Book Review – This Book Will Make You Stronger
Review Written by Casey Douglass
I’ve long been
familiar with the benefits of getting thoughts out of your head and
down onto paper, but it isn’t always helpful. Sometimes you can get
bogged down with what you are doing, and rather than creating some
mental breathing space, you actually end up creating a kind of
bureaucracy around your issues. Books or journals that already have a
framework inside can be a useful way of avoiding the pitfalls that
can come from inking your thoughts, and Ollie Aplin’s This Book
Will Make You Stronger is one such book, with an interesting
twist: it’s aimed at men.
“Manliness” can be
a thorny topic, just like giving a definition to anything that might
have different meanings to different people. I’m not going into
definitions here, but I think it’s safe to say that some people
will view the idea of a man keeping a journal as not very manly. This
is quite amusing to me, as all kinds of great figures from history
are known to have kept a journal, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Lee.
In fact, one of the early sections of TBWMYS tells the reader what
journaling is, what its benefits are, some famous people that have
kept one and, most importantly, how to go about it.
The book is written in
a warm and friendly voice; one early section contains Ollie’s
story, how the events of his life brought him to a mental breakdown,
and how, from the pieces of that breakdown, journaling emerged to
become a powerful tool for recovery and beyond. He admits that he
battled with journaling initially, feeling it was unnatural to write
so many thoughts down. Talking with friends, he realised that his
struggle with journaling was by no means a one off, and he set off
down the path to creating a journal that actually helps with the act
of journaling. He also realised that men could probably benefit most
from this, and via a successful Kickstarter campaign (reaching its
goal in only 72 hours), the book emerged, and started helping guys
straight away.
This Book Will Make
You Stronger is split into different sections. The first 30 or so
pages are taken up with the above mentioned backstory, what
journaling is, and what you can expect by working through the book.
The middle area of the book is the journal itself, split into three
stages: Warm Up, Hurdles, and Strength. These stages are designed to
ease you into the act of journaling.
The Warm Up section is
intended to be “light stretching” for the brain, a way to get you
thinking about the past and how your life is now, by way of drawing
diagrams, using Thought Triggers (writing prompts basically), and
even writing a rap. Hurdles contains a collection of tougher Thought
Triggers, and focusses on the reader and the people around them. It
will also help to show the reader’s strengths and weaknesses, on
the basis that knowing these can help you to make best use of them.
Strength is the toughest section and gets you thinking about your
needs and the future.
The last section of the
book contains a Support Guide, a place where you can turn if you are
struggling or if you get caught up in something that you don’t know
how to deal with. Topics covered include things like giving yourself
permission, how to deal with stress and a further FAQ on journaling.
This is a great idea, as journaling can throw up some previously
unknown stuff. Some of it might be an amazing relief, and some could
be heavy shit that just depresses the hell out of you. Having
somewhere to turn for extra advice is very handy.
As I worked through and
browsed TBWMYS, I found myself appreciating the layout. It’s black
and white and well designed, each title and word feeling “punchy”
and well placed. The pages that are intended for you to write on are
clearly laid out, with areas for you to write the date, take stock of
your current mood or feelings, and a whole free page for your thought
writing (I’m never comfortable writing in “proper” books, it
always feels so naughty, like the time I got told off for scribbling
in my Button Moon book when I was five).
The structure is indeed
very useful, as it guides the journaller enough to give them a topic
to think about, but not too much to make things constricted. It’s
nothing like using an empty notebook, staring at a blank page
wondering where to start. The Thought Triggers will likely make you
think of some things that you haven’t even thought about in depth
before, like what actually brings you joy, and “How does crying
make you feel?” Taking the crying one as an example, it’s easy to
focus on the unpleasantness of feeling bad enough to cry, any shame
associated with “being weak” etc, and miss the positives such as
the relief and expression of strong emotions. If crying just equals
“feeling shit” to someone, they might just be missing out on the
good stuff that comes with it too.
This Book Will Make
You Stronger strikes me as a
very skilful way for someone to get into journaling. It gives you the
information and advice that you need to approach journaling in a way
that is most likely to help you stick with it long enough to start to
see what you can get out of it. Once you’ve worked through the book
from start to finish, you will also have completed your first journal
in the process, so it’s not a case of perpetually reading about how
to do something and not getting around to actually doing it, the book
and “doing it” are all in one package. I like this.
Visit
the Mindjournal website here for more information about the male
journaling movement, stories and other articles. Oh and links to
buying the book too.
I was given a review
copy of this book.
Book Title: This Book
Will Make You Stronger
Author: Ollie Aplin
Publisher: Ebury Press
RRP: £9.99
ISBN: 978-1785036606
