Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits | 
 enlarge | Author: Samara O'shea
Publisher: Collins Living
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 20687
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0061494151
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.06692
EAN: 9780061494154
ASIN: 0061494151
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Keeping a journal is easy. Keeping a life-altering, soul-enlightening journal, however, is not. At its best, journaling can be among the most transformative of experiences, but you can only get there by learning how to express yourself fully and openly. Enter Samara O'Shea. O'Shea charmed readers with her elegant and witty For the Love of Letters. Now, in Note to Self, she's back to guide us through the fun, effective, and revelatory process of journaling. Along the way, selections from O'Shea's own journals demonstrate what a journal should be: a tool to access inner strengths, uncover unknown passions, face uncertain realities, and get to the center of self. To help create an effective journal, O'Shea provides multiple suggestions and exercises, including: - Write in a stream of consciousness: Forget everything you ever learned about writing and just write. Let it all out: the good, bad, mad, angry, boring, and ugly.
- Ask yourself questions: What do I want to change about myself? What would I never change about myself?
- Copy quotes: Other people's words can help you figure out where you are in life, or where you'd like to be.
- It takes time: Don't lose faith if you don't immediately feel better after writing in your journal. Think of each entry as part of a collection that will eventually reveal its meaning to you.
O'Shea's own journal entries reveal alternately moving, edgy, and hilarious stories from throughout her life, as she hits the party scene in New York, poses naked as an aspiring model, stands by as her boyfriend discovers an infidelity by (you guessed it) reading her journal, and more. There are also fascinating journal entries of notorious diarists, such as John Wilkes Booth, Anais Nin, and Sylvia Plath. A tribute to the healing and reflective power of the written word, Note to Self demonstrates that sometimes being completely honest with yourself is the most dangerous and rewarding pursuit of all.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
A book that will absolutely change how you journal-in a good way. October 4, 2008
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.
Inspirational journaling reference written by an honest, resilient, brave, forgiving, provocative, elegant author September 18, 2008
Considering how valuable I find "For the Love of Letters", I couldn't wait to read "Note to Self" because I was eager to find out what more I could learn to better myself. The book is destined as a staple reference which empowers readers to refine their identity through journaling. After reading "Note to Self," I sincerely appreciate Samara O'Shea's honesty, the time she devotes to formulate her thoughts, and apply her revelations from journaling to strengthen her identity.
In each chapter, Ms. O'Shea discusses different ways to express oneself. Examples from her journal enhance the illustrations of her teachings, while being personable to the reader. As I read the book, I found her very courageous for revealing some of the most intimate moments in her life. I feel like there was a lot of pride to swallow discussing instances which may have been painful to her or the person she is writing about in her journal, especially when her former boyfriend came across her confession about spending time with another man. On a positive note, I believe a public acknowledgement is a way of conquering her hardships, as well as a way to sincerely reconcile with those who were affected, which I find very admirable.
Growing in a single parent family and being such a cautious introvert, I feel like I have so much that I missed in my life after reading "Note to Self." I began by exploring my sexuality as well as my career goals through journaling while in exile from Hurricane Gustav, and can't wait to harness many additional teachings from "Note to Self." Both are examples of some of the topics of discussion. Ms. O'Shea begins her introduction with a quote from Anais Nin: "We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection." Ms. Nin's quote parallels what Ms. O'Shea writes in the chapter on intimacy: "If the sex is good, I very much enjoy having it twice - in person and on paper." I will be brave and admit that I second her testament. Journaling about my last intimate experience felt wonderful and even more vivid as I reflected and inked my thoughts on paper. Wow is an understatement to this particular experience.
I enjoyed excerpts of journal citations from various historical celebrities, placed in the context of each of the chapters. After reading "For the Love of Letters," I felt like I have a lot of catching up to do on the literary classics. I admit to being illiterate to classic literature. With the release of "Note to Self," I feel like I have been put to shame for coming to the realization of how much more illiterate I am, and will strive to close the gap by incorporating some classic literature into my reading list. I can never thank Ms. Samara O'Shea enough for inspiring me to journal, and refine my personality to evolve into a better person.
Journal to the Center of Your Earth August 14, 2008
Samara O'Shea has written THE BOOK on journaling. She shows us how journaling fits into our life and gives us a hand with the slings and arrows of living.
She deals with the "reasons" we give for not journal writing like: I'm not a writer. Her response: "If you are a thinker, you are a writer. Writing is simply thoughts making their way to paper...if a thought is begging to breathe the fresh air then it's best to open the door and let it out."
She shows us there is only one right way to journal -- our way. It's our choice as to whether we write every day, alternate Tuesdays, once in a blue moon or whenever. She says she "writes what she wants when she wants."
In NOTE TO SELF, we learn from journals of Tennessee Williams, Lewis Carroll and John Wilkes Booth (yes, Virginia, journaling is a guy thing!).
I loved all the honest and insightful chapters and my favorite today is Chapter 5 -Sense of Self, which opens with a William Shakespeare quote, "Self-love is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting". That's why I love Journaling: I discover more and more and more about myself, experience my true/real self and build a healthy, compassionate, forgiving relationship with myself. The more I journal, the smarter I become about my world.
I kept a childhood diary and adult journal sporadically, but have been into a serious journaling routine for about 10 years. Journaling does everything that Samara says it does--helping me with everything from achieving goals to sorting out my sexuality.
As a writing therapist, I have and will recommend NOTE TO SELF to all my clients and subscribers and have stolen some of Samara's suggestions for my own journaling and for my workshops.
Well done indeed, Samara!
Well worth reading - a must for other journalists and diarists August 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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, among others.
Very well worth reading!
A Journal-istic Masterpiece August 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
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 reading of her mother's despair trying to calm a squalling child (O'Shea).
Readers will be hard-pressed to close O'Shea's book and not long to take pen to paper. I know that's what I did throughout reading the book, and kept picking it up almost as a reminder that the thoughts knocking around in my head deserve the dignity of being preserved in my journal.
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