Review: Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Samara O’Shea

I couldn’t wait to review Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Samara O’Shea not only because I dabbled in journaling before, but because it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve read a book other than one that was about pregnancy or child care.
When I think of a journal, I think of a book in which you write down daily events or your daily thoughts, and when you read through it weeks or years later, you find the entries insightful and enlightening.

According to O’Shea, journaling can involve so much more…or so much less. She explains that there is no right or wrong way to journal. You don’t have to write an entry every day, nor do you have to detail your daily life. You can record dreams, express your emotions, chronicle your travels, or create a to-do list. One very important thing she stresses when journaling, however, is “Don’t lie.”

O’Shea shares a variety of journal entries, among them include those on romance and heartbreak, career failures and successes, and the simple pleasures she finds in her daily life. Her entries are sometimes tense, at times spiritual, and yet at others amusing.

Throughout the book O’Shea also shares quotes, stories, and journal entries of notable individuals which help reinforce her ideas on both journaling and on life in general.

Although she has been journaling for years and has “found the woman” she wants to be, she acknowledges that “I still have plenty of work to do…There’s time to attempt these improvements, and I look forward to the introspective road ahead as well as the many mistakes I’ll make along the way. I plan to observe, enjoy, criticize, taste, touch, and smell the world around me and document it all in notes to myself.”

Note to Self was an enjoyable read, with many insightful quotes and passages throughout from both O’Shea and the notables she featured. Reading this book may inspire you enough to pick up that pen and start writing down your to-do list, your dreams, or your significant life events. No matter how you do it, or how often, in the end you will reap the same reward—a deeper understanding of your “self.”

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers for providing the product(s) for review and/or giveaway.

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