Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits

by Samara O'Shea and Dashka Slater

Book Overview

A charming anecdotal guide to the joys of journal-writing, with exercises and tips to enhance the journaling experience. Much like she did with correspondence in her first book, For the Love of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061494151
• ISBN13: 9780061494154
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A book that will absolutely change how you journal-in a good way.

So when first looking at this book in Anthropologie I thought "I dont need this, I know how to journal". Yet, the more I began to flip through it, the harder it became to not buy it. I read it in a very short period of time considering that I had to stop to write in my journal after each chapter or so. It really brought my journalling to a new level. I used to journal only when I was emotionally troubled or was trying to work through something in my life. Now, I carry my journal everywhere with me. I write in it almost everyday, its become my strongest companion. I really suggest buying this for anyone. She has solid advice and insight into life that it is worth a read, even if you dont have a journal or plan on starting one. Also, many times, it felt like I was peering into her soul and through that seeing my own. I have highlighted through this book and I plan on rereading it multiple times. A must in any collection.

Well worth reading - a must for other journalists and diarists

A year ago, Samara published The Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing. Now she gives us snippets from her journal dating back to her teens, which was not that very long ago, from this delightful and talented woman who is not yet 30. Some of her journal entries: EXCERPT: THE FIRST PAGE "I've always felt a pressure to be profound on the first page of a new journal. I won't say that I always achieve profundity, but I do try. Since there is no obvious outside source creating this pressure, I imagine it's one I put on myself: Say something smart to look back on later! I prefer to think it's nothing like that, but more like the beginning of anything. A new year. A new job. A new relationship. All of these, essentially, are the start of new seasons in our lives, and we want them to be as fresh as clean linens drying in the path of a friendly breeze. So we show off a bit at first - doing everything as diligently as possible. Going to the gym every day, showing up a half hour early for work, or tending to a new lover as if she or she were royalty. In the same vein, we start our journals off on a semi-philosophical note, or at least we acknowledge the fresh start we feel we're making with our words and the act of journalng itself." AT SIXTEEN ..."I've never suffered from apathy. My problem is that my emotions are too strong and uncontrollable. I'm sixteen years old but I feel about eight. The world around me is foreign and I'll never understand it. Poeple and their actions are so weird. At this point in time, I do in fact have a boyfriend..." AT NINETEEN ..."My 2nd year of college but first year at Duquesne is closing in on me. I enjoy the warm weather immensely but the warmer it beomces the more I fear. Because that means graduation is upon us. Well, upon the seniors. I've met a handful of seniors this year and I know some will go, never to be seen again by me. I fear good-byes and life is filled with constant good byes."... AT TWENTY-ONE ...Perhaps it was my grandmom who whispered to me that I couldn't stop writing. I don't remember her saying anything of the sort but perhaps she did. I saw her tonight...At the wrinkled age of 86 she is the victim of a very aggressive liver cancer. Looking at her today was strange. She was tethered in 1,000 tubes and her soft, toothless mouth could barely bring thought to the surface. I kept thinking, "All human beings are subject to decay." (Samara notes at page bottom that this line is from John Dryden's Mac Flecknoe. John Dryden, 1621-1700)... ...I thanked her for taking such good care of me. She took my hand and raised it to her rasin-wrinkled mouth and kissed it. Porbably the nicest moment we've shared in years. I tried to cry softly enough so she couldn't tell. Then I told her how proud I was and how in love with her I was. Now, I hope to hold that moment close. Forever." Samara also includes journal entries from Anne Frank, Anais Nin, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, am

