Readers by Author
Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author
(by the way – I respect every author on here, kind of)
J.D. Salinger
Kids who don’t fit in (duh).
Stephenie Meyer
People who type like this: OMG. Mah fAvvv ❤ <3.
J.K. Rowling
Smart geeks.
Jack Kerouac
Umphrey’s McGee fans.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Girls who didn’t get enough drama when they were younger.
Lauren Weisberger
Girls who can’t read. Or think.
Jonathan Safran Foer
30somethings who were cool when they were 20something.
Jodi Picoult
Your mom when she’s at her time of the month.
Chuck Klosterman
Boys who don’t read.
Chuck Palahniuk
Boys who can’t read.
Christopher Hitchens
People I would love to hang out with.
Leo Tolstoy
Guys I want to date.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Guys I want to sleep with. (The difference between the two Russian authors lies in the fact that I think the Underground Man is sexier than Pierre Buzukhov).
Christopher Buckley (or William F. Buckley)
People who love excess verbiage.
Ayn Rand
Workaholics seeking validation.
David Foster Wallace
Confirmed 90’s literati.
Jane Austen (or Bronte Sisters)
Girls who made out with other girls in college when they were going through a “phase”.
Haruki Murakami
People who like good music.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
People who can start a fire.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
People who used to sleep so heavy that they would pee their pants.
Charles Dickens
Ninth graders who think they’re going to be authors someday but end up in marketing.
William Shakespeare
People who like bondage.
Mark Twain
Liars.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
People who drink scotch.
Joseph Conrad
People who drink old fashioneds.
Dominick Dunne
People who get their class from Vanity Fair.
Anne Rice
People who don’t use conditioner in their hair.
Edgar Allan Poe
Men who live in their mother’s basements. Or goth seventh graders.
Michael Crichton
Doctors who went to third-tier medical schools.
John Grisham
Doctors who went to medical schools in the Dominican Republic.
Dan Brown
People who used to get lost in supermarkets when they were kids.
Dave Eggers
Guys who are in the third coolest frat of a private college.
Emily Giffin
Women who give their boyfriend marriage ultimatums.
Richard Russo
People whose favorite day in elementary school was “Grandparent’s Day”.
Anais Nin
Librarians.
Margaret Atwood
Women whose favorite color is hunter green.
William Faulkner
People who are good at crosswords.
Jackie Collins
Your drunk stepmother.
Nicholas Sparks
Women who are usually constipated.
James Patterson
Men who score a 153 on their LSAT exam.
Sylvia Plath
Girls who keep journals (too easy).
George Orwell
Conspiracy theorists (too easy).
Aldous Huxley
People who are bigger conspiracy theorists than Orwell fans.
Harper Lee
People who have read only one book in their life and it was To Kill A Mockingbird (and it was their assigned reading in the ninth grade).
Nick Hornby
Guys who wear skinny jeans and the girls that love them.
Ernest Hemingway
Men who own cottages.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
People who get adjustable-rate mortgages.
Vladimir Nabokov
Men who use words like ‘dubious’ and ‘tenacity’.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Sommeliers.
Bret Easton Ellis
Foo Fighters’ fans.
Hunter S Thompson
That kid in your philosophy class with the stupid tattoo.
Cormac McCarthy
Men who don’t eat cream cheese.
Thomas Aquinas
Premature ejaculators.
Pearl S. Buck
Women whose favorite president was Harry S. Truman.
Toni Morrison
Female high-school English professors who only have an undergraduate degree.
Thomas Pynchon
People who used to be fans of J.D. Salinger.
Elizabeth Gilbert
Women who liked the movie “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” but didn’t read the book.
Rebecca Wells
Women on the East coast who wish they were from the South.
Tama Janowitz
Cougars who went to an urban college in the 80s.
Alice Sebold
People who liked Gilmore Girls – even in the first season.
Michael Swanwick
Men who argue Neil Gaiman is overrated.
Terry Goodkind
People who have never been dungeons master but still play D&D.
Stephen King
11th graders who peed their pants while watching the movie It.
H.P. Lovecraft
People who can quote the Comic Book Guy from Simpsons.
Brothers Grimm
Only children with Oedipal complexes.
Lewis Carroll
People who move to Thailand after high school for the drug scene.
C.S. Lewis
Youth group leaders who picked their nose in the 4th grade.
Elmore Leonard
People who know how to perform a “Michigan left”.
Shel Silverstein
Girls who can’t spell “leheim”.
Douglas Adams
People who bought the first generation Amazon Kindle.
Tucker Max
Guys who haven’t convinced their girlfriends to try anal yet.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Political theory and constitutional democracy majors.
Tom Clancy
People who skipped school by hiding out in the gym.
Herman Hesse
People who own one straw chair in their house.
Phillippa Gregory
Women who have repressed their desire to go to Renaissance Festivals
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Men who can’t lie but will instead be silent if they know you don’t want to hear the truth.
Susan Wiggs
Older women who are surprisingly loud during sex.
Nicole Krauss
Girls who intern at Nylon but end up moving back to the Midwest for their real job.
Mitch Albom
People who didn’t go to college but do well on crossword puzzles.
Stieg Larsson
Girls who are too frightened to go skydiving.
Sue Grafton
Women who have an @aol.com email address.
Seth Grahame-Smith
People who own a smart phone which requires a stylus to use it.
David Baldacci
No one. Even the police say Clancy before they’ll say Baldacci.
Michael Pollan
The girl who just turned vegan to cover up her eating disorder.
Andrew Ross Sorkin
People who refer to themselves as “playing devil’s advocate”.
O. Henry
Men who have names like Earl or Cliff and were really close with their paternal grandfather.
