Strong is the urge to write one's life story as a keepsake for oneself and one's family. The difficulty is knowing where to start, and then where to go from there. Carl and David Marshall, a grandfather-grandson team, have created a fine and fun do-it-yourself autobiography. The cover of the journal-sized
Book of Myself
is intended to resemble handmade paper; the inside pa
Strong is the urge to write one's life story as a keepsake for oneself and one's family. The difficulty is knowing where to start, and then where to go from there. Carl and David Marshall, a grandfather-grandson team, have created a fine and fun do-it-yourself autobiography. The cover of the journal-sized
Book of Myself
is intended to resemble handmade paper; the inside pages have the yellowed hue of a keepsake found in a musty attic trunk. The book is not especially pretty. But the questions--one per page, divided into early, middle, and late years, and then again into sections concerning family, friends, education, work and responsibilities, and the world--are good enough that it hardly matters. Among the 201 jumping-off points included here are questions concerning childhood toys, crushes, and forbidden exploits; adult embarrassments, betrayals, and achievements; and how one's views change over the years.
--Jane Steinberg
Recommends it for:
lovers of genealogy and family stories
...the best book you can read is the one about someone you know. The Book of Myself is a set of Q&As that made it easy for my mother-in-law to record the story of her life. Reading about her life - from early to middle to later life - in the journal she filled out gave me a deeper appreciation of who she is and what she has been through. (
www.marshallbooks.net
)
New in November 2012: MY LIFE MAP; New in March 2013: WHAT I LOVE ABOUT YOU, MOM
Coauthor of bestselling family communication and self-discovery journals (The Book of Myself, The Book of Us, What I Love About You, published by Hyperion/Disney, Random House, and Penguin, 750,000 sold).
Vice President of Editorial and Digital at Berrett-Koehler Publishers, an independent non-fiction book publisher in
New in November 2012: MY LIFE MAP; New in March 2013: WHAT I LOVE ABOUT YOU, MOM
Coauthor of bestselling family communication and self-discovery journals (The Book of Myself, The Book of Us, What I Love About You, published by Hyperion/Disney, Random House, and Penguin, 750,000 sold).
Vice President of Editorial and Digital at Berrett-Koehler Publishers, an independent non-fiction book publisher in San Francisco (personal development, business, and current affairs titles).