Dear Diary

Tonight we’re hosting a read-aloud from teenage diaries at RiverRun Bookstore in support of The Big Read in Portsmouth. I got the idea from an event held often in New York City. I’ve been paging through my high school diary and can’t help but laugh at myself. I guess that’s a sign that I’ve grown up.

I’ve always loved to read books that feature diary entries from real people, or imagined ones. It’s one of the only forms of writing in which people are often completely uninhibited. There’s not an inner editor telling you to scribble out what you wrote and start over again. We write for ourselves and not for others, which is why it’s going to be so difficult to share those teenage words with an audience.

There’s a book called Cringe inspired by the New York-based diary read-aloud series. I love books like this, Post Secret, and others that share people at their core, private moments. Props to anyone who is willing to read about their narcissistic years when crushes, grades, and getting picked first for teams in gym class mattered more than anything else. (I was never picked for any teams in gym class. The gym teacher always had to assign me to someone! Yay for nerdom and hating sports.)