Tell Me Baby What's Your Story

I pretty much stick to books I know I'm going to like. When I find an author I enjoy, that's all I want to read. I typically like fairly light reading, pure entertainment; Robin Cook, John Grisham, chick lit (and I don't mean Harlequin). Many of my reading goals were in an effort to branch out, and I don't know that I had ever read a biography before, except maybe for a high school project.

I didn't really have any people specifically in mind to read about; sadly it seems like there are more books written about actors and musicians than anyone else. I don't particularly enjoy politics and history either, so my options were limited (but really, who else is there that's famous and would have a book written about them).

I wanted a variety, and I think I got that with Marilyn Munroe, Michael Moore, and Oprah Winfrey. Only Moore's was an autobiography, which I discovered to be much better an option. The one on Marilyn was written by her semi-estranged sister so it wasn't too bad, but the one on Oprah, although interesting (despite the random and lengthy chapters devoted to TV syndication of the era just to provide an excessive amount of background information) still had a more than slight tabloid slant to it.

I think my final conclusion cannot be a sweeping statement about biographies, it completely depends on the author; obviously autobiographical is ideal (if not overly selective about what was included) but factual stuff can get really dry. I would read more, if ever there was a compelling person I wanted to learn about. Sadly most of the info could probably be gleaned from Wikipedia. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.