100 Best Journals Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best journals books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
The Diary of a Young Girl is the record of two years in the life of a remarkable Jewish girl whose triumphant humanity in the face of unfathomable deprivation and fear has made the book one of the most enduring documents of our time.
The Everyman’s hardcover edition reprints the Definitive Edition authorized by the Frank estate, plus a new introduction, a bibliography, and a... more
Catalina PenciuI'm a huge fan of personal stories and biographies like this one. (Source)
Alice LittleI remember being a fourth grader and trying to check out [this book] and being told it was grossly inappropriate and going so far as to have my parents take it to the school board and petition for me to be allowed to read this book. (Source)
A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time.
Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing... more
Tim KendallThe Journals are, in their unabridged state, an astonishing body of work. We talk about how poets are born, not made, but what I always take away from every page of the Journals—and it’s a serious slab of a book—is the extent to which Plath was both born and self-made. (Source)
Arianna HuffingtonI find [this book] so inspirational and instructive, it lives on my nightstand. (Source)
Chip ConleyI have given [this book] away to a number of people. (Source)
Marvin LiaoMy list would be (besides the ones I mentioned in answer to the previous question) both business & Fiction/Sci-Fi and ones I personally found helpful to myself. The business books explain just exactly how business, work & investing are in reality & how to think properly & differentiate yourself. On the non-business side, a mix of History & classic fiction to understand people, philosophy to make... (Source)
Kurt Cobain filled dozens of notebooks with lyrics, drawings, and writings about his plans for Nirvana and his thoughts about fame, the state of music, and the people who bought and sold him and his music. His journals reveal an artist who loved music, who knew the history of rock, and who was determined to define his place in that history. Here is a mesmerizing, incomparable portrait of the most influential musician of his time. less
Becky Cloonan@Noise_Raptor Oh, thank you so much! This book was such a delight, and such a challenge! Dracula is one of my favorites- funny enough I'd jump at the chance to do this again XD (Source)
Douglas StarrWhen you read the physical description of Count Dracula, he does not resemble the handsome vampires we see on television; rather, he looks like a thug. He has one continuous eyebrow across his forehead, thick hands, pointy teeth and pointy ears. (Source)
Andrei CodrescuVampirism is a growth industry. Dracula is bigger than Jesus now. (Source)
As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh follows Sontag through the turbulent years of the 1960s—from her trip to Hanoi at the peak of the Vietnam War to her... more
Deborah LevyShe felt that it was her job to keep her mother alive, and that she’d sacrificed her own need to be dependant. (Source)
After enduring the Trojan War, Odysseus begins the treacherous journey home to Ithaca. On the way, he faces ravenous monsters and vengeful gods. But the real battle awaits, as his kingdom is under siege by unruly suitors vying for his wife’s hand—and his son’s head. To reclaim his throne and save his family, Odysseus must rely on his wits…and help from the unpredictable gods.
Homer’s The Odyssey was composed around 700 BC. It is one of the earliest epics in existence and remains one of the most influential works of literature today.
Revised edition: Previously...
moreTed TurnerWhen I got to college, I was a classics major, and that was mainly the study of Greek - and to a lesser extent Roman - history and culture, and that fascinated me: the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid by Virgil. (Source)
Max PorterI still have an image of Odysseus in my head from when I was a child – he’s very Anglo-Saxon and stubbly, a bit like Michael Fassbender (Source)
Janine di GiovanniThe thing I loved about Ulysses was that he’s so in love with adventure and with love. (Source)
So wrote Susan Sontag in May 1949 at the age of sixteen. This, the first of three volumes of her journals and notebooks, presents a constantly and utterly surprising record of a great mind in incubation. It begins with journal entries and early attempts at fiction from her years as a... more
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Juliet GardinerI think she is the finest diarist of the 20th century. Nobody comes near her. She is so brilliant, but she’s snobbish and anti-semitic. (Source)
The road to serenity is ahead, and it’s paved with a f*ck-ton of profanity. When quiet meditation and peaceful mantras aren’t enough to cut through the bullsh*t and brighten your day—hold close the pages of Zen as F*ck. On each and every page, you can give the good around you a warm f*cking hug and kick the bad on its ass. Journal your way through positive affirmations and cathartic-as-f*ck activities on your liberating journey toward something pretty close to happiness.