Virginia Woolf
Female high-school French teachers who have their master’s degree.
Michael Chabon
People who hate Ayelet Waldman.
Ray Bradbury
People who own golf head covers.
Joseph Heller
People who love buying drinks for their friends. See also, people who cringe when they see their bar tab.
David Mitchell
Women who live in any area of Brooklyn other than Park Slope, but may end up there someday and if that day comes, they will switch to Barbara Kingsolver fans.
Max Barry
People who don’t mind the color orange.
Dean Koontz
People who would never dream of owning any type of “toy” breed dog.
John Irving
People whose parents are divorced.
Richard Dawkins
People who have their significant other grab them under the table in order to shut them up whenever someone else at a dinner says something absolutely ridiculous and wrong.
Salman Rushdie
People who google image search Padma Lakshmi late at night.
Albert Camus
People who went to art school after “trying it out” at a public university.
Kurt Vonnegut
People who played Creep by Radiohead while having sex or smoking pot. Longer explanation here.
James Joyce
People who do not like John Cusack movies.
Charlaine Harris
Elementary school teacher’s aids.
Jorge Luis Borges
People who took care of their dying grandparents.
Terry Pratchett
People who really like monkeys.
Oscar Wilde
People who can’t resist anything. See also, people who claim they’re going to change but never do.
Truman Capote
People who would never dream of owning anything that could be classified as a “knick-knack”.
Tom Wolfe
People who don’t mind others smoking around them.
Neil Gaiman
People who can name at least two Miyazaki films.
My Twitter
My Tumblr
Lauren Leto
Lauren Leto 
Hahahaha, I love this…so true! Is this your own stereotyping or a list you found online?
haha i’m evil and i made it
Evil genius I say! You made my morning with this list.
Well you got me kinda wrong,love Mark Twain but not considered a liar,exact opposite in fact,maybe because I refer to him as Sam Clement? What of Jean M. Auel?
left a lot to be desired on some. many are very clever. men who own cottages for hemingway, though? really? what about ‘hard drinking males w/ masculinity issues’ ? just throwing it out there. also, you apparently created my most hated site on the planet. tfln is an online hub for the dregs of society to all congregate and congratulate one another for being so drunk and worthless. ultimately i liked the author steretypes tho. bye
Mark Twain’s real name was Sam Clemens, not Clements. Samuel Langhorne Clemens to be exact. Real Mark Twain fans know this.
lovely :DDD
I am surprised to see no Franz Kafka here….
I was waiting for Kafka the whole time too!
I was looking specifically for Kafka also 😦
Same here. Maybe kafka is for people who are procrastinators or never get their work done, since his books were left incomplete. Just a suggestion, lol.
how the hell did you get the shakespeare?
that’s dead on man. bahaha
I thought the Shakespeare/bondage thing was a Monty Python joke. You don’t mean . . .
Add Neil Gaiman, please? 🙂
no taste in literature obviously. this list is just stupid, there is no bases for any of these sterotypes. maybe the op should have actually read these authors books before to make it more accurate.
You have no taste obviously!
You are too, too accurate! Ha, this is genius.
This list is pretty accurate, but I disagree about Hunter S. Thompson and H.P. Lovecraft. Luckily I am a Haruki Murakami.
Wooh! Me too I’m glad mine is cool. >.<
Me three. Whew. Haha.
Me too!!
[…] Leto (she’s one of the people behind Texts From Last Night) classifies people by their favourite authors, with startling accuracy! Anne Rice is for “People who don’t use conditioner in their […]
Awesome list. Brought a big laugh on a Sunday afternoon work day. Dare I ask your determination of people who like Hermann Hesse?
Wait for it, picking up Siddhartha now. Updates tomorrow…
Wow. Not only do I own a straw chair, but a straw hat too. Well played!
I’m waiting for this one, too.
I felt zinged by the Pynchon one, then I realized that it was merely two true statements and not a good or bad thing.
You might like the Pynchon movie plot then https://laurenleto.wordpress.com/movie-plots/
You are spot on with this list… Props. I especially agree with the Leo Tolstoy.. where are they all hiding?
they are already sleeping with someone else…. sigh…
I don’t like the Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. Ignores the female fans and any legitimate analysis other than, “Hey these Russians are deep thinkers and maybe I’ll be one by proxy for sleeping with their readers.”
Jane Austen and the Brontes are for corporate bookstore managers, not college lesbians, who care nothing for the heteronormative politics of ninteenth century romance.
I think this list says more about YOU and Sparknotes than any fans…
well, I’m glad your three semesters at Bard clearly worked for you.
Re: Jane Austen/Bronte sister fans: I think you mean Virginia Woolf fans.
phi kappa alpha at trinity college, and yes, i am a dave eggers fan.
What about John Irving fans? Why were we spared?
No one is spared 🙂 Updates daily…
Harlan Coben readers???????????
I second this. John Irving! (But now I’m a little nervous).
Not heard of Lauren Weisberger but now I’m intrigued!
devil wears prada and such. terrible books, ok movie. The only movie i have actually liked more than the book 😛
Really? There are so many movies better than their source books:
Godfather
Fight Club
Tell No One
Jaws
Blade Runner
Shawshank Redemption
Mystic River
Gone Baby Gone
And more, I’m sure. Can you think of others?
Maybe a little too harsh. “Cheerleaders who read on airplanes” or something.
This list is great. I was hoping to see Ray Bradbury on this list…
This is a wonderful list. Spotted you in twitter feeds… Need to add business authors to your list 🙂
I’ve never read any business authors! Gladwell is about as close as I’ve gotten.
Gladwell is good and qualifies. Time for you to broaden your reading habits!
Do Michael Chabon!
