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Grimoires, Books of Shadow, and other journals of occult text are a subject of much fascination to many people.
The historical term, Grimoire, refers specifically to texts written using late midieval beliefs, and can include: astrological correspondences, directions for casting charms, evocation and invocation of entities, mixing medicines, or making talismans, and/or lists of angels and demons.
The word "grimoire" decends from the Old French word "gramaire" and has the same roots as grammar and glamour.
Notable historical grimoires include:
The Picatrix, Ghâyat al-Hakîm fi'l-sihr, or The Aim of the Sage (13th century)
Liber Juratis, the Sworn Book of Honorious (13th)
Le Grand Grimoire (13th)
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage (15th)
The Greater Key of Solomon (16th)
The Lemegeton, or the Lesser Key of Solomon (17th)
The Black Pullet (18th)
Many historical grimoires were reclaimed during the late 19th century by para-Masonic organizations such as the HOGD (Golden Dawn) and the OTO (Order of the Eastern Templars).
Many problems in recovering grimoires include the cottage industry for falsified or poorly translated texts.
The Necronomicon was a fictional grimoire and created by H.P. Lovecraft. Let it be known that there is also some suspicion that Lovecraft was a freemason, and perhaps a member of one of the organizations that reclaimed some of the historical grimoires.

Guilty, almost all of the above data was taken from Wikipedia.

Please discuss:
What you think of grimoires or other magical/mystic texts,
Why do you think secret organizations in the 19th century reclaimed many of these grimoires,
Do you think in this day and age that keeping a journal of such a text is useful and why,
Do you think that almanacs, which is a very similar text, inspired a grimoire or is simply a useful function of the recordkeeping of one's surroundings?

What you think of grimoires or other magical/mystic texts
Grimoires are pretty much just the ancient equivalent of all the books in the "Occult" section in bookstores. I've only got a couple (the Keys of Solomon, some Abramelin, something to do with Honorious), but I rarely read them cause I'm not too into ceremonial magick as a whole.

Why do you think secret organizations in the 19th century reclaimed many of these grimoires
Because they were the GD and OTO, they like having ALL TEH MAGIX IN THUH WORLD. Almost all grimoires use ceremonial magick of some sort, so naturally the OTO and GD would be interested in getting their hands on them.

Do you think in this day and age that keeping a journal of such a text is useful and why
Everyone who's ever written a book on magick has advised it, so yeah. It lets you keep records of workings and divinations, helps you see if what you're doing works, it builds discipline , that sort of thing.

Do you think that almanacs, which is a very similar text, inspired a grimoire or is simply a useful function of the recordkeeping of one's surroundings?
Almanacs and Grimoires are similar, sure, but I don't think either inspired the either. People just love having all sorts of interesting information tied up into a handy book, I think.

When I was at a Borders I was in the Occult section and just looking at the books, not really paying attention to the words when I notice an orange book. It's the only orange book so I decide to take a look.

It was the Necronomicon! XD I felt like it was some sort of sign because orange is my favorite color and it was the only orange book there. >_> I haven't been to that same Borders in a while, so I have no idea if it's still there but it was kinda weird! XD It was like something wanted me to buy it. >_>