I partnered up with Care from Care’s Online Book Club for the Try Something New Mini-Challenge hosted by Nymeth as part of Dewey’s Book Challenge. This post sums up the fun we had in March.
Mini-Challenge Rules
1) Sign up and get in touch with your partner
2) Read one book that is out of your comfort zone
3) Collaborate on a post
My Partner
I was excited to be partnered with the lovely and fabulous Care from Care’s Online Book Club. She contacted me and did a comparison of our “to-read” lists on Goodreads to get the ball rolling.
Our Book Selection
Care and I decided to read Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits, by Samara O’Shea, together. This book was new and different for me because I don’t read very much nonfiction.
We each ordered the book on Amazon, read it, and reviewed it. Click here for Care’s review and here for my review.
The Interview Wrap-Up
To wrap up our experience, Care and I exchanged interview questions about our journaling habits. My questions and Care’s answers follow. Be sure to stop by Care’s to read my answers to her questions. Okay, heeerrree’s Care:
1. Do you keep a journal? How long have you been journaling?
Yes, I’ve been journalling since the pre-teens. ah shucks, I think I better just go find all those books and look to be sure! EEK!!! I can’t find them. I only found 2008′s and my very first one. and all the ones that are blank and in-waiting. I’m going a bit berzerk cleaning and looking through closets… Where did I put them? I know I had them out last year. sigh…
2. What style of journal do you use? What kind of writing instruments do you use?
I am addicted to blank books. I fondle them at the bookstores and try to resist. I have a stack of about 5 waiting for me and I keep buying more! I have a pen with purple ink at the moment but I often lose pens – whatever’s handy.
3. What kind of things do you record – daily events, random thoughts, etc.? Do you stick things in your journal – flowers, notes, ticket stubs, etc.?
At the present time in my life, I am mostly doing to-do lists. But I often carry the book with me to jot down important stuff and if the journal is handy, I can almost always be counted on for a simple silly sentence here and there. I do like to record the day-to-day happenings if I think it will matter or be something I’ll refer to: movies, restaurants, etc. I like to scrap book and my camera and journal can go hand in hand at times – especially when travelling. I journal a lot when I travel. Lots of down time and cool things to jot down, and it’s usually a different state of mind than regular life. I’ve been known to tape movie tickets and business cards from cute little shops in the book but not a lot of ‘stuff’ goes into the book.
4. When do you write in your journal – everyday, weekly? Mornings, evenings? When you’re sad, happy?
I write ‘whenever’. Sometimes many times a day, sometimes once a week. I would say that it’s rare to go beyond a week without something being written even if, again, it’s just a “remember to call soandso” chore. I think I write more when I’m sad and I write even more when I’m happy. ha – that doesn’t make sense…
5. Why did you start journaling? Why do you continue to journal?
I first started to journal when I wanted to make lists and keep them: favorite songs, boys I’ve kissed, movies I’ve seen. I thought I was in 5th or 6th grade but the book I have here that I think might be my first ‘real’ journal has the first entry posted Feb 5, 1978.
6. Do you keep your old journals? Have you destroyed any journals or pages from them? Has anyone ever read your journal without permission?
Yes, I’ve kept them and I haven’t destroyed any pages that I recall. If anyone has read them, I have yet to discover it. I do admire my husband for either not wanting to read them -or- resisting the tempation -or- successfully hiding the fact from me! He’s a great guy and I trust him with whatever.
7. Do you ever go back and read your journals? Has reading old entries helped you understand your current life situations?
Yes, I re-read my journals, on occasion (when I can find where I hid them…) Most of the time when I’m constructing scrapbooks and need a place name or date reference. It’s great fun to read about the time when I first dated my husband. Giddy times! What is funny about my first diary booklet is that I have the acronym ‘PDR’ inside the front cover and on the first page: Please Don’t Read. For some reason, it makes me laugh.
8. Would you care to share a journal entry you wrote?
OK… Hmmmm. Why not give you that very first one! “Feb. 5 Found out I got J. in trouble by calling at Mike’s party. K. was flirting in Sunday School with Andy. Curt & C. were doing undescribable things at the party. When I called, J. asked me to go with him. I said NO. I wish I went to the party. I had $28.18 this morning.”
