I'm mainly a variety craver when it comes to reading. I prefer nonfiction since it's able to cover astounding numbers of subjects and I can sample many flavors; but I do like certain genres of fiction, though some definitely more than others.

Reading too much fiction, for me, is like eating too many sweets -- I get bilious. When I was younger, I had greater tolerance for both sweets and fiction but, alas, no longer.

I have preferences but I'll try anything. I like SF&F the best, will read mysteries and classics quite often, historical and contemporary fiction less so. Really dislike fiction that is trying to Send A Message.

I read a lot of nonfiction, too, garden-, architecture-, textile-oriented, but I'll pick up anything that catches my eye. Never read political books, and rarely biographies. Hate true crime.

Rosefolly

I would like a little more variety in my reading, but I find myself reading pretty much the same kind of thing lately. My problem is bookgroupitis; I promise to read the monthly selection of the two real life groups I belong to and a couple of online groups as well. Book group choices tend to be very similar for some reason. The titles may be different but the writers and styles are too much the same, imo, and I wind up having them blur together. I have embarrassed myself in discussions, mixing up the plots and characters of too similar stories.:( I am very busy with my work and family, so when I get some time to myself I would just like to sit down and read anything I want. But I feel guilty if what I want is not a BG book I promised to read.

I read mostly fiction but, Rosefolly, I am right along with you in disliking "fiction that is trying to Send A Message." I have soured on book group favorites Barbara Kingsolver and Jodi Picoult, especially.

I am in total agreement with Rosefolly and Lydia's dislike of "Send a Message" fiction. So many novels now seem like they were written as therapy for the author. I feel no obligation to read them.

I feel sorry for readers who can only read one type of book. I find that hardcore genre fiction fans can be very rigid in their tastes.

I prefer to read a little bit of everything, only avoiding books which I know for sure I will not enjoy (graphic child abuse memoirs, for example). I like to flit from fiction to non-fiction, mysteries, history, biography, etc.

Reading the follow-ups after mine, I now realize that I should have listed some of the things I actually read. Sorry, jaxnsmom, for my being so vague!

I have gone (and still go) on reading jags from time to time -- sometimes they're certain genres and sometimes particular writers, but most often they're about subjects I find wildly interesting. For instance, I recently read about a dozen books on the history of textiles, several of which were suggested by RPers (including Rosefolly and Lydia). History is my all-time favorite reading material, but I can be very contrary (e.g., I hate the minutiae of military tactics) or completely arbitrary (I found the history of plumbing and sanitation, of all things, fascinating). My excuse for these tangents: I'm reading synoptically or I'm 'doing research' -- the purpose of the research I don't know since I'm never going to write my own books about these subjects.
I find that hardcore genre fiction fans can be very rigid in their tastes.Timallan, I am always amazed at readers who will consume forty-three volumes in a fiction series, back to back. I don't know whether to admire their tenacity, but I do know that I would be crawling the walls. I recently read six in a row of Reginald Hill's Dalziel & Pascoe mystery series and that was enough for me! But to each his own.Book group choices tend to be very similar for some reason.Lydia, that's why I gave up on real-life reading groups -- well, that's one of the reasons. No doubt reading groups are fine if you can find one that suits you, but I came to the conclusion that I don't suit most groups. Oh well.

Friedag, I'm glad you added more. I have trouble with a lot of nonfiction, too dry and boring (or I just have bad luck). I have found that some fiction authors provide background information that fascinates me, either about the places in the story, or the jobs of the characters. I'm curently reading a light mystery where the woman is a plumber's apprentice. I got some really useful tips that I intend to use in maintaining my house's plumbing. That's usually how I get my "nonfiction" info :) I like reading about how things work, and it seems more interesting when it's part of a bigger story and not just facts.
Have you tried any of Sarah Vowell's books? She is a history nerd (and proud of it). She mixes in personal opinions and stories and makes it fun. My favorite is "Assination Vacation" where she searches out places associated with Garfield, McKinley and Lincoln's assinations. A lot of trivia you won't find in a history book!

