Ever Read Someone Else’s Diary?

My husband bought me A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in the Trash by Alexander Masters. It is a biography procedural, if there is such a thing. It’s a true story. The author obtains these diaries, which were rescued from a dumpster (called a skip because it takes place in England). The book is the biography of the unknown diarist.

Masters reads a bit, makes an assumption, then investigates it. Sometimes he completes a bit of his puzzle, sometimes he finds he was way off. Through it all, a picture of the diarist begins to form for us. I can’t tell you how it ends, because that would ruin it for you if you read it. It really is like solving a mystery.

In the first quarter of the book I was a bit bored with a lot of the description. In the next 50% I was pretty sure I didn’t like the person we were coming to know, and I wondered why he even bothered. When I came to the end, I had to admit that I liked the book, liked the technique, and even liked the diarist (flaws and all).

One last comment: You all know that I read almost exclusively on Kindle. This book has many photos and images from the diary. Although I could enlarge them on my Kindle, the resolution and appearance was not satisfying. That was disappointing because I think they certainly add to the book and his descriptions of why and what he was investigating at any given time (e.g., handwriting analysis). You might enjoy a print copy best.