My ‘now’ self wonders why the sentence about Sunday School is in the middle of the stuff about the party. I wonder why I didn’t want to ‘go with’ J. He was a nice guy. Why did he get in trouble? Why did I not go to the party?
and why did I list my current financial status in past tense? did I spend it soon thereafter?
The Feb. 6 entry says “I got my social security no today in the mail. This is it: ###-##-####.”
31 years ago (huh?) March 30, 1978 “My brother got his permit for driving last week and Him, Mom and me went shopping. I know I’m going to be a nervous driver!” I don’t know why the bad grammar and why the capital H…
March 31, 1978 “Nothing happened.”
9. What did you learn not only from reading Note to Self but from joining this mini-challenge?
I’ve enjoyed this experience – it’s always fun to get to know another person a bit better. Journalling is like reading – maybe even more so in that it is typically an extremely personal experience, a solo experience. Joining for a review now makes it more social – like book clubbing is to reading.
I really wanted to read Note to Self twice; the first one without taking notes and the second time paying attention to things to blog about and share with you, Jessica. But it morphed into one reading with notes and then just going back through as I thought of things. I have such a hard time reading books twice – I don’t know why. But I did approach this a bit more scholarly – again, lots of notes! I think what I learned most was from the features of famous people and what they wrote in their own journals but the most important thing was being re-inspired to keep journalling and enjoying the process.
10. Anything else you’d like to share about journaling or this mini-challenge experience?
One other thing: I wanted to call attention to an interesting phenomena called ‘Get Mortified’ – people get on stage and read from their high school journals and/or poetry collections. The website is http://getmortified.com. Boston has one this week but luckily I won’t be able to participate since I have yet to locate those darn journals…
Thanks, Care! I love that your old journals are so well hidden that you can’t even find them! I really admire your ability to journal in list form and to write whenever the mood strikes. I often feel constrained by the fact that I’m “making a record for the future.” I’m hoping to get over that feeling. And, one last thing, if you attend a Get Mortified event, you better record it and post it on your blog!
Concluding Remarks
I thoroughly enjoyed this mini-challenge! Thanks to Nymeth for hosting it, and a very special thanks to Care for colloborating with me and making it fun and informative.
{ 9 comments }
Thank you! I noticed I had a typo in my response “cool thinks to jot down” but it still works! If only all my thoughts could be ‘cool THINKS’. I enjoyed working with you on this – I actually keep thinking of more questions – like, do you try to write something profound on the first page of a new book? ah, maybe at a later time, we can revisit this. :)
Care, I fixed the typo. I do try to write profound things on the first page. In fact, I so want the first page to be profound that sometimes I have to skip it and start writing on the second page. In fact, here’s the first sentence from my current journal (it starts on page 2): “A brand new, beautiful notebook is made for writing in, but something prevents me from marring the very first page.”
Do you have page 1 phobias?
I’m very glad you two had fun :D And as I was telling Care, it really shows that you did in your posts. I loved the interviews, how you structured them, the fact that you included journal excerpts… everything!
And wow, Care has such cool notebooks!
What fun! I loved reading about your journaling Care, and about the whole experience with Jessica. Sounds like you both had a great time.
You girls did a great job with the interview. I love journaling so it’s so fun to hear about your own experiences. Had to laugh with your journal entry of “nothing happened”. I had several of those in my younger years :)
So fun. You’ve inspired me to journal more often. I love a new notebook, too. There is something so special about writing in a new book for the first time.
I still haven’t found my 80s and 90s journals. I haven’t looked because I’m scared I won’t find them – how’s THAT logic? But I do like to start a new book with something witty or profound. I just don’t have any examples! Most of the starts in my latest book is almost a continuation of the last page of the old journal…
I DID love this challenge! I’m still thinking about journalling and will probably have more posts when I feel they are spaced out enough not to bore anyone.
I’ve always thought of journals as places to write down great long lengthy things about your thoughts and nothing else (which is probably why I’ve never really gotten into it). Thanks for a breath of fresh air – it never occured to me to treat a journal as a sort of commonplace book-cum-diary.
I found them!!! (had to share….)
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