I must say, I am a fan of Stephen King, Alice Sebold, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Klosterman and Chuck Palahniuk and none of their stereotypes apply to me, sadly.
Very well done..I do think you might want to reconsider the Sylvia Plath one though…I think “girls with superficial marks on their wrists” may be better
Hilarious! I’m a Conrad and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle devotee, so I guess that means I drink a lot.
What about Thoreau, though? Maybe his fans own fewer than three pairs of pants.
No, Thoreau fans grow hydroponic tomatoes and wonder, “What if?” on the ledge of their fire escape.
Ahahahaha! Right, because when you actually try the Thoreau thing, you realize why he had his mommy do his laundry.
you had me pegged with margaret atwood.
i laughed particularly hard at the sue grafton one.
Joseph Heller?
it’s lev tolstoy dude stop changing people’s names… but whtever. i read both tolstoy and dostoievsky, so how about a date? :>:>
The Michael Crichton and Douglas Adams one is bullseye!
Nice, but a couple of inaccuracies –
1. ‘Smark Geeks’ prefer Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman over J K Rowling.
2. And real Douglas Adams fans would have bought an ebook reader before the Kindle was launched – like the Sony Reader.
#2 oooooh. Snap. 😛
Does being a programmer count as a “smart geek”? I loved Good Omens way too much. 😀
Good Omens was LEGIT, though where is Lord of the Rings? Let’s appeal to the nerds as well as geeks 😛
shut up
Thank you! I was about to say that.
Some smart geeks think Neil Gaiman is overrated. And prefer JK Rowling.
And some geeks like all three to varying degrees. Come on, folks, can’t we all just get along? 😉
(Also: Jim Butcher – i.e. the writer who does The Dresden Files urban fantasy series- totally needs to be on this list. I say this because he’s my favorite writer that isn’t a screenwriter or comic book writer.)
No, those aren’t the smart ones. Those are the ones who find that Rowling is more their reading level.
You CANNOT be serious. Rowling did nothing but rip of Neil! She’s a hack. She admits to ripping off Books of Magic!
We smart geeks love Butcher, Gaiman and Pratchett. And are deeply offended by any Rowling association.
And a REAL Neil Gaiman fan would know what he had to say about the Harry Potter conspiracy. Read http://januarymagazine.com/profiles/gaiman.html and see how Gaiman laughs about how absurd it is.
-only one french author
-no Borges
Derp.
some of these are really great! i love ayn rand one, hunter thompson (you could say the same for charles bukowski). i don’t get some of them – nathaniel hawthorne? but then, i’m not that much of a bibliophile. i think a few could be improved. michael pollan isn’t really popular w/ vegans – his should be, like, “guys who won’t eat food that was grown more than 50 miles from their hipstery, gentriftying neighborhood.” or something. 😉
“Guys who talk a lot about the farmer’s market their wife dragged them to that one time.”
I really enjoyed reading this. I am actually a PTCD major and I love Tocqueville.
What about Tom Wolfe? Too easy?
Why do you sometimes write “people who…” and sometimes write “people that…”? Is it some rule I’ve never known?
It’s a mistake, and one which is really bugging me here. It’s one thing to break a rule consistently, but to continue switching back and forth seems to imply (at least to me) misguided pretension.
“Who” is for people. “That” is for other nouns:
Books that I like.
People who read them.
zomg. edit
I’ve switched around because these were all written on other days. This has been going on for three months. That’s why they’re kinda in spurts. I guess some days I’m dumber than others.
Grammar rules are meant to be broken!
Says the guy struggling with “Highlights”
Can’t use “that” for people? Name one grammar book that agrees with you.
‘that’ can be used for both people and thing.
That is one of those grammar “rules” that is so arbitrary that the only time I notice it being broken is when grammar nazis bother to point it out. And even then, it’s a rare grammar nazi that bothers.
If I can read it the whole way through without thinking of it, “that was awkward-sounding”, it’s FINE. Language evolves, people. And the wonderful thing about the evolution of English is that it has become increasingly flexible on points like that.
Seriously, language “rules” (at least when it comes to English) were made to be broken… and your argument that it’s somehow a worse error because she occasionally uses “who” in place of it instead of “consistently” using the exact same wording? Is one of the silliest things I’ve ever heard. Any decent writer will tell you it’s better to VARY your prose, lest it get too repetitive.
So, needless to say I disagree greatly.
Gramer roolz, is totaly made 2 be brokin. It r stupid 4 sureeee? Ppl should b free 2 experment wit da engrish wordz. it maked; us better. rite!!
Not quite. Not being a grammar nazi and “bending the rules” are two completely different things. People make mistakes, and people should let them slide occasionally, but they certainly shouldn’t encourage them to “break the rules of the English language.”
What a fantastic pun you did on that.
May I add, that you all sound like pomp, english gentlemen arguing while enjoying a spot of tea.
Laurell K. Hamilton?
Gregory Maguire?
Dan Brown ftw. What about Tom Robbins?
Right? I want to know what my logophilia says about me.
I was wondering the same. Gotta be extra special to be a Robbins fan.
hahaha the nicole krauss one made me laugh out loud
..how about douglas coupland & donna tartt ? 😛
i would also have liked to see douglas coupland.
Jodi Picoult is my favourite author! 😦
Ok, please classify:
1. Richard Dawkins
2. Andre Gide
3. Flannery O’Connor
ps. I’m down with Tolstoy, Hitchens and Dostoevsky.
i second number 1. dawkins
Ignored 😦
ooh yeah, I love Flannery O’Connor. People who hate people, I guess? (too obvious)
[…] via Readers by Author « Lauren Leto. […]
Heh, liked the list. What about Kurt Vonnegut though?
I second the Vonnegut! I was looking for him. I need validation!
