The Secret Me Book by Rachel Kempster and Meg Leder

The Secret Me Book is a journal-type book that prompts you to think about what makes you the person that you are. Through activities, prompts and ideas, the authors will guide you to self-recognition.

I really enjoyed this book. I haven't filled it all in yet, but I've made a good start. I love that there are no rules to filling out this book. You can fill it out in order or randomly. You can use a pen, pencil or crayon if you want. You can even type of the responses on your computer, print them out and tape them in the book. Because this is your book of your secret self, you can even skip, ignore or change the ones you don't like. Don't be too hasty with that, though. You might just discover something wonderful about yourself that you didn't know existed.

Some of the prompts seemed pretty easy until I really started thinking about them. All of a sudden a few of them became overwhelmingly hard. It's all good, though. I loved having to think about some of my answers. At times I found the space to record my response way too small; I wanted to write and write and write. Other times, I found the space too large; I only had a few words to say.

My one complaint about the book is the "Secret Survey" pages. On these, a question is asked and answers from various people are listed. I'm not sure why this was including in the book. Perhaps it's to show how others would answer the question. It was okay, I guess, as some of the answers were amusing, but otherwise, I would have omitted these pages altogether.

The authors do a bit of reminiscing in the book, usually to illustrate a point and further explain a prompt. I quite enjoyed reading those passages. Besides the remembrances by the authors, there are also some famous quotes or quotes by famous people, a few of which I've quoted below.

Favourite quotes:

It's not about self-help or self-improvement-- rather it's about self-recognition... (page viii)

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering. Steven Wright (page 12)

There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them. Sylvia Plath (page 70)

Rachel and Meg have also authored The Happy Book, which allows you to journal about things that make you happy. It sounds delightful. I'll be keeping my eye out for that one, too.

Recommended.

Heather from Book and Quilts has also reviewed this book. Click here to see what she had to say.

If you liked this book, there are tons of other journal-type books out there. Two of my favourites are by Keri Smith: How to Be an Explorer of the World and Wreck This Journal. I'd highly recommend both.

For more information about this book or to browse inside, please visit the Sourcebooks website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at Sourcebooks for this review copy.

The Secret Me Book by Rachel Kempster and Meg Leder, Sourcebooks, ©2012. ISBN 9781402265709(Trade Paperback), 196p.