Henry Howard, the Poet Earl of Surrey: A Life Book

Dear Diary,

Read this rather interesting book comprised of the diary entries of one Mr. Samuel Pepys. In and of itself, the diary is not altogether engaging. It is however quite interesting for its descriptions of the Great Fire of 1666, which burned down much of London. Aside from that, what I found truly intriguing was the chance to glimpse a man's daily life as he lived it so many hundreds of years ago. A rare thing indeed. Granted Pepys was no ordinary man. He rubbed elbows with royalty, for godsake! Even so, Pepys, it turns out, was as real and flawed as any man (man as in male in one specific way...that randy dawg!). The addition of these admissions was like throwing the occasional firecracker in amongst the other somewhat mundane passages. Don't know that I would recommend The Diary of Samuel Pepys to everyone...but then again, diaries aren't written for mass consumption, are they?