Cheryl (boomerbooklover) - reviewed on 5/1/2018 + 437 more book reviews

This is not your average Hollywood revelation/tell all. Includes various diaries/notebooks written, sometimes daily, sometimes less often, during various years by Richard Burton. First one dates from when RB was a young man in Wales; picks up after his marriage to E. Taylor, and for various years thereafter. I was interested in this book since reading that RB always travelled with a duffle bag full of books, and he indeed was an avid reader of all types of books (both serious biographies, histories, and political volumes) as well as novels, mysteries, and other paperbacks. He also read many newspapers, worked crosswords, and taught himself several languages. He frequently mentioned he was happiest when he could stay home and read. This book made me wish he had detoured from acting to become more of an author than he was. He hinted that he might use these diaries as backup for writing an autobiography; would that he had lived long enough to do so. If half as good as these diaries, it would have been fascinating.

This is a long book, and includes hundreds of footnotes. Some footnotes were interesting or helpful; others were a little irritating.

I really enjoyed the book overall, and may keep it a while and reread it someday (sans footnotes).

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