At the beginning of the book "The Diary of a Nobody", the narrator Charles Pooter says this – "Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see – because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’ – why my diary should not be interesting. My only regret is that I did not commence it when I was a youth."
I have only ever kept a diary of sorts when I was in some sort of trouble. Writing it all down helped me to deal with it, but I always abandoned it as soon as my troubles were over. Perhaps I should have kept at it, or perhaps it's for the better that I didn't. Anyway, reading the diary of another nobody kind of makes up for my own omission.
What Pooter describes in his diary are just everyday experiences: life at home with his wife, the people they interact with, like the grocer, the milkman, and the carpenter, his colleagues at work, his friends who come visiting, his grown-up son who is a little eccentric; it's all quite relaxing and with a touch of light humour, just like in the real world.
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It is so relaxing and so unpretentious, it seems to have been written with the deliberate intent of mocking other diaries and memoirs and, although a 100 years old, it’s surprising how contemporary it feel.
I have made this relaxing audiobook my regular nightcap. To paraphrase from the book, "I believe I am happy because I am no longer ambitious."