Sprinkle,... more
In Walden, Thoreau condenses his two-year, two-month, two-day stay into a single year, using the four seasons to symbolize human development—a cycle of life shared by both nature and man. A celebration of personal renewal through self-reliance, independence, and simplicity, composed for all of us living... more
Laura Dassow WallsThe book that we love as Walden began in the journal entries that he wrote starting with his first day at the pond. (Source)
Roman KrznaricIn 1845 the American naturalist went out to live in the woods of Western Massachusetts. Thoreau was one of the great masters of the art of simple living. (Source)
John KaagThere’s this idea that philosophy can blend into memoir and that, ideally, philosophy, at its best, is to help us through the business of living with people, within communities. This is a point that Thoreau’s Walden gave to me, as a writer, and why I consider it so valuable for today. (Source)
This book asks you to do the opposite of what you have been taught. Think of it as your own personal rumpus room. A place to let loose, to trash, to spew, to do the things you are not allowed to do in the "real world." It's time to make a mess.
The only three rules you'll find in this book:
1. Do not try to make something beautiful.
2. Do not think too much.... more
Covering the years 1944-45, the 170-page journal contains Frida's thoughts, poems, and dreams, and reflects her stormy relationship with her husband, Diego Rivera, Mexico's famous artist. The seventy watercolor illustrations in the journal - some lively sketches,... more
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Artists and scientists analyze the world around them in surprisingly similar ways, by observing, collecting, documenting, analyzing, and comparing. In this captivating guided journal, readers are encouraged to explore their world as both artists and scientists.
The mission Smith proposes? To document and observe the world around you. As if you've never seen it before. Take notes. Collect things you find on your travels. Document... more
Dear Reader,One dark and stormy night, author Keri Smith found some strange scattered pages abandoned in a park. She collected and assembled them, trying to solve the mystery of this unexpected discovery, and now she's passing the task on to you, her readers.
Your mission is to become the new author of this work. You will continue the research and provide the content. In order to complete the task, you will have to undergo some secret intelligence training,... more
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David DownieThat is a book I read when I was young – in my teens – and it really marked me. (Source)
Roman KrznaricOrwell is one of my great empathic heroes. He went tramping in east London, trying to empathise with people who lived on the social margins. (Source)
David KramaleyI really enjoyed Down and Out in Paris and London. I think it’s meant to be a semi-autobiographical novel by George Orwell. I liked it because it was one of those books that had a big influence on the way I perceive and think about the world. Highly recommended. (Source)
This first volume of the immensely successful Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery launched in 1985, takes Montgomery to 1910, the year before her marriage,... more
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
These diaries cover the years 1910 to 1923, the year before Kafka’s death at the age of forty. They provide a penetrating look into life in Prague and into Kafka’s accounts of his dreams, his feelings for the father he worshipped, and the woman he could not bring himself to marry, his sense of guilt, and his feelings of being an outcast. They offer an account of a life of almost unbearable intensity.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-13 translated from the German by Joseph Kresh
The Diaries of Franz Kafka... more
Through non-stuffy exercises (like vice busters, gratitude generators, and fill-in-the-blank meditations), you'll go from asking what is a chakra? to becoming a chi whiz!
Unlike other chakra books for beginners, this journal packs in over... more
Illustrations by Dana Tanamachi, whose work has been featured by Google, The Wall Street Journal, Random House, USPS, and Target.
ESV Illuminated Scripture Journals pair the entirety of individual books of the New Testament with a lightly dotted blank page opposite each page of Bible text, providing space to creatively engage with and reflect on the... more
Every day is a chance to create something new for yourself. Put down your phone and pick up a pencil. Give yourself some space. The Internet will still be there. Start with one page at a time, and you'll be surprised at just how much you can create.
Each of the 365 prompts in 1 Page at a Time will encourage you to draw, write, list, reflect, and share. This book is your new best friend.
Let's get started!
Now available in red, blue, and yellow! less
The classic adventure of one courageous woman’s life and struggles in the Arizona Territories in the late nineteenth century
A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon—from child to determined... more
Tumblr, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, texting, Snapchat, YouTube…the world has become one giant confessional. In a reversal of this trend, Burn After Writing encourages you to share nothing. With its incisive questions and thought experiments, this private journal challenges you to play a game of Truth or Dare with yourself.