VONNEGUT FANS DO NOT NEED VALIDATION
did i miss henry miller? do me, do me! wait…that came out wrong…
Yes do drew and I!
I too thought I missed Henry, particularly after seeing Anais. And feel free to do you worst-I am feeling pretty good with my other favorite Fydor.
This is pretty great… although I love Nabokov and am not a man and prefer words like “languorous.”
What about Zadie Smith?
“Whites who wish they weren’t,” I say.
Zadie Smith is kind of covered here…https://laurenleto.wordpress.com/movie-plots/
I’m a Nabokov fan who finds your assessments most dubious, but your tenacity for covering a broad array of authors laudable. 😉
That was awesome! (and Harper Lee is probably true) lol
What about Dean koontz?
Did I miss seeing Tolkein on the list?
Loved it, but you lost me at the Ayelet Waldman dig. I love her!
The Mysteries of Pittsburg–
Arthur Lecomte– “I hate Phlox (or something like that)…”
Arthur Lecomte wants to have sex with Art Bechstein. Art Bechstein is having sex with Phlox. Arthur hates Phlox.
This is a typical Chabon love triangle.
The concept (I assume) is that everyone (males included) wants to have sex with Michael Chabon (right?).
Did I miss Neil Gaiman??
Funny, but not quite right. My favorite author is Ayn Rand.
I am by no means a workaholic seeking validation.
then I guess you’re not a republican.
An Ayn Rand lover who’s Republican? Laughable.
They’re all Libertarians.
Haha, good one. Boys who cannot read like Chuck Palahniuk? Did you take these “definition” out of our arse?
This is great! What about people who love Amy Tan?
Kind of sad there’s no Robert Heinlein yet.
Douglas Adams hits home – I wanted a Kindle the instant I saw it!
Robert Jordan, Stephen R. Donaldson,Terry Pratchett and Isaac Asimov would also be welcome additions!
William S. Burroughs
Cut-up men with a morbid sense of humour.
Allen Ginsberg
Nostalgics who keep a dream diary under their beds.
Would kind of like to see Graham Greene.
Very clever.
VONNEGUT!
agreed, vonnegut was missing.
Dean Koontz- people who love labradors and never get tired of stories with dogs in them.
Ok, THIS Dean Koontz stereotype is more accurate for me..
It’s nice to know that reading Rowling makes me a smart geek. As if I needed any help in that area. 😛
Where’s John Steinbeck? Or Joyce Carol Oates??
You would love to hang out with me.
You misspelled Stephenie Meyer and where the hell is J.R.R. Tolkien? How bout people who read that are 30yr old men who still play dungeons and dragons and listen to Stix. hahaha
Well, you misspelled “Styx.” So I guess you two are even.
I think I’m going to use this when I’m old and succomb to an EHarmony account.
I’m a tolstoy looking for an austen
What about women who like Dostoevsky? Would you like to sleep with them? ;P
Joking aside, this list is awesome!
Great stuff. If this were a stand-up routine I’d be heckling “Do Borges, Lethem, Vonnegut and Calvino!” after I caught by breath from laughing.
Hilarious, flattered since my favorite book is Brothers Karamazov but would defend myself from the charge of conspiracy nut for my love of Orwell. Forgetting 1984 he is a great essayist.
This is hilarious. I would love to see what you have to say about a few others (not all are authors I particularly like, but I have read something by all): David Sedaris, Amy Tan, Carl Hiaasen, P.G. Wodehouse, Graham Hancock, and Paul Theroux.
Also, I agree with previous statements that: 1) the Austen/Brontes one is a bit off. I love all of them (well, maybe not Anne), but I have never tried making out with another woman in university. Although maybe I’m just a late bloomer and haven’t hit my “phase” yet. 😉 And 2) I can’t speak for all J.K. Rowling readers, but the ones I know tend to be more removed from reality and act like children (not counting those who still are).
Otherwise, I feel this is quite spot on.
I said the same thing about Austen fans. Why would a heteroflexible female give two shits about Mr. Darcy if she has her eye on women? Wouldn’t that be an easier dig at Virginia Woolf?
No James Joyce???
This was hilarious. But I do think the Michael Pollan one is all wrong. Those are the people more likely to pluck the feathers from a live chicken and eat it raw.
I wholly agree with this assessment. Although I would never eat raw chicken. Beef yes, chicken, no.
To say that this made my day would be an understatement. Thank you
I can’t think of a single person who matches any of these. Well okay, except maybe Dan Brown and Jodi Picoult. I think I’d say JK Rowling is the favorite of geeks who think they’re smart.
This is so funny. You are so interesting! People are so predictable. It’s so cool when you stereotype!
Very funny, and for the most part true (in an over the top generalization kind of way). I am going to echo those who said there’s seriously a lack of Vonnegut and John Irving. Especially since I happen to know a lot of people who would say they are their favorite authors. Also Borges and Albert Camus…
And nothing about Douglas Kennedy?
[…] stereotyping people by their favorite author […]
Readers of Lauren Leto’s Blog: People desperately seeking self identification. 🙂
Proust? Philip Pullman? Cormac McCarthy? Salman Rushdie? Ian McEwen? Orson Scott Card? Wally Lamb?
I’m dying to know how to peg these 🙂
And all those people who think their favorite doesn’t match them are just in denial. These are balls-on accurate.
me too, surprised Pullman isn’t there tbh, lol
Card all the way. Ender and Bean are my heroes along with George Bailey.
So what kind of loser does that make me. 8)
[…] a comment Go to comments I have a girlcrush. On Lauren Leto. Most specifically because of her Readers by Authors series. She’s constantly doing updates (like one just this morning with my favorite author on […]
Lauren Leto is hilarious. I’m honored to be included. Even if she did put an R in my last name.
