When you remember a book you once read and enjoyed, chances are you will also remember where you were when you were reading it.

Regardless of where your book was read – whether it was from a cosy old bed or an exotic beachside hammock – it’s likely you will remember the surrounds as vividly as the book itself.

Where you read a book says as much about you as the books you read

Is your favourite book one you read while travelling? Perhaps a crime or thriller you once read had its edges taken off because you read it in a peaceful garden, or maybe your jerky daily bus commute made a humourous piece all the more absurd and enjoyable.

Before I travel to a place I’ve never been to before, I like to purchase a new book to read so I can enter a new fictional world at the same time. It’s an incredible experience to enter two worlds at once!

Some write their name in every book they buy. New York journalist and cultural observer Lesley M.M. Blume does that and always records where and when she reads a book.

She has written:

“..for example, Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist was read on my honeymoon; The Sheltering Sky was read while I was travelling through Morocco, D.V. was first read on the beach in Dubai. Taking these books off the shelves and reading the inscriptions takes me back to these evocative journeys..”

If we are what we read, then perhaps it’s time to record where we read, if only to give ourselves the beauty of more memories.