# What life stories fascinate you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561 "2018-03-14T18:33:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Newtosite](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/newtosite/32/8623_2.png) [@Newtosite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newtosite)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/21 "2018-03-15T05:30:17Z")
People born blind or deaf-blind. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/22 "2018-03-15T13:28:37Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > [Richard Burton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton) (No, not the actor, the explorer, adventurer, linguist, swordsman, translator of the Arabian Nights) Some years ago the Perfect Master was asked if any non-Muslims [had been to Mecca](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2308/has-any-non-muslim-ever-made-the-pilgrimage-to-mecca/) on a hajj. Even before starting reading I thought, “Burton, if anybody.” Sure enough… I especially liked the last two lines. > [@TPM](#): > > I make no special claims for his character: he was a bigot, a snob, and a reactionary, and for all his fascination with sex, seems to have had only superficial relationships with women. Nonetheless, he lived a life that we whose idea of adventure is bungee jumping can only regard with awe. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/23 "2018-03-15T13:50:28Z")
Any one born into poverty, raised in uncertain circumstances who becomes a rich, successful person in their own right. Like Stephen King or Bill Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/24 "2018-03-15T13:57:39Z")
Diaries and collections of papers from the Colonial era through the American Civil War. _The Papers of Henry Bouquet_ are among my favorites. I also enjoy a lot of the stuff written as memoirs by the people who lived then and early county histories such as _Northumberland County in the American Revolution_. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/25 "2018-03-15T15:48:54Z")
Personal travel journals of people from Burton’s time. Going to out of the way places not many people had been yet. Freya Stark, Younghusband, Burton, but also unknown wives and daughters, dragged along to dusty corners of the globe. They are invariably interesting and eye opening reads. Some were the gentlemanly class adventurers, but also children raised in far flung outposts, etc. I have a largish collection, I used to haunt the used book stores for them. They are naive, revealing and somewhat charming, as a rule. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/26 "2018-03-15T20:54:21Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I’ve always been totally fascinated with survival stories. These are good, but so are the stories of idiots who commit suicide by stupidity. Like the folks who take a “shortcut” in a snow storm, and end up freezing to death in their Kia, or decide to buy a boat and sail to Hawaii with a stranger they pick up at the marina, and end up stuffed in a foot locker on the bottom of the ocean. Great stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/27 "2018-03-15T21:47:45Z")
I guess serial killers are totally boring to me, because by definition it’s just motiveless malignant evil. You’re never going to learn anything by studying these people. I’m not interested in Gary Ridgeway. I’m much more interested in his three ex-wives. Like, how did you manage to survive living with a guy whose hobby is raping and strangling women? Like, didn’t you notice you were living with a psychopath? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/28 "2018-03-16T19:46:20Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I guess serial killers are totally boring to me, because by definition it’s just motiveless malignant evil. You’re never going to learn anything by studying these people. > > I’m not interested in Gary Ridgeway. I’m much more interested in his three ex-wives. Like, how did you manage to survive living with a guy whose hobby is raping and strangling women? Like, didn’t you notice you were living with a psychopath? You might enjoy the TV show ‘evil lives here’ ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/29 "2018-03-17T02:42:50Z")
I’ve been reading books by North Korean escapees recently. Fascinated by their lives and hardships and what tips them over the edge to leave NK. StG ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/30 "2018-03-17T14:17:41Z")
I love stories about people who fight oppression. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561/31 "2018-03-17T14:30:17Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > I am fascinated with serial killers, and what led up to them being the way they are. [One such story](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Brother_the_Serial_Killer) is told on Investigation Discovery channel, narrated by the brother of Glen Rogers, who confessed to the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, as well as killing many other people. I also like stories about the Dahmers and Green River Killers of the world. > [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#): > > Wow, this is the same answer my husband gave when I asked this question to him! He said psychopathic serial killers were what fascinated him the most. I went through a long period of reading everything I could find on serial killers, including anything by John Douglas, the FBI agent who revolutionized their identification. The most compelling part of those stories for me was the ability of someone like that to compartmentalize and to function within society - so killers like Dahmer, who barely did, were of less interest to me, compared to someone like the BTK killer, who I wondered about for years until he was captured. In retrospect a little weird, and I hadn’t thought about any of that for a long while until I saw this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-life-stories-fascinate-you/810561.md?page=1)