Emily Giffin
ps Good luck to all the single women out there when they give their boyfriends a holiday ultimatum!
I just died. Honored! Thank you! Fixed it already, I can’t believe I did that!
A few hit too close to home, but more often than not, I laughed out loud. One thing: please correct the typo in Emily Giffin’s name. Unless there is also a less well-known novelist named Emily Griffin.
I like cream cheese….but then again I don’t like everything Cormac McCarthy writes.
Also, thanks to you I will now give Murakami a try and I will not read Thomas Aquinas or Ayelet Waldmen ( The first one alone may have saved a month of my time.) Thank you so much Evil Genius.
I had no idea that reading Palahniuk could make me illiterate. If I had, I never would have picked up Choke. FML.
Most of this is accurate and brilliant. As an Ellis fan, I’m also a fan of Fighting Foo, so alrighty then. I agree with Mike a bit, though – Invisible Monsters is a rather brilliant book, as is Survivor.
Suggested change for Palahniuk fans:
Boys who still pretend that they are their own Tyler Durden.
I agree with Byrd’s suggestion. I often pretend that I am my own Tyler Durden. Just ask any of the people I was drinking with this weekend… it wasn’t pretty.
I totally agree with this Palahniuk assessment. My ex-husband TOTALLY lives up to this description! 🙂
I’m just amazed that there exists a non-Japanese female who read Haruki Murakami. Ever read any Ryu Murakami?
Just a question, though: If a man read Dostoevsky and Thomas Aquinas would he be a premature ejaculator that you’d want to go to bed with? There are other permutations even more horrible than that one, but I shudder to think…
Dostoevsky and Tucker Max (both of which I’ve read, one of which I will admit to reading in public). Call me.
I love Murakami (Haruki) and turned my cousin on to his works.
I’d like to think Lauren’s assessment is true!
“I’m just amazed that there exists a non-Japanese female who read Haruki Murakami.”
yeah, we’re out here.
and there may also be people out here, too, who read Nabokov and aren’t men. gasp.
Brava!
Same with the Russian authors.
[…] This is brilliant, and hilarious. My faves: […]
I read Dostoevsky and Murakami and Dostoevsky is definitely the better of the two big Russian greats.
I don’t understand the Austen/BrontË thing. Virginia Woolf was lesbian, not Austen nor the Brontë sisters.
Eh, sort of witty, except for John Grisham’s. I would’ve written “crypto-Republican soccer moms,” but you decided to be a RACIST. Kudos!
Hmm, I can’t say I think any of these is accurate, and some, for example JK Rowling, are, in my opinion, plain wrong.
Well, maybe the author meant to portray what she thinks when she sees someone reading a book, and it might work in that way, but only in a very individual level!
Dashiell Hammett: Skinny male college poets who think they’re too hip to read Hemingway. Do Anais Nin librarians graduate to Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan, or People magazine?
I think they graduate to Erica Jong, then give up and read a lot of gardening books.
I worked for Dave Eggars in high school and am now in the third coolest frat of my private college. I can say a few of these are fairly accurate.
[…] Lauren Leto lists readers by author–some noteworthy chuckles: J.D. Salinger Kids who don’t fit in […]
I am looking into Tucker Max. Does he propose a stronger argument than, “We can get real drunk!”
[…] can’t read. Or think.Jonathan Safran Foer30somethings who were cool when they were 20something.Read the full listPhoto: What does liking Margaret Atwood say about you? (Fred […]
Outstanding!
This is frickin’ genius. I think Atwood might be my favourite.
All this and no Kurt Vonnegut?
he is on the list genius
please read to bottom
I AM PASSING KIDNEY STONES
SO OBLIGE ME!
what about Updike
and james joyce?
kv?
proust
roth
..
this is “stereotyping” so i suppose each person sterotypes a certain way.and age/gender
i find this a bit sexist. 🙂 meaning i am a female who read mostly books males would have read: [i gues who knows anymore- i am old school]
only because of my father. [maybe this can help freak/terry gilliamize? your stereotyping out a bit? but its your cool site. gr8 idea!]
..
kafka?
hunter s. thompson/ no way. total fail[i am copying that vernacular from children now]
on that. but i.ve been reading him since child.
[i am 38] i have only suddenly seen a “fad” of HST fans appear since depp movie came out and they are just now seeing it: and then documentery came out and latest book. sort of like people not really understanding who annie veibovitz is or what she did in tandum with hunter. how their styles were the same[in the middle if it:[. sorry. i talk too much. hence the name my dad gave me.
but i didn.t talk for 30 some years so i am making up for it.
don marquis?
ts elliot?
keirkigaard? [sp?]
WHOEVER WROTE THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK!
[just call that person ANARCHIST!]—-that would be super funny ha!
[like think of all the books that used to be banned but now they are all “glossy and photoshoppy at barnes and noble!] [soon A. COOKBOOK will show up]
it used to be no doors of perception OR heaven and hell/ so the stereo typing is on a generation/ and the stereotyping is coming froma geneation.[you: but you might be my age i do not know]
…
fail on salinger. you cant use cliff notes to stereo type. 🙂
also some of us were catcher’s in the rye. [really cared] if that’s the book yer using to stereotype off of. the glass family is much more basis to stereo type.
“suicidal zen epiphanies of their own imagination who are parranoid that the world is conspiring to make them happy” [? did i do okay?]
You mentioned Neil Gaiman but didn’t give him a stereotypical reader!! ACK.
THis is more Stephenie Meyer fans:
Lonely teenage girls or mothers with cheatiung husbands.
