# What's Your Favorite KIND of Reading Material? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284 "2002-07-10T19:12:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/1 "2002-07-10T19:12:16Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/2 "2002-07-10T19:55:59Z")
[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 … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![crazy4chaucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@crazy4chaucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazy4chaucer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/3 "2002-07-10T19:58:39Z")
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! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/4 "2002-07-10T19:58:59Z")
- Local history books - Victorian travelogues - Books about exploration, particularly polar exploration - Anything about hiking or climbing - Science journals ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/5 "2002-07-10T20:03:53Z")
I have the complete _Moving Picture Girls_ series, from the mid-1910s! Great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/6 "2002-07-10T20:18:41Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/7 "2002-07-10T20:20:06Z")
Oh fercrissakes, me and my typos. That last post was directed at **EVE** ---
**Author:** ![crazy4chaucer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@crazy4chaucer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazy4chaucer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/8 "2002-07-10T20:25:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/9 "2002-07-10T20:28:33Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Globe-trotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cab0a1/32.png) [@Globe-trotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Globe-trotter)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/10 "2002-07-10T20:36:23Z")
[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. ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/11 "2002-07-10T20:38:05Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/12 "2002-07-10T20:40:44Z")
_Thanks_, Crank! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/13 "2002-07-10T20:42:24Z")
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.) ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/14 "2002-07-10T21:18:25Z")
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] ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/15 "2002-07-10T21:23:42Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![SisterCoyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@SisterCoyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SisterCoyote)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/16 "2002-07-10T21:25:38Z")
\*Fairy Tales (I have an extensive collection) \*Forensic Science based Mysteries \*Fantasy \*Sci-Fi \*Disaster Books \*Animal Biographies ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/17 "2002-07-10T22:53:11Z")
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.” > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*• Old etiquette and beauty books (I have a small collection dating as far back as the early 19th century) > \*\* You and me both, sister! ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/18 "2002-07-11T01:52:53Z")
\*\*\* Margaret Atwood - Stephen King - "making of " books about Films - The New Yorker magazine ( a must ) - David Sedaris - Chaim Potok\*\* That’s the recent list, but it varies year to year. Sometimes, it’s all non-fiction, other times it’s nothing but heavy stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/19 "2002-07-11T02:22:57Z")
- Classic literature. - Good non-fiction, deconstructing interesting subjects, and taking non-interesting-sounding subjects (to me, anyway) and making them fascinating. **Fast Food Nation** is a recent example of the former, and most anything John McPhee has written as an example of the latter. - Mysteries. Hard-boiled detective-oriented mysteries, mainly. Dashiell Hammett to modern masters like Robert Crais and Dennis Lehane. - Gambling lit. I mostly love reading about blackjack: the history, anecdotes, theory, and strategy. **Million Dollar Blackjack** by the late, great Ken Uston, is my favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284/20 "2002-07-11T02:23:57Z")
I like bathroom instructional reading. And novels about America in the early 20th century. And movie reviews. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-kind-of-reading-material/118284.md?page=2)