#Microblog Monday 323: Diary Hunters
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Most intriguing line I’ve read this week: “Over the past 35 years, MacNamara has read more than 8,000 strangers’ diaries.” She buys them online or through antique shops. She’s a diary hunter, reading other people’s private thoughts.
I went down a rabbit hole, ending up The Great Diary Project that has amassed 9000 unpublished diaries. They’re not cleaned up for public consumption, or written like a blog with a reader in mind. They are private thoughts that were tossed out by loved ones after a person died (or sometimes sold by the writer while they’re still alive) and ended up in a stranger’s hands.
I love this idea—reading someone’s unfiltered thoughts. Though I’m not sure how I would feel if my diaries ended up in someone else’s hands. Which makes me wonder if I should write up a plan for my diaries or get rid of them at some point.
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10 comments
I’ve always loved reading other people’s published diaries (starting with Anne Frank’s). I am not sure what’s happened to all my childhood/teenaged diaries & journals — I expected to find a box of them when I was cleaning out closets with my mom on one of my visits to see my parents, but so far, they have not shown up. I’ve asked my sister to keep an eye out for them. I don’t especially care if anyone sees them after I’m gone, but I would hate to see them tossed in the garbage/recycling or worse, wind up in someone else’s hands while I’m still around…!
Interesting that this is the subject today! I like reading diaries, but most of my handwritten ones are downright embarrassing and I wouldn’t want anyone to read them. Especially since I mostly write when upset, out of context it’s just not good. My blog on the other hand is the slightly filtered version of those diaries, of the stuff I’m comfortable writing about anyway. And now, as I change what I want to write (less diarist, more focused), my blog suddenly feels like a weight of what was. I’m wondering what to do with it.
I don’t keep diaries now, but I do not like the thought of something written for my eyes only being available to others. I was working through my diaries of my student exchange year -this is a good reminder to finish that, and to throw anything else away.
I haven’t kept a real diary in many years, but I did hold on to two that I wrote in semi-regularly as a teenager. Not sure what I plan to do with them, TBH.
I have been throwing away a lot of stuff because I need to move and I found a diary I started when I was going through a depression. Actually I only started diaries when I was feeling low, it was a great outlet. Not sure if I would like it to be read by strangers.
In a blog you just share what you are comfortable with.
Oh man, I have a bag full of my diaries in a bin in the attic… Going back to when I was 5. I kept insanely detailed diaries throughout IVF times. I think maybe if people who didn’t know me read them that would be okay, like if they ended up in an estate sale or archaeological dig or something. Some would be very boring. It’s interesting to get a slice of someone’s unfiltered thoughts though. That would be kind of voyeuristic!
I wouldn’t be too fussed about strangers reading my thoughts, it’s family and friends I’m not too keen on. I have one notebook (not an actual diary) left covering many years. From before the days of internet and blogging I would write in it occasionally- it was somewhere to put down my thoughts and feelings so some days there were entries then big gaps. One page covers several years, notes of things that happened during that time. ‘One day’ it will go in the bin ….
I was an avid diary writer till my college days. Not as often now. I do write some rants, or a gratitude here and there, or some thoughts. I guess my blog doubles up for my diary these days, in some ways I could say.
It’s bizarre how this person read so many diary entries.
I remember my Dad would sneak up and read my diary when I was a kid, and that miffed me no end. Lol!
I do have a plan with one of my sisters about salvaging my journals. I never had decided, though, what she should do with them. Hmmmm…. I really don’t want them read, nor do I think anyone would find them interesting. I’m seeing a bonfire…
I think I would feel like I was invading someone’s privacy unless they actually, somehow, approved / meant for them to be published. It would be great to see another more personal side of great thinkers and inventors than just what we know from history books.