Time passes on Another New Year approaches and you happen to look at the diary and the 360 blank pages it contains What happened to your resolve. This is the fate of most diaries. They remain blank and so many trees were cut down to make them.

The dictionary describes the diary as a record of events, transactions or observations kept daily or at frequent intervals, especially a daily record of personal activities, reflections or feelings. In real life, most of us use a diary to record forthcoming appointments and nothing else. If you are an accountant, as a method of easy record keeping, you may jot down the daily balance of the various accounts operated by your office.

I happened to peep into the diary of my seven year old niece her school insisted on each student maintaining a record of daily activities and their musings and I found an entry which goes like this... I hate all of them I just could not fathom anything from this jotting. Why or what she hates. To date it continues to be an unsolved mystery.

Up until the Seventeenth century, diary-writing was an unknown practice. Over the last three and a half centuries diary writing has developed to reflect and shape changes in the conception of self. Most of the diaries contain mere reproduction of daily activities. The exceptions are those which carry the emotions, deepest fear, and other uncertainties.

Diaries meant primarily for writers use alone exhibits a frankness not to be found in any other articles written for publication. Renaissance period saw a flurry of activity in recording in the diary form. The diary of Samuel Pepys is the most famous diary in English. Some of the other famous diaries are by James Boswell, Fanny Burney, John Evelyn, Andre Gid, Jonathan Swift and Virginia Woolf

Diaries come in various sizes and shapes. In the top price bracket you have designer diaries covered with fine leather and nicely bound. The bottom line is a small 2 by 2 inch day diary which is easy to carry in person to record and check daily appointments. Of course nowadays everything is digital, so if you are comfortable with technology then you will be most at home with a PDA.

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