Friedag, have you read Bill Bryson's "At Home"? He takes a journey of his home (a Victorian parsonage in England) to "write a history of the world without leaving home". I'm listening to it and not sure I'll make it through. Something about the narrator doesn't agree with me. But there is a lot of history about how rooms evolved into specific purposes, and a section on plumbing and sanitation :)
Do you have any recommendations for a good general history for a novice? I admit I get most of my history from sources such as Sarah Vowell, Jon Stewart's "America" and "Earth", and Tim Dorsey for Florida history.

I like some variety too but there are certain types of books I will not read. Anything labeled horror is off my list as well as fluffy mysteries. I do like quite a few of the so-called chick-lit books though. I think there are more of them and many are better written-in the past it wasn't even a genre was it?

I have trouble with a lot of nonfiction, too dry and boring (or I just have bad luck).jaxnsmom, I've found in reading nonfiction that when it gets dry or boring, skim or skip(!) those parts rather than just give up on a whole book. I know it's anathema to some readers not to give every word in a book full value -- it's cheating or something in their minds (my DH has one of of those minds). But in my mind it's perfectly legitimate. I mine for nuggets, and then if I have the time and interest, I go back and rescreen for things I might have missed.I like reading about how things work, and it seems more interesting when it's part of a bigger story and not just facts.Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. "Just the facts, ma'am" without some sort of narrative can be nothing more than a drone. I immensely enjoy nonfiction told as a story. I'm not offended by speculative nonfiction, either, if it's presented properly. (Some folk will claim that if speculation is involved, it ain't nonfiction. I disagree, but I won't debate it here.)

Fact-based fiction can be a wonderful jumping-off place for exploration of the 'real' thing. I love historical fiction, and if I get so involved in a story that I can't tell what is fiction from what is fact-based, I think the writing is splendid. However, I admit that I get a certain amount of glee in picking apart what I suspect are anachronisms -- Internet checking is such a boon! Tripping over historical references in any kind of fiction is really a gift from Serendip, don't you think?

Indeed, I did read Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation, a history lesson-cum-travelogue-cum-political rant. It is a quirky take and very amusing in spots. I found her snarkiness and self-reference wearing after a while, though. I take Ms Vowell much better in essay lengths -- written not aural, since I can't concentrate on what she's saying because I'm too busy trying to analyze her vowel-formations (Ach! no pun intended).

I have not read Bryson's At Home. I did read (most, I think) of his A Short History of Nearly Everything. I'm afraid that for me much of that one didn't sink in. I liked some of Bryson's earliest books, but he tends to annoy me a bit, perhaps because he and I are of the same age and from the same place, Iowa. Maybe that's not fair of me; maybe what I suspect is palaver is just familiarity.

jaxnsmom, I am the world's worst book recommender! I don't even know where to begin with general history. General history of what? RPers such as Lemonhead, Veer, Woodnymph, and several others are very good, knowledgeable history resources though. However, I'll gladly consider what I think is good, if you'll narrow down a bit what sort of history you might like. :-)

friedag, thanks for the reply. I do skip and skim sometimes. I try to give a book a chance. I would have given up on several good books that had slow beginnings otherwise. I have to admit I can have a short attention span if a book doesn't have at least one thing grab my attention.

I agree fact-based fiction is a great way to discover areas you'd like to know more about. I love reading something and thinking "Oh wow, I didn't know that". What a great way to have learning snuck into something fun (subliminal learning?).

Hmmm...I wonder if it's your love of history that gives you so much glee about anachronisms :~) If a story is good enough I can suspend belief and just enjoy it (ok, maybe some eye rolling). Although I want it to be believable and NOT so easy that everything can be figured out in an hour like so many police/detective tv shows. I get annoyed if a character does something I think is out of character. If I think they are really stupid actions I won't finish the book or read any more books if part of a series. That's why I don't read a lot of fluffy mysteries anymore, the characters have to evolve. Hmmm...guess we know my pet peeve.

