Does anyone like reading memoires? This topic probably won't be interesting to a large percentage of the board, but I'll throw it out there and see if anyone else likes them. My favorite Memoires are, 'Memoirs of Maximillian De Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister to Henry the Great, Etc. to Which is Added the Tryal of Ravaillac for the Murder of Henry the Great. in Six Volumes.' I am big French history buff, and when I was doing research I kept seeing various memoires in the bibliography. I went to the public library in New York, to a room where you can't take books out but can read them there. I started reading the books every single day for weeks on end. It was an English translation from Charlotte Lennox, from the 1700's. The original was published int the early 1600's. Anyway, it was fascinating. You have someone who was at all of these events that I've read about talking about all the people involved. In this case Rosny(the King's minister) is talking about the King's decisions, mistresses, enemies, intrigue's, meetings the author was at, etc. The information from a historical research perspective is amazing. You get such a great glimpse of daily life for a certain segment of the population. I've also got an English translation of the Memoires of Phillip de Cominges. They are really interesting as well, and from an even earlier era. Modern Memoires I'm not that interested in for the time being. I may be at a later stage because I never thought I'd be interested in historic memoires either. Anyway is there anyone else out there who enjoys reading historic memoires? Has anyone read some particularly interesting ones?
I've really loved more modern, personal memoirs. Dave Eggers, Toby Young, James Frey, and Augusten Burroughs have all written funny, sensitive, thought-provoking, gut-wrenching, and at times thrilling memoirs. It's my favorite genre right now.
