Note To Self Review

I read another book this week, this one is called Note To Self: On Keeping A Journal And Other Dangerous Pursuits by Samara O’Shea. Note To Self is a book all about journaling. A video by the author intrigued me so much that I had to check it out. I’ve included the video here at the bottom of this post, for anyone interested.

Ms. O’Shea kept a journal for many years. Her book highlights a number of entries and it is clear she’s enjoyed journaling and has a talent for writing. She also includes entries from other writers’ diaries that she found particularly interesting, timely or inspirational. She freely exposes some of her most personal thoughts in the book, with an entire chapter about sex. A warning in the lines of parental ratings, the excerpts from her journal are original and uncensored, some containing detailed references to sex and drugs. She’s even got a chapter on blogging, which she considers a slightly different animal.

I kept a diary for a short period of time when I was young. At the time I considered a diary a place to keep personal thoughts and memories and stopped keeping one because I didn’t want it found and read since I considered it to be private. I felt I couldn’t be totally honest because I didn’t want people to know what was on my mind. When I think back now, I wish I’d just kept at it. Things have faded with age.

Note to Self reminders readers that there is no right and wrong way to write a journal, no schedule that must be kept, no one method or style of writing and no topic that is off limits. A journal is a place where a writer should be honest with themselves and write anything to themselves that might cross their mind. As Ms. O’Shea mentions in the beginning of her book, “a journal is one of the only places where no one can judge you, and it should also be a place where you are not judging yourself”.

Suggestions on how to journal are throughout the book. The suggestions I found most useful are writing letters that will not be sent and writing in a stream of consciousness. Ms. O’Shea encourages people to ask themselves questions, and to answer them. In one chapter her present self speaks to her past self, something I probably ought to take the time to do. After I get my answers to my own questions it would probably be a good time for me to write to myself.

Samara O’Shea’s blogs on her own site Letter Lover and at the Huffington Post.

Note to Self is available for purchase online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Booksense, Borders and Powell’s. I think the book would be a good read for anyone interested in journaling or writing in general, as well as anyone interested in learning more about themselves.

A special thanks to Felicia Sullivan, for sharing the video and the book with me.

Now, here’s the video I mentioned.

Tags: book, Reviews

Category: Entertainment, Reviews