I just finished Sarah Vowell's "Partly Cloudy Patriot", a collection of essays on different topics. And a really great song, "Gallows Hill and Andersonville" by They Might Be Giants. I find myself humming it now and then.

I agree about "A Short History of Nearly Everything". Not sure I finished it either. And I did skip parts of "At Home", but just couldn't get into the narrator. Might try reading it one day.

Thinking about it, it's hard for me to narrow down what I'm looking for. I've always wanted to know more about the history between Scotland and England. And the history of Scottish Clans. I'm interested in Alaska. Not so much what makes it important for political/financial/defensive reasons, but how it developed and the stories behind the people who settled it. Actually would like an interesting refresher on American history.
My interest in history isn't so much in dry facts, but the stories of people. And any facts that aren't necessary, but more like trivia! I want to know the history behind all the quirky and absurd Americana - strange museums, largest teapot/yarn ball/etc. I love the bizarre.

Just writing this has helped me. When I'm at a bookstore or in the library I tend to go blank or get overwhelmed by all the books. Narrowing the focus is good, but now I need help finding good books :)

jaxnsmom, you would probably appreciate John McPhee's Annals of the Former World, a nonfiction on the geological history of North America. He sections the continent into regions, and tells the geological history as he travels across on one of the major interstates in the company of various geologists. He spends at least half the book on character sketches of the geologists, which I found extremely distracting, but makes geology up close and personal for those who find it 'dry facts.'

I just finished Edward Dolnick's The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society & the Beginning of the Modern World, a chatty and accessible history of Newton and Leibniz's nearly parallel invention of calculus, and Newton's breakthrough on the laws of motion. It made me wish I could better remember my astro's professor lecture series when he derived Newton's Laws from Kepler's, and back again, which apparently is what Newton did in his Principia. Dolnick painlessly gets across the essential concepts of limits, etc., within the story of the great science discoveries of the age.

Back on topic, most of my reading fits into a few categories, mostly genre fiction (YA, fantasy/SF, historical mysteries) with a few forays into science or history, but every few years, I join a reading group to force myself to branch out. I've discovered new favorites each time.

donnamira, thanks for the suggestion. I'll have to check my library. A lot of this is because I am trying to expand my literary horizons. I really don't read much nonfiction and feel like I'm missing out on interesting topics.

One thing that's helped is a summer program one of my library sytems had for a few years. It's a challenge to read specific types of books. Categories could include westerns, by a WV author, mystery, st in another country, poetry, biography, etc. It was a way of getting you to try books outside your norm. I hope they do it again.

pam53, I agree about not liking horror books. I like psychologically scary, but don't want lots of gore. I also don't care for true crime, right wing politics, and most self help books. Cutting back on fluffy mysteries, but still like light ones where the characters are intelligent and the storyline is believable (or at least fun). I really enjoy mysteries where the plot and characters are deeper. I agree chick-lit books are better now, many have evolved from happily ever after into more realistic stories. I also love reading cookbooks, especially if there are pictures!

Alaska and Scotland, ooh! I like the histories of both those places, jaxnsmom. I'll put my thinking cap on because I have read some good stuff about both. Part of the reason I am such a poor recommender is that I can't remember titles and authors of books I've read -- things come to me in dribs and drabs. :-(

Aha! I just thought of A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece edited by Jane Jacobs. Hannah Breece was Jacobs' great aunt and, if I remember correctly, Jacobs inherited her aunt's diaries after Hannah died in the 1940s. Anyway, Hannah must have been indomitable because she was in her forties, around the turn of the 1900s, when she decided to go to Alaska's Kodiak Archipelago to teach the natives and the descendants of Russians who had settled there before Seward's purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. I greatly enjoy reading about women pioneers' roles, and it's extra special when they've told their own stories as Hannah did through her diaries. Some of her students obviously made profound impressions on her and she described them and the experiences she had with them very well. I also found absorbing the wrangling she had to do with the U.S. government to get funding for the schools (she moved on to others after Kodiak) and payment for herself -- some things never change, apparently.

