Not your favorite book or author, but the type of book you gravitate toward. With me, it’s—
• Biographies and history
• Old etiquette and beauty books (I have a small collection dating as far back as the early 19th century)
• Antiquated novels, especially trashy ones; 1880–1935 is my favorite era.
• Light, humorous novels, from any era.
Y’all?
[ul]
[li]Fairy tales, myths and legends of various cultures[/li][li]“Classic” novels (i.e. Les Miserables, A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Eyre etc.)[/li][li]Historical fiction [/li][li]Fantasy novels/stories[/li][/ul]
I can’t stand reality … 
Oh, gosh, that’s like asking a gourmand what his favorite types of foods are!
Let’s see:
Biographies
mysteries
Horatio Algers (I know you wanted types, but he’s a type in and of himself)
Antiquated children’s/YA books
Old Girls’ series (e.g. the Patty books by Carolyn Wells)
Old beauty books
Egyptology
anything pertaining to the Middle Ages
Okay, forget about it. Just gimme the library and nobody gets hurt!
Local history books
Victorian travelogues
Books about exploration, particularly polar exploration
Anything about hiking or climbing
Science journals
I have the complete Moving Picture Girls series, from the mid-1910s! Great stuff.
I can’t say I read them much lately, but I collect books by Mrs. LT Meade, which are smarmy syrupy things along the lines of those old girls’ series.
Hijack, Hijack, Hijack time
Even, speaking of reading material, I have a 1930 movie fan magazine I’ve been meaning to get to you. I know you’re not about having your privacy in RL invaded, and I respect that, so I’m not sure how to best get it to you. I know some of the other Doper Manhattanites–do you see one of them regularly, so I could send it to them? Or perhaps to your editor? You can email me (kzaruba@umich.edu) or reply here.
Sorry for the hijack. It’s, um, sort of on topic. Sort of . Kinda.
Oh fercrissakes, me and my typos. That last post was directed at EVE
I’ve got several books by Mrs. Meade. I also have checked them out from time to time from the university library. Very syrupy, but fun, nonetheless.
I’m going to have to stop myself before this list gets too long, and say my absolute, tippy-top favorites are
Children’s lit, esp. girls series
Historical fiction
Light and humorous novels and memoirs, especially those with a somewhat domestic setting.
This is probably my number one favorite, and it’s funny that it’s the one I have the hardest time describing. I look for books like this that are fairly light and upbeat on the surface, but have something more evocative going on underneath. The Egg and I would be an example of such a memoir, and I Capture the Castle for a novel. There’s a fine line between this and “treacly life-affirming dreck” – I can’t quite put my finger on what makes something one rather than the other, but as Potter Stewart would say, I know it when I see it.
[ul]
[li]Travel lit[/li][li]Classics[/li][li]Mysteries[/li][li]Terry Pratchett/Douglas Adams[/li][/ul]
Then there’s the “regular stuff” that doesn’t fall into any category in particular.
I tend to gravitate towards:
–Popular science
–Biographies on musicians and actors (Which reminds me, Eve, when is your Kay Kendall book going to be out?)
–Science fiction
–Humorists, past and present
Thanks, Crank!
I go in cycles.
Previously: I read almost nothing but science fiction. From the classics (Asimov, Clarke, et al) to the modern masters (Brin, Benford, et al) to the occasional bit of pulp (Zahn, Foster, et al).
Then I had a period where I read almost nothing but science nonfiction. The God Particle, Kaku’s Hyperspace, Gleich’s Genius (and several of Feynman’s lay-aimed texts), The Selfish Gene, The Beak of the Finch, Sagan’s Comet, and so on.
Then I had a period where I read almost nothing but cinema-oriented books. Film theory and history, biographies, memoirs mixed with theory (Lumet’s On Directing Film is quite good), the Faber & Faber “[filmmaker] on [filmmaker]” series, annotated screenplays, and so on.
For a brief period, I read a lot of graphic novels or comics in collected volumes (Bone, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Preacher, etc.).
Right now I’m in a general nonfiction phase. Recent titles include The Map that Changed the World, A Primate’s Memoir, and a rereading of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder and Godel, Escher, Bach.
Basically, this is because I’m a really, really fast reader. I’ll get into an area and read a whole lot of the best stuff. Then I “run out.” Not really, of course, considering how many tens of thousands of books are published every year, but I get through all the stuff that interests me at the time. Then I move on to another area. When that’s exhausted, I may come back to a previous area of interest, because good stuff will have built up in my absence.
I tend not to read two major areas: General fiction (whether literary, like, say, Kazuo Ishiguro (sp?), or mainstream, like Grisham), mostly because there’s so damn much to choose from I rarely get something I like; and business/self-help. (I lump those together for idiosyncratic personal reasons, which if I were to explain them would clarify why I don’t like the genre.)
I’ll read just about anything, depending what mood I’m in when I’m at the library/bookstore.
My dependable genres, the books I know I’ll enjoy, include:
[ul]
[li]Science fiction and horror novels[/li][li]Natural history, like Atom, by Lawrence Krauss[/li][li]Religion, like Buddha by Karen Armstrong[/li][li]Show biz biographies[/li][li]American history[/li][/ul]
Geez. Everything, I think
mysteries,
science fiction.
Science.
Travel.
History of Technology.
History.
Mythology.
Plays
Classics
Religion and Philosophy
Humor
History of the Movies
Mathematics
It depends on what I’ve picked up recently. Richt now I’m reading a Nero Wolfe Novel and a Marcus Didius Falco novel (both mysteries), a stack of old MAD magazines and Famous Monsters of Filmland, and researching mythology and science.
*Fairy Tales (I have an extensive collection)
*Forensic Science based Mysteries
*Fantasy
*Sci-Fi
*Disaster Books
*Animal Biographies
The PRINTED kind.
Re Eve’s “antiquated trashy novels”: One of my most prized possessions is a pulp paperback titled Trailer Camp Woman. The cover text describes the “easy morals” perpetuated by the close quarters in those little dumpy plots of land peppered with trailers on the edge of town, and a trampy woman who played it to the hilt. I call it “Trailer Camp Tramp.”
You and me both, sister!
*** Margaret Atwood
I like bathroom instructional reading. And novels about America in the early 20th century. And movie reviews.