If you loved
Books like Diary
Step into the bustling, unfiltered mind of a 17th-century Londoner who is just as concerned with his new watch as he is with the Great Fire burning down his city. These 12 books are the closest matches in mood, pace and themes, with what each one shares with Diary.
- intimate
- bustling
- historical
- convivial
- 01
The history of the great plague in London in the year 1665
Daniel Defoe · 1895
A chillingly methodical, boots-on-the-ground immersion into a city slowly suffocating under the weight of an inescapable doom.
- 02
Life of Samuel Johnson
James Boswell
Pull up a chair in a bustling 18th-century London tavern and listen to the greatest conversationalist of the age hold court.
- 03
The time traveler's guide to medieval England
Ian Mortimer
A sensory, mud-splattered plunge into the sights, smells, and daily survival of the fourteenth century.
- 04
A Writer's Diary
Virginia Woolf
An intimate, unvarnished glimpse into the daily thoughts, creative struggles, and raw genius of a literary master.
- 05
The diaries of Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
An unbearably intense, penetrating descent into the dreams, guilt, and profound alienation of a brilliant, troubled mind.
- 06
Mémoires
Giacomo Casanova · 1922
A scandalous, glittering romp through 18th-century Europe guided by history's most unapologetic libertine.
- 07
The Second World War
Winston Churchill · 1948
A front-row seat to the twentieth century's greatest cataclysm, narrated with the booming authority of the man who helped steer the world through it.
- 08
The Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank
Anne Frank
An intimate, heartbreakingly bright window into a teenager's soul as she blooms in the darkest of confined spaces.
- 09
The Diary of a Nobody
George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith
A gently humorous, classic diary chronicling the quiet absurdities of ordinary English suburban life.
- 10
A dictionary of the English language
Samuel Johnson · 1819
An opinionated, deeply literary stroll through the eccentricities of the English language, guided by a brilliantly curmudgeonly scholar.
- 11
Lord John and the private matter
Diana Gabaldon · 2003
A richly atmospheric plunge into 18th-century London, where drawing-room manners mask deadly secrets and forbidden desires.
- 12
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin · 1892
A witty, pragmatic masterclass in self-invention and lifelong curiosity from the original American polymath.