And there's Pierre Berton's Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, a classic (first published in the 1950s) that has been recently updated with materials that Berton had to leave out of his earlier version. Of course it's principally about the Yukon, and Dawson in particular, but much of the history is entertwined with that of Alaska during the Gold Rush years. Colorful stuff! (Egad! I'm forever making unintended puns.)

There's a book about Alaska outhouses (privies) that I got a kick out of, and you might like it too since you like the bizarre. I'll have to look up the title, etc.

I'll keep thinking!

Oh, and if you like reading cookbooks, you might like food history. It's one of my all-time great loves, so let me know if you have an interest and are willing to let me 'bend your ear'. :-)

friedag - Bend on :)

The Alaska books sound interesting. I'll have to look for them. Hope you find the title of the outhose book. I was reading something today and there's a pirate legend in it. I started looking for books about pirate legends and female pirates. Found some that sound interesting.

I'm going to have to start playing the lottery (and win) so I can afford to spend more time reading!

jaxnsmom, I used to read mainly non-fiction, bios etc. as I'm always on the lookout of information (and could bore for England on trivial facts) but since finding RP several years ago I do read more fiction and am now getting into the classics (an interesting thread here a while ago thanks to Tim).
You asked about books dealing with the history of Scotland/clans.
Over here in the UK we watched a BBC TV series on the subject by the Scottish 'popular' historian Neil Oliver The History of Scotland. It is available as an audio DVD/CD and book.
Of course it is more of an 'overview' of a huge subject, but after the early period of battles/bloodshed/violence followed by religious wars, an interesting look at the after-affect of Bonny Prince Charlie, 'tartanisation' (where many of the 'invented' clan myths come in) to modern industrial growth/decline.
Scottish 'purists' might say it leaves out too much of this or that but one has to start somewhere. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: A Clip from 'History of Scotland'

I tend to jump around with the topics I read about, and with the fiction/non-fiction balance. Sometimes one book will lead directly to another (using the annotated or otherwise bibliography at the backs for ideas). My favorite way to read is jump around from one topic to another, so I don't get bored. But I have developed a clear interest in domestic and social history (how people lived, worked, played) back until about the 1850's with an emphasis on Victorian times. However, I am open to almost anything that I find curious. I just love learning new things.

Fiction - I have been spending the past few months frequenting a number of book blogs around the world, and have developed a TBR the size of Mt Everest due to this habit. I do get to read a lot of books off the beaten path, and fortunately, I have a good ILL system that does not cost me anything to use, so if my local library doesn't have it, then probably another univ library will.

Oh, sorry. Forgot to add that I very rarely complete (or even start) books that are in a lengthy series... Too much commitment and too many books on too many other topics out there... :->

I *think* I read a trilogy once.

Topics I have read about this year: travel, North England agricultural shows, life of a housewife in modern day Japan, making bread (hahaha), growing up in Egypt, growing up on a range in Wyoming, the effect of the Princess phase on girls today, the Noble Prize sperm bank, a man-hunting tiger in Siberia, a female entrepreneur in Kabil, Hurricane Katrina, and a book about books...

Hmm. Not sure my tastes can be categorized unless it's as "eclectic"... :-)

Wow! Some great suggestions. This will definitely add more flavors.

donnamira, my library doesn't have that John McPhee book, but they have several others. They sounded interesting and I'll have to check a few out. I have "Irons In the Fire" on hold now.

friedag, I have both books on hold.

veer, I watched the clip and had to stop myself from watching them all. Lucky for me, my library has the dvd and the book is on order. I think an overview is a good place to start, it'll give me a better idea on what areas I want to focus on.

lemonhead101, that is definitely eclectic. But that makes it all the more fun. I've read Deborah Rodriguez and have to say I liked "A Cup of Friendship" better than "Kabul Beauty School".

