52 Book Challenge - Week 22

Do you know the difference between an autobiography and a memoir? It's a fine line, but generally speaking an autobiography is the story of a person's life, while a memoir is a story of a period or event in that life (but not the whole shebang).

Some people also argue that an autobiography is formal and boring while a memoir is more personal and interesting. That seems a bit harsh, but it's also kind of hard to refute...

Anyway, the Reading Challenge for this week is:

22. A memoir or journal.

Now, if there's an autobiography you've been dying to read, we won't split hairs. But we will insist that, if you decide to read a journal, that it's a proper "dear diary, today we sailed to a charming little island in the South Pacific, where we purchased some much needed fresh fruit and Billings was killed in a bar fight"-type journal and not an academic-peer-reviewed-type journal. That's just silly.

Also, Jane Eyre doesn't count. Yes, we know the subtitle is "An Autobiography", but it's not actually an autobiography. It's just a novel told from a first person perspective. Charlotte Brontë lied to you.


Have you missed out on hearing about the 52 Book Challenge? Catch up here.