Book Review: List Your Self by Ilene Segalove and Paul Bob Velick

I love lists.  Here, I’ll show you. 

Why I love lists

1. They can be short or long

2. Writing lists helps me remember things

3. You don’t need to use complete sentences, correct grammar, or punctuation

4. Lists just have to make sense to me, not to anybody else

And it’s that last point that is the beauty of List Your Self: Listmaking as the Way to Self-Discovery by Ilene Segalove and Paul Bob Velick.  This little book is a new twist on writing in a journal. 

Reasons why I don’t like writing in “typical” journals or diaries

1. I don’t like the empty pages when I forget to write in a dated journal

2. I only journal in fits and spurts, not enough to fill up a whole book

3. I run out of ideas about what to write about, which is why I ususally just journal in fits and spurts

List Your Self gives you over 250 prompts for self-reflection.  You don’t have to go in order.  You can write in it over the years, revisiting different lists as time passes. The prompts range from serious to whimsical, facilitating an overall well-rounded description of yourself.

Top Five List Your Self prompts I’m looking forward to writing about

1. List all the elements in a perfect vacation. (page 108)

2. List the people you’d like to weed out from your life. (page 164)

3. List all the important numbers you’ve committed to memory. (page 33)

4. List the best stuff your parents taught you about living life. (page 252)

5. List the places you’ve visited that have altered your view of the world. (page 100)

Leave a Reply

