The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Looking at the past often times helps foretell the future. The craze of online journals is not without precedent.
While I was in Dallas, we stopped at a Borders Bookstore. Wouldn’t bother with a chain’s name except that one store is in a special location for me, at one time, a famous grocery store. Never happened to me, but local lore, at least “back in the day,” was that it was a great place to meet and greet. {i.e., best place to get picked up at 2 in the morning, after drinking unsuccessfully all night – wouldn’t know, never happened to me}
I like it better as a bookstore, even if it a chain.
I picked up The Diary of Samuel Pepys because I figure it’s some kind of proto-blog. I was reading it, in part, online. Done blog style, no less.
I’ll be interested to see if that website ever generates as much interest as it did when it was first launched. My back story is a little different, too.
At some point, in English Lit., those diaries are covered in survey classes. The literature index – not unlike the stock market – goes up and down, sometimes for no reason, and that lit index had “The Diaries” at a low point at least until recently. Apparently there’s been some excellent scholarship as of late. Instead of reading what others have to say about what other analysts have come up with, I just decided to jump back into what either my textbook, or the diaries themselves, have to say.
The brief survey text suggested that Samuel Pepys was a interested in two pursuits, making money and chasing women. I’m liking this already, although, I’ve proven rather unsuccessful at the making money part lately. And the chasing women, part, too. I suppose, like fishing, it’s called chasing instead of catching.