Push your limits, reflect on your past, present, and future, and create a secret book that’s about you, and just for you. And when you’re finished, toss it,... more
"This is how I felt about becoming an editor as my career choice. After over 25 years in the newspaper industry, I Believed I Could So I Did. Maybe YOU should believe in yourself, too." -Rogena
Everyone loves a journal. Keep one with you always for when your characters begin to talk to you. less
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
A spectacular coloring and painting edition of the incredible journal that started it all, in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the 10-million-copy international bestseller
Perhaps you're a seasoned Wreck-er, having made your way through one or more copies of Wreck This Journal. Or maybe you're new to the phenomenon (little do you know, this experience might just change your life). Whatever the case, you've... more
The Steal Like an Artist Journal is the next step in your artistic journey. It combines Austin Kleon’s unique and compelling ideas with the physical quality that makes journals like Moleskines so enormously popular. Page after page of ideas, prompts, quotes, and exercises are like a daily course in creativity. There are lists to fill... more
Our Bucket List Adventures is the perfect bucket list journal for couples. With this couples journal, you'll be able to:
1. Create 50 unique bucket list goals you want to accomplish together. More specifically, there is an activity section for couples to brainstorm before choosing their bucket list items together.
2. Journal your bucket list adventure memories together.
3. Have a place to put your favorite photo that... more
Blake GopnikWe assume that Andy knew that they might be published, and he may have wanted them to be published – and so would have controlled and manipulated their content. He didn’t scribble these entries down in a notebook, for his own eyes only. So you never know if he’s speaking to posterity in order to falsify the record – or at least to construct a record – or whether the Diaries are actually giving... (Source)
Craig BrownWarhol’s diaries came out shortly after he died, and at the time I couldn’t see the point of them at all. They were just a litany of names, all social gossip, very close to being boring. But reading them 20 years on, I find them fascinating. My edition is about 800 pages long. There aren’t many diaries you could read from start to finish, but this one is luminous. (Source)
Do you seek stillness and inspiration in your quiet time? The NIV Journal the Word™ Bible for Women guides you through God’s precious Word with reflections and thought-provoking questions placed beside Scripture. Explore God’s Word for you and express your heart in the wide margins of this journaling Bible with room for responses, journaling, and artistic expression.
Expertly designed specifically to be used for the New International Version (NIV) text, Zondervan's exclusive Comfort Print® typeface... more
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Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Just before the outbreak of World War II, young Witold Gombrowicz left his home in Poland and set sail for South America. In 1953, still living as an expatriate in Argentina, he began his Diary with one of literature's most memorable openings:
"Monday
Me.
Tuesday
Me.
Wednesday
Me.
Thursday
Me."
Gombrowicz's Diary grew to become a vast collection of essays, short notes, polemics, and confessions on myriad subjects ranging from political events to literature to the certainty of death. Not a traditional journal, Diary is...
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For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code for his finest work, and through them he has honed his cunning, surprising sentences.
Now, Sedaris shares his private writings with the world. Theft by Finding, the first of two volumes, is the story of how a drug-abusing dropout with a weakness... more
Journal 29 is a unique book game where you can solve riddles and puzzles and submit your answers online to get the keys and move forward.
To solve the riddles, you need to think out of the box.
You can write, draw, search, fold pages, combine different methods and try to get those riddles right.
Journal 29 is a 148 pages book providing over 63 riddles you can solve.
The Story:
A top secret excavation did not bring any result for 28 weeks.
It was on the 29th week... more
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
This... more
In 1803, the great expanse of the Louisiana Purchase was an empty canvas. Keenly aware that the course of the nation's destiny lay westward—and that a "Voyage of Discovery" would be necessary to determine the nature of the frontier—President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition from the Missouri River to the northern Pacific coast and back. From 1804 to... more
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The story of Journal 29 Revelation takes place after the events of Journal 29. It is not necessary to have solved Journal 29 to enjoy Journal 29 Revelation. less
Fully interactive and customizable for each reader, The Happy Book allows today's social networking fans an offline... more
The journal of the brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt is one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century French literature, a work that in its richness of color, variety, and seemingly casual perfection bears comparison with the great paintings of their friends and contemporaries the Impressionists.
Born nearly ten years apart into a French aristocratic family, the two brothers formed an extraordinarily productive and enduring... more
On the heels of his internationally successful first book, 1 Page at a Time, graphic designer and illustrator Adam J. Kurtz delivers another intimate and engaging journal for anyone who loves to explore ideas, record thoughts and feelings, and capture those fleeting but amazing moments of everyday life.
