The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Once again, primarily of interest to history geeks and others of my ilk, the Diary of Samuel Pepys Excerpts audiobook is probably the best in episodic drive-time listening.  Lots of juicy historical stuff here, especially as it is re-interpreted by the reader to make a little more sense to the modern ear.  It suffers from a lack of context a little when one hears references to the Fifth Millenium men, for example, making me wish that Wikipedia could whisper in my ear while I drive (I did just look it up.  No reference in Wikipedia…see?  there’s plenty of writing left for history geeks to do).

Pepys’ entries about the Great Fire of 1666 are pretty damn riveting, too, but really there’s just a lot of juicy historical background for the period of the Restoration wherein Pepys was a high-level government official who didn’t think his diary would ever come to light…and therefore is remarkably candid. Following what is apparently a very old tradition indeed, the racy parts are all in French.

Pepys was candid enough that he has a well-deserved reputation for, uh, well: