Some Bookish Questions & Other Info

Hi everyone!  I'm off for another few days at my wonderful home-away-from-home, my trailer.  I don't have internet there so I'm not compelled to check my blog every couple of hours or my email to see what is going on.  I wish I could get more reading done while there, but there is so much happening and so many people with which to socialize, well...the reading just doesn't happen as much as I wish.  There are some pretty neat things happening here though, and I'm really looking forward to some exciting scavenger hunts, some nifty guest posts, and some blog hop giveaways.  I haven't participated in one of those in a while, so I thought, why not?

I went to the library yesterday in search of a book for my son, and I'm so proud of myself as I came out alive and with only two books for myself.  That is quite the accomplishment as I have a few other books on the agenda and I don't have time to indulge in library books at the moment.  I don't think I've ever come out of a library with only two books before in my life.  My son has developped a huge interest in Harry Potter and I've realized I am missing book 2 for some reason (don't know how that happened as I am so fastidious over series I loved), and as he finished book 1 at midnight the other night, I was sent searching for book 2 as the situation was 'dire'.  As I have been in that situation more than once in my life, I understood, and went directly in search of book 2 for him.  Luckily, I still have the others and this situation won't happen again.  Dealing with an 11-year-old who is reading until 2 in the morning is a new situation for me though. 

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Question: There are so many crappy biographies … would you rather read a poorly-written biography of a fascinating life, OR an exquisitely well-written, wonderful read of one of a not-so-interesting life?



Poorly written work is rather a pet-peeve of mine and I would rather read a wonderful, well-written one of someone who is not-so-well-known than a biography of someone who is well-known, knowing the research is not well-done and the facts are distorted.  Personally, if you are going to write a biography, then you should put the legwork in and research the facts as they are and not just fill in the blanks to suit your own whimsy.  For example, there are a lot of biographies on Elizabeth I, some great and some...well, you understand, if you've read them.

I'm also not interested in reading biographies about people in order for sensationalism, just to sell a book.  The 'tell-all' biographies turn me right off, such as those written about celebrities, ones that are full of 'juicy tidbits' about celebrities' personal lives.  Maybe this sounds somewhat 'stuck-up' (sorry, I don't know what other term to use), but I'm just not interested in reading about that kind of thing.  Don't mistake this for not reading about the lives of celebrities, as I will read a well-written account of a celebrity if I know it is written by someone who is reliable and writes about the person because they found them interesting, not because they had a 'big' scandal and wants only to talk about the 'scandal'.  Am I babbling, or making myself clear?

What I really do enjoy are biographies about historical figures as I have an obsession with history.  I don't blog a lot about them on my blog as they're for more personal reading, but I have thought more than once about starting a historical reading blog.  Unfortunately, I just don't have the time at the moment to run both.  For those writers who take the time to research and write beautiful, intriguing, and truthful biographies about the people whom they choose to write, please continue to do so for those of us who devour them.