Collect Journals

I spotted What It Is when I was in the US. Hmm. Looks like a journal. Is it? Maybe not quite, but it comes under the headings of Personal, Art/Writing, and Freaking Amazing that qualify for my collection.

Wasn’t about to buy it over there because of the baggage weight limits, but I can get it on Amazon. Joy!

I have always had a lot of jounals but “collecting” them has had me buying more beautifully decorated journals. So much so that I need to call this goal done so I can save a little moola and do a little more writing!

Got a great new one in Flag! Its red, thick and has a black & white polkadot “belt” around it. LOVE IT!!

I just picked up a new one last night. It caught my eye- I like that it says smile on the front.

Well I have been keeping them since I was in middle school. My inspiration came via Jim Carroll who wrote the Basketball diaries among other things. I have so many now I don’t really know what to do with them all. I let friends occasionally take a look at them, but it is mostly private things and poetry.
I recommend any and all journal keeping. I just wish to point out, for people who enjoy scrap booking; you can find great pictures and other things in magazines. There is no need to buy all those pre cut packaged things. You can even draw things yourself and then cut them out you know.

I do art journaling myself – I have, let’s see, one on the go now, one from earlier in the year that had tiny bits to be completed, a themed one about my exploration of Buddhism that needs completing, and a travel journal from two years ago that’s not quite finished yet (shame!). Plus numerous little notebooks full of my mind’s general unravelings from early in the morning. Thus far my OWN collection.

However…I also love other people’s published journals. Especially if they’re anything like mine, with sketches and photos and ephemera and doodles and bits stuck in. So, I’m amassing a collection of such books…if anyone knows of any I may have missed (I have just discovered the astonishing and delightful Sabrina Ward Harrison), do let me know!
PS – I realize ‘collect journals’ is vague enough not to include a point at which it’ll be ‘done’ (?). So let’s say 50 to be going on with. I have about, let’s think, 5 or 6 so far…

i thot since i finally have a digital camera to instantly record, i’d finally take a photo of all my journals. What i didnt consider was that if wanted to show glimpses inside, i couldnt capture all of them in one picture…

And actually, this isnt even all of the journals i have, just what was readily available near my nightstand…i know i have journals / notepads going back to 1971, when i was in 4th grade.

_{once a writer, always a writer!}

...my journaling craze really took off when i moved out on my own in 1984, and there was no longer anyone disapprovingly looking over my shoulder with “why are you wasting money on…”, “what do you need yet ANOTHER…”, etc etc, blah blah blah. Altho i wrote all thru HS, i pretty much stuck to 1 journal at a time, and put everything it. More & more i’ve separated my interests & passions into different journals, and of course have started a journal any time i travel some place new… And more & more, i’ve broken down the “boundaries” of what i fill my journals with: where i used aim for nice neat prose, Now i slap in quotes, drawings, photos pictures, grocery lists, food labels, collage items, stamps, leaves, coffee stains—anything & everything i can think of, that captures some aspect of experience, that inspires or reminds, or just catches my whimsy….and i relish my journals more & more…

i’m always complaining that i dont write more,,,,but in looking over these 20+ years of journaling, i guess i Have written a bit!

:)

I have many, and I need to keep more. Since 2001 I mostly have stuck to the computer and done my writing there- unfortunately I have not had the chance to complete a journal since. They usaully take me about 9 mo to a year to finish, depending on the size.