So many books to look forward to. One good thing, I can put a book on hold and then suspend the hold for as long as I need to. That way everything won't become available at once!

jaxnmom - the book I referred to about the young female entrepreneur in Kabul was actually a different one called The Dressmaker of Khair Khana which is written by an American Foreign Office analyst who got to know this person's story on her travels of Afganistan. Haven't read the Beauty School book tho'. Is it good?

Liz, what's the book title on North England agricultural shows? Sounds as if it could be right up my alley.

jaxnsmom, I've gone and confused myself trying to find the Alaska outhouse book, but I think it's Outhouses of Alaska by Harry Walker. I remember it being mostly a picturebook with some good, pithy text, and many of the photos are hilarious. The description at Amazon of Walker's book seems to fit, but I can't swear to it. (Aside, on a Scottish note, Scots' privies are called "wee hoosies" -- at least they are in North Scotland and particularly in the Hebrides. My landlady's house had mod cons but she still kept her 'wee hoosie' in the back garden in usable condition.) Anyway, trying to locate that book, I ran across:

Mr. Whitekeys' Alaska Bizarre: Direct from the Whale Fat Follies Revue which I remember reading a decade or so ago. It's one of those books of humor that might go over best with those who have some familiarity with the eccentricities of 'sourdoughs'. My family for years has gone to Soldotna in late July for the salmon run and to charter fish for halibut, which gave me just enough insight to recognize the characterizations -- both historical and modern -- of the 'Whale Fat Follies'. (Evidently there was a live comedy show of it in Anchorage, but I never saw it and don't know if it is still running.) But I think anyone who likes the bizarre -- and it's mundo bizarro -- and an interest in Alaska, as you say you do, might find it amusing as well. Warning: It's pretty raunchy and not at all politically correct.

Speaking of John McPhee, his microhistory Oranges is a gem! jaxnsmom, are you from or currently reside in Florida? Not sure where I got that idea. If so, you may know more about oranges than I do; but, food history buff that I am, I was tickled with McPhee's description of the perversity of citrus. I didn't know that the genetics of all citrus (oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, citrons, etc.) are so nearly identical that a single tree might produce oranges on most branches, and a few, say, grapefruit (or one of the others) on some branches. That stuck in my mind and I'll never forget it! I love trivia, too.:-)

jaxnsmom, looks as if you've plenty of great stuff to explore! But I'll add a couple more that might interest you, if you don't already have them: Jean Anderson's American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century and Sylvia Lovegren's Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads. Both have recipes but they are also jam-packed with food-history trivia; e.g., every few pages, Anderson's book gives a time-line of when famous brand-name food products were introduced in America. Both Anderson and Lovegren fit the major fads and recipes into decades, but I could quibble with a few of their assertions -- makes it even more fun for me!

lemonhead101 - I looked up "the Dressmaker of Khair Khana" And it sounds really good. Will have to add it to my tbr list.

I thought "Kabul Beauty School" was uneven, although it got great reviews. I felt like pieces were missing, especially regarding her marriage to an Afghani man. The women she came to know were portrayed much more vividly, and the look into their personal lives was fascinating. I kept reading because of them.

I enjoyed "A Cup of Friendship" more. The characters were all well drawn and I felt I had a good feel for how life in Afghanistan was for these people. I could easily believe the characters were real people. Their stories overlapped naturally and the book had a better flow.

Freida - the book on North England agricultural shows was called Racing Pigs and Giant Marrows by Harry Pearson. It was quite a good book, but he (the author) was very busy using a thesaurus for a lot of time.

This is a great thread... I am really enjoying it. Thanks a bunch.

friedag - my libraries don't have the outhouse book or the "Mr. Whitekey's" book either but I will keep them in mind. Too many others available to try ILL yet. They do have 14 of John McPee's books, and I'll probably make my way through some. Wish they had "The John McPhee Reader" so I could get a taste of several of the books and still be able to fit in other books too.

