Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A normal journal overwhelms me. All that empty space! I need something finite. This journal fits the bill. This is my second One Line A Day Five Year Memory Book. I started the first one the day I got it...no reason to wait til Jan 1--that's the beauty of it! I just finished five years and purchased a second one. I really do like the journal because I HATE journaling and this is totally manageable. I write small and don't actually do "one line;" I just write about my day. This is a great journal for anyone who either hates journaling but wants to do it to have something to look back on, or someone who enjoys ruminating over their day and choosing one thing to highlight, or for anyone who just wants to keep a brief ongoing journal.... There is an "If found..." page at the front, and three "Dates to Remember" pages at the back. An attached ribbon makes it easy to keep your place. The best thing about keeping a journal like this is you can easily look back on what you did on a particular day up to 5 years ago, and you can compare each year. Kind of cool. It's kind of interesting to note coincidences over the years, like I happened to be sick at the same time a few years in a row--weird. And my kids saw a particular movie one year, and three years later saw the sequel, to the day, with the same friends, even though they had moved away!! Ok, so it's just a journal. But it's nice and small and fits nicely in your night stand--or in your suitcase when you travel. Why did I take a star away? Because the manufacturer affixes a big sticker label directly on the back of the book, which does not peel off without a fight, and leaves all kinds of crud all over the book. Who wants a book with a giant sticker on it?? And who wants a book with sticky crud all over the back? Well, now I'm stuck with the cruddy back. But it's better than a sticker. My first one did not have this problem. I suspect it may have come with a cardboard label around it instead, or wrapped in plastic. I don't remember. But it is crud-less. And as for any concerns about how it holds up for 5 years...it is fine. All you are doing is opening it, writing in it for a few seconds, closing it and putting it away. I don't see how it could fall apart from that. I'm sure someone could destroy it, but mine held up great. It's a good little book. Nice to have, and even though I hate journaling, I've missed the routine of mulling over my day and writing about it right before bed. Now I'm all set for another 5 years! EDIT: I was able to scrape off the sticker (it was a MESS) with my fingernail, as you can see in the photos, and then use a goo-gone type spray on a paper towel to wipe the sticky guck off. It's fine now. I learned afterwards that if you use a straight edge razor (the kind you scrape paint off windows with) very gently and slowly around the edges of a label, you can work around it and eventually get it off pretty cleanly, then clean the residue with the stuff I used. I'll try that next time I have a massive sticker slapped across the cover of a book. (What were they thinking???)