Tuesday, April 16, 2019

A Record Book About the Turn of the Millennium









Though this one sounds similar to The Book of Millennium Records, the two could not be further apart.

A few years ago, I kept going on and on about "The Millennium is about time capsules and the preservation of history." The Record Book is a time capsule in book form.

I like the formatting: The left page of each section is for 1999, and the right page is for 2000. Surprisingly, it's intended more for older children (and teenagers and adults) than the younger ones I'd initially assumed: There are sections for politics, news, TV, and sports, things which I wouldn't normally expect children to follow (or to at least have only some vague idea about). This is most apparent in the last sections, which force some rather deep introspection: Entries include "Greatest lessons learned this year" and "Personal accomplishments."

The section "The Conversion" presumably refers to going from 1999 to 2000, but I suspect it's more of a reference to the Y2K problem. There are sections labeled "Preparations made before the conversion," "Supplies acquired," "Expectations of the conversion," "What actually happened," and "What were the effects?"

The last few sections are reserved for pictures taken in '99 and '00; descriptions of how the reader spent New Year's Eve on those years; and goals for the new millennium.

The back page lists other Millennium products sold by the manufacturer, Havoc Publishing, including a photo frame and keepsake box. The company also sold record books for subjects like weddings and pregnancies.