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Journal is a masterpiece of brand extension: a series of blank pages that have intermittent homilies from Winston Churchill to Bob Hope to Laura Ingalls Wilder. On each day, the buyer is to write five things the buyer is grateful for. Oprah talked about the child who was thankful for the sound of his mother laughing, an observation surely to be valued above Power Rangers and Super Soakers. But does this justify $12.95 for a diary? New York Times Book Review editor Charles McGrath has declined to put the book on the Advice, How-to and Miscellaneous list (where Abundance now reigns), explaining, "I don't think the best-seller list should reflect merchandise."
Still, few writers get rich from simply writing. Simple Abundance is now a registered trademark, and there are calendars and audiotapes. But merchandising is less offensive when the author gives 10% of her earnings to charity--$250,000 already this year to the House of Ruth, Habitat for Humanity and the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, among others. And whether Journal is a book or not, it became, with Oprah's help, No. 1 on the Wall Street Journal's best-seller list.
Ban Breathnach is currently at work on her next book--a real one this time, about excavating the authentic self. But first she is off to Italy for a long-awaited vacation with her daughter. In keeping with her aphorism that we are human beings, not human doings, she's not even taking her computer, having promised Katie "no work, all play."
As for the stressed-out journalist, I'm grateful to be done with this week's writing, and I'm going to celebrate with water and a slice of lemon. Maybe it will do. Simple abundance, one day at a time.
--With reporting by Andrea Sachs/New York