Unlike a linear journal, this book can be opened up to any page, encouraging and engaging readers time and time again through continued use. Rather than simply complete tasks and turn... more
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
Harboring grudges and plotting revenge take a lot of energy. While the wait for one true moment of schadenfreude sounds oh so sweet, true bliss can be found in simply notgiving a f*ck. With Let That Sh*t Go, you’ll find moments of profanity-laced catharsis and joy through journaling activities and inspirations that are positive as f*ck. Within these truly charming pages, you’ll find ways to let go of the bullsh*t and lift your spirit a little f*cking higher. less
Prompts include:
Draw your dream home.
Make a grateful list.
Compile the perfect playlist.
Draw yourself a tattoo (on paper!).
List 30 great ways to spend a free hour.
Write a thank you note to a stranger.
On the heels of Me, You, Us and The Scribble Diary, The Positivity Kit is illustrator Lisa Currie's most personal, and... more
"Gratitude is the most passionate, transformative force in the Cosmos."
This beautiful companion journal to the national bestseller Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, the mega-bestselling guide that has led so many women to live fulfilling, harmonious, and joyful lives, has been refreshed for fans of the original Simple... more
Very few people can say they were born inside a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Disease, starvation, and much worse, prevented most prisoners from surviving. For infants, it was nearly impossible.
I became an anomaly. I shouldn’t be alive.
As a child, I didn’t know my life was different from that of others. I had nothing to compare it to, and I had no insight about the day I was born ... until the moment I overheard the truth.
In a split second, I became a... more
Read her diary.
Enter her world.
You will never forget her.
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Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
For years Ryder Carroll tried countless organizing systems, online and off, but none of them fit the way his mind worked. Out of sheer necessity, he developed a method called the Bullet Journal that helped him become consistently focused and effective. When he started sharing his system with friends who faced similar challenges, it went viral. Just a few years later, to his astonishment, Bullet Journaling is a global movement.
The Bullet Journal... more
The Zentangle method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas as a way to practice focus and meditation through drawing by using repetitive lines, marks, circles, and shapes. Each mark is called a "tangle," and you combine various tangles into patterns to create... more
This engaging prompt journal is the perfect tool to build mother-son relationships. Kids can record memories, swap stories, compare perspectives, and explore common and unique interests with their moms! Interactive lists and letters back and forth invite both mom and son to reflect, write, and doodle about topics timely to their lives as kids, build self-confidence, and improve their penmanship. less
Todd HenryA book of mentorship for young artists. (Source)
Estella NgLetters to a Young Poet - it is everything. [...] This line in Letters to a Young Poet “If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches" is an important one to me. I constantly go back to this to evaluate if I have been living a full life. (Source)
Previously... more
Peter AckroydIt is an invaluable picture of daily life in mid-17th century London and one that has never really been rivalled by any other diarist. (Source)
Alex CarlilePepys gives you a total flavour of his time. It’s a wonderful picture of London – no one else has written remotely as well about London in those days. (Source)
Alex Chase-LevensonPepys is a really great person to follow through an epidemic. He records day by day what it’s like to live in a plague-stricken city, and shows us the intertwining of things that are normal and things that are surreal. (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
This book is complete with tips, ideas, and calendars to track your progress. Each challenge includes a 30-day calendar to track your progress. Mark your progress in creative ways that... more
The second volume promises to be equally intriguing and powerful. Ranging from 1910 to... more
Amelia - 1942:
The inside of my closet held the last bit of my freedom before I was torn from my home and shoved onto a dark train.
Our destination was even darker. “Women and children to the right. Men to the left,” they shouted at us.
Everything was taken from me, leaving only the smoke filled air, piercing screams, and soul-burning cries.
I was slowly starved and weakened to the bone, but there was a man—a Nazi—who brought me... more
Groundbreaking rock musician. Award-winning actress. Perceptive songwriter and author. Mother. Wife of a rock god. Fashionista and trendsetter. Provocateur. In each and every one of these roles Courtney Love has demonstrated a wholehearted commitment to her art, and an intense drive and a lust for life that have made her a star and a celebrity icon—but have also led her into some unwise, uncharted, and even dangerous territory. Simultaneously candid and enigmatic, Love has a mordant wit and vivid... more
Don't have time to read the top Journals books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.