ANyways, keep them going. Try Rick RIordan and Garth Nix
A lot of these are funny, but I confess that I’m mystified by the David Mitchell entry. The only people I know who like Mitchell are dudes, and most of the girls I know who have read him don’t really dig.
Great list: I don’t agree with all of your.. epithets, but it was an enjoyable read. I’m sure one could learn a lot about a person by reading their version of this list.
Murakami Ryu is awesome… but definitely too easy. Irvine Welsh? Philip K Dick? Anne Carson? I could make my own suggestions for all of these! Also what about the ‘other Russians’ Chekov and Pushkin?
Vonnegut: People who say they also love Mark Twain, but have only read Tom Sawyer.
PLEASE REFER TO DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
[…] papier sur les séries, when TV became art – the how i met your mother shame index – readers by author – mon nouveau fond d’écran, le geek diagram. Sskizo / Nora.© Thought Mechanics […]
I didn’t know anyone knew what a PTCD major WAS outside of my college! Oh, Alexis de Tocqueville.
International Relations majors read him too!
Sorry chica, I did go to your college. I was a PTCD major. HAHA
I like Nabokov and Klosterman and I’m female I think I may be a lesbian…
I use conditioner. I just hate that two in one stuff. And that damn Pennywise is probably the cause of me not lliking clowns. He’s just scary. What a fun list.
And where is Terry Pratchett on that list? And as a fan of Alice Sebold I tell you that I have watched, in all my eighton years, not a single episode of Gilmore Girls in it’s entirety.
The person responsible for this list doesn’t know shit.
You missed Kurt Vonnegut an’ made me all sad n’stuff.
No stereotype for readers of Bukowski?
“Guys for whom whiskey dick is a blessing.”
what a riot
most i agree with, but all of it is funny
for your consideration…
angela carter
evelyn waugh
v.s. naipaul
zadie smith
michael ondantje
This is fantastic.
I know you’ve had a lot of requests, but….
Carl Sagan?
Milan Kundera?
I’m going to join the masses and say: VONNEGUT.
I’m very curious…
Also, Asimov?
Oh, so many missing
Philip K. Dick
The people who wondered if the government can read your thoughts through walls.
Jon Ronson
The people who think the government will walk through walls to steal your thoughts.
Carl Sagan
Spaced out hippy who thinks the Universe is like, whoa man! far out!
Terry Pratchett
Obnoxious smartarses who footnote your every conversational comment with a witty quip that makes you look stupid.
How’s about:
The Marquis De Sade?
Closet Devil Worshippers with underachieving equipment.
Dante Alighieri
Jesuits; scarred, or scared, for life
Hugh Heffner
Honestly, I just subscribe for the articles.
Stephen Hawking
Trekkies! Be thankful you can outrun the electric wheelchair of doom!
Margaret Atwood – Hunter green and I am so so so guilty. Spot on. Scarily so. I’m afraid of you now.
[…] Judging readers by their favourite authors (very funny, and found at The Afterword) […]
[…] explain both the title of this post and the comment below it, I present Readers by Author, which offers stereotypes of people based on whom they list as their favorite author. Brilliant, […]
[…] You are what you read By J So, according to this list, I: […]
What about Richard Brautigan?
-R
haha, yeah, I wondered that myself.
[…] of all, this list of stereotyping people by their favourite author. What does your favourite author say about you? […]
Very accurate, though I think I need to broaden my horizons a bit, perhaps start delving into Tolstoy…
Anywho, classical authors? No Dante Alighieri or Geoffrey Chaucer up there. Not even Homer! Nothing for us high school dorks that wish we were heroes.
you forgot to add one more
Lauren Leto
Sad people with no excitement in their life.
Dawkins and Hitchens are two of my faves – your Dawkins assessment being spot-on, of course.
Here’s hoping you’ll get around to adding Robert Jordan, Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow, and Henry James at some point . . .
Mine is Lovecraft but I don’t watch Simpsons… and have been a bigger comic book nerd back in the day.
Dawkins was my favorite, so utterly true! 😀
How funny for so many readers to take these so literally and so personally, even taking the time to defend their alignment with each cliche. Dubious. Tenacity.
Awesomeness! This was superb!
I’d like to see you classify Paulo Coelho. I am a Tolstoy myself.
Yeah, I’d also like to see how you would classify Coelho. 🙂
what about readers of Lauren Leto?
Ah, meta-stereotyping. Very current, I guess.
for those who disagreed with the hunter s. thompson, i KNEW a guy with the tattoo!
Fantastic list, far too true for comfort. What are your thought on Charlaine Harris and Gregory Maguire?
My two favourite authors: Dostoyevsky and Tolstoi. I think we should meet…
http://www.teamsikorski.com/2009/12/judging-people-by-their-favorite.html
Linked to ya. Thank you for the shockingly accurate judgement.
“John Irving
People whose parents are divorced.”
HAH, this explains my introduction and fascination with his books almost IMMEDIATELY after my parents split. This list is fantastic.
I am surprised, as many are, that Terry Pratchett/Philip Pullman isn’t on there though…
Philip Pullman: People who still don’t believe Aslan exists, even after reading the entire Narnia series.
Or, “people who are sensitive to hypocrisy.” Both the Chronicles of Narnia and the Bible are works of fictions, after all… Besides, Lauren Leto’s favorable stereotypes for Hitchens and Dawkins wouldn’t agree with your propaganda.
Kudos for Murakami! None of my friends have ever heard of him. 😦
I love his work and like to think I have good taste in music.
I like Margaret Atwood but not the color hunter green. Maybe I just haven’t read enough of her stuff yet to convert…
And I would also like to see Joyce Carol Oats and Flannery O’Conner on here!
