Diaries are a bit of a lost art with most of us. Some people still really enjoy writing out their thoughts and private secrets long hand, but my handwriting has never been beautiful, and I type so darned fast, that there was little point to keeping a physical diary once the internet took off. I craft my words through my fingers on a keyboard. I have a much harder time getting my point across with the handwritten word. I lament this fact, because I love the idea of journals. I even have several. They are blank ones. That I’ve had for years. But I’ve finally found the diary for me.
I love to be able to look back at what I’ve done in the past, but I don’t have any convenient system in place to make that easy. So when I found One Line a Day: A Five-Year Memory Book, I knew that was something I could keep up with. Writing one line per day for five years was something even I could manage. It wouldn’t take too long to get in the habit, and it would never take much time out of my busy day. I have decided that I will start on January 1, 2014, and I will write a sentence each evening about the highs and lows of the day. Then I can look back, as the next five years transpire, at what happened on that date during the previous years. How will I grow? What will I do? My daughter is 12 1/2 right now, so it will chronicle her teen years. My son is 9 1/2. Who will he be at age 14? It will cover the first half of my 40s. It will cover my wedding next year, and the amazing adventures we hope to undertake thereafter.
Put out by Chronicle Books, the book itself is gorgeous. It’s a light blue book covered in leather-ish material, with relatively small dimensions (1.3 x 4.2 x 6.7 inches), a perfect size to slip into your bag to take with you. Each page covers one day for five years. Just write in the year for the current section of the page, and write that day’s entry. The lines for each day are actually long enough to write several short sentences, if you write small. (I don’t write small, so I suppose I’ll have to learn.) The book also comes with a ribbon in its binding to mark today’s page. There are also a few pages in the back to write important dates, such as birthdays or anniversaries.
I look forward to keeping this diary for the next five years, being able to remember what I’ve thought and done on the years that came before. I’m sure I’ll be reminded of both happy occurrences and sad memories, but I’ll keep being reminded of how far I’ve come and what joys my life brings. It will also be fascinating for generations that come after me to read and see what I deemed important enough to write down.
One Line a Day retails for $16.95 and is a perfect Christmas present for any introspective or chronicling type of person on your gift list. Or for yourself. Where will you be five years from now?
Chronicle Books also publishes a variety of other One Line a Day books, including One Sketch a Day for those who are artistically inclined.
Note: I received a copy of this book for review purposes.
A cool alternative if you want to try this with an Android/web app: http://www.onelinejournal.org