I don’t know if its some sort of condition but since my teens I’vre loved making lists. I find it exciting and comforting and I’m happy to sepend hours doing it. It doesn’t really matter what its a list of but if its something I’m interested in, so much the better, And it isnt just the act of listing its a sort of power to carry it around with you to refer to. I think psychologically it’s a way of controlling the chaos of life. I feel like I’ve got some control if I’ve got a list.
I’ve heard that constructing spreadsheets is a more 21st century version of this but it's essentially the same thing. But there is something wonderfully analogue about having a few sheets of folded A4 in your pocket.
Obviously, for many years I carried a ‘Wants’ list around with me at all times. So much so that when I was in the first year of college, the lists I carried were three or four years old and were all furry and falling apart. They were also somewhat out of date as I’d collected 70% of the records on it. It was a mass of crossings out and scribbles. And I didn’t tell anyone about it because I feared being thought weird. I thought only I did this sort of thing.
In fact I’d even be quite covert about consulting the lists for the same reason and because I thought of them as a private part of me. It was as much as making the list and amending it as it was having a list. But once me and Dawn were getting serious, she found my lists which by then were a five sheet wedge of scribble and I said what they were for. Contrary to my expectations of ridicule, she just shrugged and thought it inconsequential but probably a good idea given my collecting habit. I knew at that moment she was a keeper!
I spent a few evenings creating a new list by overhauling the old lists and adding a lot of new stuff. I wish I’d kept them now because they were a kind of diary documenting what I bought and where from along with prices and odd comments. But of course I binned them, little realising that in 45 years time they’d be of interest.
I had a strict way of notating my wants with headings for bands and their albums underneath with breakouts for solo albums. If I’d seen albums but hadn’t bought them, I would note where and the price.These days you’d do this all on a phone but a sheaf of papers is more analog and somehow more soulful.
My peak listing period was from about 14 to my early 30s.That was when I assiduously kept them up to date, since then it just naturally seemed less important, though I still did keep lists, I wasn’t so absolutely manic about it. These days I don’t do it at all really, except for lists on my laptop. But it was once a central part of my life and I was lucky to find a partner who understood.
