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

~ Samara O'shea (Author)
Key Phrases: dream deferred, Intimate Details, New York, Hearts That Hurt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

O’Shea approaches journal writing as a therapeutic tool and an aid to helping journal keepers discover new strengths and develop others, find previously unsuspected dimensions and depths of their personalities, and uncover and confront painful realities. This self-discovery combines depth with breadth, so as the writer records both life’s mundane minutiae and family-altering crises, he or she acquires knowledge of the most valuable kind from dreams and candid accounts of personal crimes and misdemeanors. O’Shea includes her own journal entries in each chapter, covering different eras in her life, and provides writing tips and journaling exercises developed to empower the act of externalizing thoughts, feelings, and, ultimately, oneself. She also includes instructive passages from the journals of notable writers, such as Louisa May Alcott, who records her winter’s earnings in 1855: $120, which includes $20 for her stories—“if I am ever paid.” A listing of sources rounds out this interesting addition to journaling aids that emphasizes “it’s not the rereading where one finds solace but in the writing itself.” --Whitney Scott

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, Anaïs 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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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (July 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061494151
• ISBN-13: 978-0061494154
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #373,213 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Journal or Not? Read Note to Self!, July 30, 2008

By	J. Mileto - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute, July 26, 2008

By	Seven Kitties "7kitties" (Blue Point, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book targets more of the "WHY" of journaling than the "how." While most of the journaling books generally give you the standard folderol about journaling being good for you and then jump on to exercises, O'Shea dives into her own journals and shows you, literally, what that means.

She does give some questions to help you journal, but there's none of the 'how to pick a journal' stuff here. She assumes you can manage to pick up some paper and pen on your own without sage advice. In fact, she avoids the "Journal Guru" voice throughout the work. Instead of feeling that you're sitting at the Feet of the Master (as many journaling books tend to do), she's more like the good friend you haven't seen in a while dishing, no-holds-barred, about journaling and her life. (The feminist in me applauds the frankness of this little 'sistah-fest').

Because, oh yeah, you get a lot of her life in here. At times it verges more on memoir than journaling, but no one can accuse O'Shea of holding back or being shy. She ruthlessly exposes extracts from her own journals, and not-very-admirable episodes from her own life (including her decision to cheat on a boyfriend). You certainly come away from this book feeling as if you KNOW this woman, and that she learned to know herself through her journals. More, that you see parts of yourself in her.

So, part of the possible appeal of this book is 'whether or not you like Samara O'Shea.' I can only suggest you look at her other book, or browse this in a bookstore, to see if her personality appeals to you. (Or, publisher, *hint hint* put on a 'look inside' thingummy for this book!) Warning: If you're a hothouse flower, the references to drugs and sex might turn you off.

This is a good book if you've been journaling and want to see your journaling get *deeper*. She's got some really savvy insights into human nature, and poses some really good questions for us to ask ourselves as we journal. For example she has a whole (and very racy!) chapter on sex. To journal or not to journal sexiness was one of the themes. In the end, she doesn't prescribe one solution, but lays out her case for why she does (sometimes) and why she doesn't (at other times). And what a question--do *you* journal about physical intimacy? Why or why not?

If your idea of journaling is getting to know yourself and how you work better (as opposed to, say, writing for your children or grandchildren) this book is a lively and spunky companion.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading - a must for other journalists and diarists , August 12, 2008

By	Kathryn Esplin (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!