A Journal-istic Masterpiece

Samara O'Shea's second book is just as outstanding, well-written, insightful and inspiring as her first. While on the surface, it would seem how to journal is obvious, O'Shea's skill is in teasing out the nuances of a form of writing, as well as revealing personal and historical examples that make your own literary efforts in that regard much richer and more profound. Here, again, as in For the Love of Letters, her can-do spirit is clear from the start; in journal writing, there are no musts or shoulds, only possibilities. She dispels immediately with the notion that one must write every day, or that the subject matter must be profound. Starting with her title, you know this is not going to be a staid, "now pick up your pen" kind of book. That O'Shea even mixes "danger" and "journaling" is a sign of her mindset, one that greatly aids this book, making it an illuminating look at her life and some noted journal keepers, rather than simply a how-to book. The examples she shares are rich in wordplay and emotional nuance, as is O'Shea's turn of phrase. Her baring of her own journal entries takes bravery, and does its job well, showing not just what she wrote but why she wrote it and the progression of entries over her lifetime. Divided into chapters focusing on love, heartbreak, faith, blogging, introspection, and sex, Note to Self reveals just how profound are the thoughts that can be revealed when we give ourselves permission to simply let go. Each chapter covers a different type of journal writing, and is guided by O'Shea's own entries, as well as the backstory to them. She tells us briefly bout losing her virginity, and then why she didn't write about it in her journal. On the other hand, hot sex with one man left her eager to rush home to record it in her journal. Her relationship with her journal is a significant one in her life, and it's this sense of intimacy, both via self-knowledge and creating a dialogue, if you will, with your own thoughts, that sustains Note to Self. Her observations about such topics as forgiveness, cheating, and love are profound, and surely aided by the time she has spent exploring them in her journal. O'Shea shares snippets of diaries by Joyce Carol Oates, Anais Nin, Lewis Carroll, Sylvia Plath, and others (of Plath, O'Shea writes that her poems, lettrs, and journal entries "hold me graciously by the throat.") These additional outlooks add depth to O'Shea's advice and show varying styles of journaling. This is a feisty, bold, invigorating book. It got me reaching for my journal multiple times as I read, pondering why I so often put it down even as muddled thoughts cry out to be written, even if crudely. O'Shea daringly reveals her fears, mistakes, doubts, triumphs, and personal relationships, and even gets her sister and mother to cough up entries I'm sure they would rather have kept private. By doing so, she further shows what happens when we read someone else's journal, putting ourselves in O'Shea's place upon

To Journal or Not? Read Note to Self!

Thank you for helping me to feel NORMAL, Samara!! I am a 33 year old mother of two young children who has been journalling for over half my life at this point. I started journalling as an awkward and unsure tween and my journals have certainly seen me through much change since then (motherhood!). And, hey, change is scary! Note to Self has allowed me to look back on those scary changes in my life and say, "You are not a freak!" Samara explains, "We collectively breathe a sigh of relief when we realize we are not alone in our thoughts, words, or deeds." From the start of the book, the reader feels as if Ms. O'Shea is sitting right across the room from you, sharing knowledge, laughs, and little snippets out of her life -maybe all over a pot of tea! She's not afraid to share with the world what she has learned from it in her time here. And best of all, she is encouraging us to look at our OWN path in life by keeping a journal. "But I'm not the type to. . . " Okay, there's room for you folks who are not current journallers! Chapter 1 begins with reminding those of us who have bashed ourselves for not journalling the way you *thought* you would in that pie-in-the-sky preconceived notion you may have held at once point about what a journal should look like. Maybe it's at this point you gave up, but Samara is on the sidelines cheering you on to give it another go! There are chapters filled with advice on tapping into your own experiences to find something about which to journal. Samara encourages the reader to find his or her own personal connection to journalling. And hey, she admits, maybe the only connection you will ever get is pleasure in reading other people's journals. Well, pull up a comfy armchair, because Note To Self is chalked full of these . . . (check out the chapter Intimate Details if you are a sexual being, otherwise you might want to skip it!) One last thing, for those of you reading this review, it's online! Ms. O'Shea does not exclude those of us who stare at screens to check out information. There's a chapter on blogging and how this recent update to our lives is affecting journalling-pros and cons, and beyond. So, here's to you, Samara! Thanks for not being afraid to share yourself with us folks out here who are making our way through one day at a time. It's nice to know you are doing the same.