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A USA paperback Fantasy novel. Might be 70s, but probably 80s or 90s Pretty sure it was a Swords and Sorcery type setting, or Wizards and Witches.

A man is recording everything which is happening in his life (including all the mundane and minutiae). ... the breakfast my waiter just delivered, is half burnt biscuits and lukewarm tea ...

[He may also be magically knowing about and recording events instantly as they happen far away he could not know about. i.e. ... the Price of SomeFarLand just died. He fell off his horse when it stepped in a rabbit hole ... ]

The event I remember is a dying man either collapsing on his doorstep, or making it into his house into the foyer or study and collapsing there.

The man, as he steps over the dying man, records ... (dying man's name) has collapsed and is dying of (injuries/disease/starvation)? on my steps/study floor ...

I think the man after many hours or even the next day comes out of his writing trance and realizes the dying man is still there and then renders aid.

I'm pretty sure the man is physically doing the writing, but there might be something that is magically transcribing his words to paper instead.

I don't remember much else about the story. I am pretty sure the dying man was the main protagonist of the story.

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This sounds to me like the Dragonlance legends trilogy, specifically the last book of that trilogy Test of the Twins.

The man recording everything that happens would be Astinus of Palanthas, during the final book of the trilogy (iirc) Test of the Twins, the primary character Raistlin, is found or bought to the great library of Palanthas recorded by Astinus, but Raistlin recovers and carries on with his attempt to become a god in Krynn by supplanting Takhisis.

Astinus does indeed do his own writing (but also has a team of scribes and clerks assisting him) as shown in the books. Astinus also has a magical device to scry events happening anywhere on Krynn.

I'll try and find an extract from the book itself, but am on mobile at the moment.

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  • tor.com/2016/05/06/…
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 18:16
  • Yes that it.... Reading your description, it does sound like and an FuzzyBoots' link confirms it..... Thanks.
    – NJohnny
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 23:33
  • Looks like the correct title is "Dragons of Spring Dawning" from the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy. (Which was followed by Dragonlance Legends trilogy which includes Test of the Twins) So the event I described above appeared in the Trilogy before Legends.
    – NJohnny
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 23:43

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