on fire.

List things most people probably don't know about you.

My Future Listography

My Future Listography is a book for planning all that you want to experience someday, and it's probably my favourite of the four Listography books I bought. I enjoy making plans for the future, and I'm currently thinking about all the things I want to experience when I'm back on my feet. There's so much I want to see and do, and I am going to be living life to the fullest again someday. This book will make a fantastic little check list for the days to come!

My favourite lists from this book include:

List the countries you hope to go to.

List the things you want to accomplish.

List mistakes to not repeat in the future.

List the things you hope to experience before you die.

List things you'd like to learn to how to make with your own two hands.

Film Listography

"Enjoy conjuring up your film memories. Our favourites often say a lot about who we were, are, and hope to be."- Lisa Nola, creator.

As a movie fan with a collection of 300+ DVDs, I decided to get the Film Listography book for fun, and to see if I was capable of short listing my favourites. This is a great book for any movie buff who wants to record all their favourites to look back on someday.

My favourite lists from the book include:

List soundtracks and scores you love.

List your top so-bad-it's-good movies.

List films that had a big influence on you.

List your favourite films adapted from books.

List movies you watched growing up that all kids should see.

Music Listography

"For many of us, music is one of the best reasons to be alive. This book will help capture the soundtrack for your life, and hopefully bring back a lot of fond musical memories." -Lisa Nola, creator.

I bought the Music Listography book, as I'm a huge music fan, and can't function without playing some music everyday. I enjoy making playlists, and this is a fun way to document some of my favourites. If you're music mad, then this is the book for you. I'm looking at you, Hannah!

My favourites lists from this book include:

List songs to play at your funeral.

List advice that you follow from lyrics.

List songs you thought were about you (a.k.a. your theme songs).

List the songs that completely transform your mood (a.k.a. therapist in a song).

List the twenty albums you'd bring if you were leaving planet earth on a space ship.

I purchased these books, not only to make plans, record details, and remember, but because I think they'd be interesting for myself and family members to discover in a box in fifty years time; the paper yellow and brittle from decades of age, holding nostalgic details of my past.

I'm sentimental, and have always loved looking through old photos and mementos, but I wish there were more interesting tales and artifacts from my family's history squirrelled away, so I'm making my own to look back on!

I also think these books are a great source of inspiration for blog posts, and if you'd like to see me blog about some of these topics in the future, I'd like to do so, from time to time!

These books are available from Waterstones and Amazon, and should be available from all good book shops.

I love these books, and can't wait to start pondering topics and filling in lists. Have you got a Listography book yet?

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