Monday, December 13, 2010

A favourite book


At the end of every year, Janet Frame had a particular habit of reading the diaries of Samuel Pepys. It was one of the ways she liked to mark a New Year. For herself, she liked the opportunity to make a fresh start, and to plan her work and travel for the next year. She loved to buy new diaries and journals and calendars, to make plans and timetables, and she also liked to give calendars and journals and diaries away as Christmas gifts.

Janet used to quite often quote typical Pepys expressions, things like "thence to parliament", "then to the office", "and so to bed", and she liked to tell some of his stories and to discuss his life and his viewpoints.

I just thought of all this because I just came across a website that lets you read an entry from Samuel Pepys Diary every day (there is also a twitter account).

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