[…] December 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment Lauren Leto sums up the reading public. […]
[…] Readers by Author « Lauren Leto […]
[…] when the Metro flagged up a blogger wittily Stereotyping People by their Favourite Authors, I couldn’t help but check it out. She makes some good points […]
HI. I read Tosltoy and Dostoyevsky the most. Have never read a sentence written by Rowling. I obsess with Nin and appreciate Woolf. I read Poe at night to feel better.
According to you I am female librarian high-school french teacher with a master’s who you’d like to date and sleep with – even if it is in my parent’s basement.
😉 I think this ‘thought experiment’ forgets that some of us will read it all, must read it all. It is a disease.
Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Ha, Thomas Aquinas.
No representation for science fiction nerds?!?! Heinlein deserves a spot up there.
You’re expecting to find Heinlein? Do you often pick up People magazine to get an update on what’s happening at CERN?
haha – here’s one. Mary Karr – read by women who blame everyone else for their screw ups.
Strangely, that sounds about right. I don’t care for her.
Pure genius. I have to get back to work now…
did you have trouble writing the one for gabriel garcia marquez? i’m only familiar with his short stories “strange pilgrims” and 100 years of solitude. i like what you did with twain, are you saying everybody is a mark twain fan? doesn’t everybody lie?
Please classify John le Carre. Be nice.
fabulous. and dead-on, at least for me
(murakami + plath lover)
Yeah, thats pretty correct ^^
(Gorge Orwell)
Wow, this is fantastic. I am now going to start reading certain authors because I like the connotations of doing so. 😀
Also, I am joining the people who insist that Tolkien must be on this list. And Jeremy Clarkson may be an amusing addition…
heh. how tragic: i’m a Dickenser. however, i don’t suppose you’d add Sir Terry Pratchett to that list? i think that might be those who share his sense of humor, or humour, if you prefer.
what about stereotyping people based on their favorite musicians? and you should add Timothy Zahn for nerdy teenage boys with greasy hair but i suppose that’s too easy
Funny but poor Thomas Aquinas was a cleric so he hadn’t had much experience 🙂 Scholasticism with an emphasis on the last part.
So, apparently my darling sweetiekins is terribly offended by the omission of Harlan Ellison. His take, “Harlan Ellison fans are the ones who would be offended by leaving his name off the list.” My take, “Harlan Ellison fans tell you to f**k off when you say have a nice day.”
I update every weekday. I like that take on Harlan Ellison.
Hey! I PLAN on reading Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood! But really I was looking for Tom Wolfe.
[…] first comments written after I wrote my “Readers by Author” post were by people asking me to do a Vonnegut […]
Ah.
Sarah Dessen?
Herman Melville?
Philip Pullman?
Neil Gaiman?
Stephen Chbosky?
Christopher Moore?
Mary Shelley?
Ann Brashares?
Jostein Gaarder?
James Frey?
Shakespeare?
I almost started listing more playwrights and poets, but I figured the list is long enough already.
Needless to say, I LOVE this.
Christopher Moore, yes!
V.C. Andrews: Emotionally abused women and boys who grow up to be gay
Oh hell no.
what about soren kierkegaard?
http://flavorwire.com/57909/stereotyping-people-by-their-favorite-indie-bands
Thanks for the inspiration!
Love it!
[…] Leto (creator and co-founder of the popular Texts From Last Night) wrote a hilarious post on stereotyping people by their favorite author. Here are some of my favorites: J.D. […]
Brilliant list. An old one I heard a while back:
J. R. R. Tolkien
– Guys who have always been curious but never tried it.
You’re missing a lot of Fantasy and Science Fiction authors
Suggested Authors (some from my bookshelf):
Iain M Banks
Iain Banks
Peter F Hamilton
Robin Hobb
Isaac Asimov
Piers Anthony
Terry Pratchett
Anne McCaffrey
Robert Jordan
David Eddings
see terry goodkind most of those fall in to the same category lol
Ha ha ha!
“ARM mortgages” is redundant.
Add in another….
Whatever your favorite author is, “Don’t make lists in alphabetical order.”
Nice list. 🙂
If you like Tolstoy and Dostoyevski and want to try some Russian poetry, look into Pushkin.
Also…let’s see some George R. R. Martin.
Lewis Carroll is almost right–with the addition of underage prostitutes it would be perfect.
What about Douglas Coupland?
I saw no Oscar Wilde or Brothers Grimm/Hans Christian Anderson 😦
But pretty much these are dead on lmao
what about Truman Capote, Franz Kafka, Oscar Wilde and Milan Kundera?
sorry, my bad. found Brothers Grimm. It’s so wrong lol but I found it. Lewis Carrol I think should be changed to girls who are outgrowing their social constraints. Because really, those are the only people who actually understand what’s going on lol
Strongly agree re: Lewis Carroll. Also, girls who consider themselves “whimsical.” (Me.)
Henry James, William Golding, L. Frank Baum??
what about augusten burroughs?
Right, ok, literally millions upon millions of people read J.K. Rowling, sometimes entire classes of schoolkids, and ALL of them are “smart.” Likewise, Ayn Rand is read by “workaholics” and not merely by right-winger child-men. If only such things were true…
Favorite author. Not “author you read once”
Note: ‘school kids’ Rowling is written for school children!
Funny, I run a website somewhat related to writing and from what I’ve noticed about the contributors/commentators, this is all true.
My favorite author is Michio Kaku, though.
People whose favorite word is “limning/limned.”
So funny, but my tattoos are cool.
[…] people are jerky and not always accurate in general. I never really jumped on the bandwagon of stereotyping people based on their tastes in literature, but music? Sign me up! What? It’s pretty much just making fun of everything I don’t […]
[…] Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author. Apparently my favorite author should be Kurt Vonnegut. […]
I haven’t bought a single kindle, let alone the 1st generation. Though that might just be because its functionality is rather limited where I live (as in, the hitchhiker’s guide-like free wiki-access is non-existant).
