When I cleaned out my parent's house after my mother died, I came across a cigar box filled with post cards I had sent while traveling in the British Isles. I was travelling by bicycle, staying at hostels with strangers. What struck me most about those missives was the optimism and humour of the writer. It's not often that we get the opportunity to look back and see ourselves as younger people - but that was the effect of finding this stash of hidden mail.
I've always been a proponent of new media, but I can't help feeling that finding a set of twenty-year-old emails would not have the same effect. Maybe it is because of my fascination with the digital arts that I try to balance it through keeping books.
Here is a page from a book kept while in India and other countries.
Here is a list of books.