No, I'm not from Florida. I live in West Virginia now, but am from Virginia. You probably got that idea from a post about Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms series. Serge is a truly original character. He's a psychotic serial killer (but he only kills those who deserve it), who uses extremely imaginative ways to rid society of it's pests. It's truly bizarre, but he's so entertaining and his reasoning makes the killings seem justified :) Serge is also a huge Florida history buff. He travels the state looking for little known historic sites (or at least historic in his mind), and the book is full of Florida history and trivia. I listen to these books because Oliver Wyman, the narrator, gets the voices perfect.

I'll have to check out the food books. I had a good historical one years ago, I think it was called Richmond Receipts. It had lots of food history and a some of the recipes were actually instructions on how to kill and prep your meat source :)

I have so many choices now it's crazy! I love having a variety to choose from, but would like to think I have a chance of getting to a decent number of them. I will have to become immortal, or become a ghost in a well stocked library (with the ability to turn pages).

Every time I tell myself I have plenty of new directions to go, something else pops up. Saw this while checking my library's wvdeli (downloadable media) for some of the suggestions I've gotten.

"Lost Classics"
Seventy-four distinguished writers tell personal tales of books loved and lost--great books overlooked, under-read, out of print, stolen, scorned, extinct, or otherwise out of commission.
Compiled by the editors of Brick: A Literary Magazine, Lost Classics is a reader's delight: an intriguing and entertaining collection of eulogies for lost books. As the editors have written in a joint introduction to the book, "being lovers of books, we've pulled a scent of these absences behind us our whole reading lives, telling people about books that exist only on our own shelves, or even just in our own memory." Anyone who has ever been changed by a book will find kindred spirits in the pages of Lost Classics.
Each of the editors has contributed a lost book essay to this collection, including Michael Ondaatje on Sri Lankan filmmaker Tissa Abeysekara's Bringing Tony Home, a novella about a mutual era of childhood. Also included are Margaret Atwood on sex and death in the scandalous Doctor Glas, first published in Sweden in 1905; Russell Banks on the off-beat travelogue Too Late to Turn Back by Barbara Greene--the "slightly ditzy" cousin of Graham; Bill Richardson on a children's book for adults by Russell Hoban; Ronald Wright on William Golding's Pincher Martin; Caryl Phillips on Michael Mac Liammoir's account of his experiences on the set of Orson Welles's Othello, and much, much more.

Now I have had to put this on my wish list. This is ya'lls fault! Thank you!

Friedag: I have not been able to access RP for a while so was not able to applaud your D&P marathon read! I was astonished that you persevered so much seeking the hidden reference! I believe that you found it eventually?
As to one genre of book being Vanilla, there are all kinds of things to add to stop it becoming boring. I mostly read cosy mysteries written by women and there is so much diversity! A recent short story book I read was an exercise for the authors to include three elements in the story, a thick book, a thick steak and a thick fog. The results were startlingly different!

Like some of you, I am eclectic in my choices, reading both fiction and non-fiction. I enjoy the occasional mystery, but the protagonists have to be interesting and the plot unpredictable, or I will not persevere. For some odd reason, in my forties, I went through a period when I read almost nothing but biographies and autobiographies of famous personnages, particularly literary or artistic people. Now, I seem to have gotten away from that,somewhat.
My own personal library is incredibly varied, even including a book on French bathroom plumbing! :-)

Jaxnsmom, where did you live in Virginia? I lived in that state for many, many years.

woodnymph2 - between growing up, going to school, and various jobs, I lived in Lynchburg, Danville, several areas in Northern Virginia, and Winchester. I hope to get back there to stay one day.

On the book front a bunch of holds just came in and I have to figure out what I want to read now. I currently have about 30 items checked out. Fiction and nonfiction, mystery, travel, contemporary, history, humor, fantasy, gardening, memoir, historical fiction, and short stories. I feel like I've got the whole Ben & Jerrys selection :)