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Journals and DiariesIn this day and age of progress and technology, a journal is probably one of the few documents which are still written by hand. No doubt that back in the early 90's there was an increase in people who wrote their personal diaries in a computer, thanks to Doogie Howser, MD, but the fact remains that hand writing makes a personal journal exactly that, personal, even if the author is the only person that is ever going to read it, which is not necessarily true in all cases. Traditionally, diary entries are dated and added everyday, but that is not set in stone either, people may choose how often to write, and other stylistic choices are also entirely up to them.
As was mentioned before, some journals and diaries become public, even if they were not originally meant to be published. The most famous example is probably the diary of Anne Frank. Most people are familiar with it, so there is no need to go into extensive detail. Suffice it to say that it has struck a chord with the reading public, and that it has been translated into several languages. On the other side of the spectrum, the diaries of Joseph Goebbels have also been published and translated.
There are many different types of diaries, such as travel journals (meant to document one or more journeys), diet journals (to keep track of the progress of a diet), and sleep diaries (in which people record their dreams as they remember them). Notable people who have kept journals include Louisa May Alcott, Lewis Carrol, John Cheever, Kurt Cobain, Aleister Crowley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Bob Dylan, Franz Kafka, Søren Kierkegaard, Alanis Morissette, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Palin, Henry Rollins and many more. There have also been fictional journals, like Diary, a novel by Chuck Palahniuk.
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