Blogging A-Z - April Challenge - J is for......

J is for......Journals

Journals, diaries and notebooks. Are they really any different? perhaps a mixture of all three?

I have kept a diary for appointment and schedules since I was at school. I guess at the start it was to record birthday's homework and library book dates, even my senior school had a fine system! I still have every diary, I have ever had in my study.

I also have a typical journal, for thoughts, observations and contemplations. I have also kept note books, filled with the names of books, recipes, names of plants and restaurants, films, research and a whole host of other snippets, the kind of trivia that keeps us thinking. Looking back at my notebooks and journals I can see that these two have become amalgamated driven around that whichever book I had with me I always wanted to write in the other one! Likewise, these span back across the last 20 odd years or so.

I have also a travel journal, kept for the duration of the time I spent in Australia and my travelling en route and likewise of my trip to Kenya (more about Kenya tomorrow!). All of these are kept in my study and are indexed of sorts, reflecting on the years covered and each book has a number. The only two things I still keep separate is a book for recipes and an old diary which has a pile of book names for my wish list.

In this age of iphones and computer programmes there are various note facilities that do not involve paper and pens. Which means that notes can be editable and thus notes and thoughts can be removed with the touch of a button.

I wonder what will happen to my notebooks, diaries and Journals in the future? Do they hold and will they hold fascination for future generations in the same way the journals of Pepys and Woodforde do to us now? I suspect not, but you never know!