not Umberto Eco’s catalog

Sure, this isn’t a catalogue that Mr Taleb or Mr Eco would approve of. But, the way I see it, there’s already a huge library of things I haven’t read, listened to, watched, etc. and can thus use for research and to learn: the internet. And its catalogue is search engines.

But there’s a lot out there that I have already read, listened to, etc. — as of November 2009, I’ve catalogued item #600 here, and I’ve left plenty out, whether through forgetfulness or perhaps embarrassment. Not to mention that this only covers about 10 years of on-again-off-again. I think it’s safe to say that 300 of the 600 items have come from the last three years.

How else am I going to keep track of all that? A card catalogue, of course.