[…] je pročitao listu Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author (via kottke.org) gdje uz velik broj književnika stoji i mala napomena kakvi su ljudi koji ih vole […]
[…] Leto hat Leser nach Autoren typisiert. Haruki Murakami: People who like good music. William Shakespeare: People who like […]
[…] = 'TreyPeden';Kottke directs us to this list by which you can stereotype people by their favorite author. Of all the mean things that have been and surely will be said of fans of Ayn Rand, this is perhaps […]
I’m not much of a reader, but I think John Kennedy Toole should be on the list, even though he only has 2 published books. I wouldn’t have the slightest idea on how to identify one of his readers though.
People who laugh at pretentious assholes who suffer from delusions of grandeur?
of course, I’m not really being fare to Ignatius here…
Richard Dawkins should be changed to;
People who like to quote popular authors but are not critical enough to realize his theories on religion are laughed out of every University.
Nope. That’s the description for Malcolm Gladwell readers.
Ooh, the theists are angry that someone is devoted to educating the population that there’s no difference between religion and mythology.
WOMEN LIKE NABOKOV 2
FUCK YOU LOSER
Faulkner’s and Nabokov’s stereotypes work better the other way round. And the JK Rowling is way off: smart geeks might have cracked open a Potter or two, but no way in the world would this be their favourite author. Ballard, Burroughs, Pynchon or especially Neal Stephenson are much more likely candidates. Rowling’s true parish (in the UK at least) is women who were especially taken with Grandma’s old Nancy Drews – and who want that feeling back, dammit.
This would make a pretty good after-dinner-party game, depending of course on your dinner party.
Also, no love for Paul Auster?
SOOOO HILARIOUS!!!! thanks for giving me a laugh 😀
I wanted to enjoy the list but I had to stop as soon as I read “ARM mortgages.”
I’m stupid! I don’t own a house.
Don’t justify it. That’s perfect for F. Scott Fitzgerald–especially Gatsby. Sean, don’t take it personally.
The Fyodor Dostoevsky one caught me off guard (I read everything he wrote in college, while studying computers) but I couldn’t stand Leo Tolstoy at all.
So like *wink*.
Please add Italo Calvino to the list 🙂
I echo the aghastness at smart geeks = jkrowling.
Suggest instead something along the lines of (these authors all need adding anyway…):
smart geeks = neal stephenson or william gibson
whimsical geeks = terry pratchett or roald dahl
otherwise fairly spookily accurate 🙂
jkrowling is a tough one. When an author has sold THAT MANY books, which are children’s books, but loved by adults as well, which cut across country, ethnicity, and educational lines as well, it’s hard to stereotype people who would call her their favorite. My offhand try might be: Pretension-hating geeks. See also anti-hipster geeks.
OMG that is so much better. Or self-depracating geeks.
Aw, I like it, and it absolutely describes the people I know who are in love with the books! (The midnight premiers have surprisingly fabulous people– mostly the kids who grew up with Harry Potter since now we’re old enough to stay up past ten, haha.)
I disagree about the ‘to kill a mockingbird’ thing–my mother loves this book and she is a big southern lit fan and she grew up in a similar way… so I would say ‘literary southerners who love southern literature’ 😉
[…] reading – Blogger Lauren Leto has a very creative post “Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author… one that i very much wish I wrote. One day soon I hope this writing funk will fade and i will […]
Victor Hugo?
What about V.S. Naipaul? The man is embittered, but his writing is awesome. And I love Virginia Woolf, though I’m not female, do not know French, am not a teacher, and have not gotten a master’s degree (though I’m in the process of acquiring one). The Nabokov reference was right on, along with the Twain one!
this shit is terrible
Great list. Though I think you did go too easy for the Rowling one. I’d say “People who may or may not read Rowling’s next Harry Potter book.”
Also for Chabon: “Comic fans who pretend they regularly read novels”
Oops. I mean “People who may or may not read Rowling’s first Non-Harry Potter book”.
Where is my Oscar Wilde? Might be too easy…
This is fantastic. Any thoughts on Somerset Maugham?
I looked for Maugham too… Maybe he would fall into some “woman hating” category.
Maugham was gay. There is strong speculation that the real-life Mildred Rogers was a man.
In any case, Maugham seemed to strongly believe that the flesh was perpetually at odds with a greater nobility of the spirit. So there is a lot more at work here than the simplistic label of “woman-hating.”
Pretty funny. How about Richard Powers fans?
[…] Stereotyping people by favorite authors – In our Reading Ahead research, we heard about how people were both exploring and communicating identity through their choices of reading material. Identity is a complex internal and external mechanism, where we (explicitly or implicitly) project outwards to imagine how we might appear to others…an internal act that feels or draws from the external. So the existence of lists like this, while tongue-in-cheek, validate that this process is real. (via @kottke) […]
I’m sure this is a great list but I didn’t have time to read it. Too busy reading Dostoevsky.
if you’re taking requests: zadie smith? joan didion?
I think the Dawkins one may be my fave!
Put me under the Smart Geeks category. Have read everything from the Rowling stable 🙂
Love it, just wish there was something about the women who like Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Amen.
I don’t think he can be your favorite author if you’re a woman.
[…] 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment Lauren Leto recently stereotyped readers by their favorite author in a lovely list on her blog, and it’s about as snarky and judgmental as such a list should […]
I’m upset. Chuck Palahniuk being my favorite does not make me a male. And I can read. But I do know some male fans that fit this stereotype 😉
Haha. What about Kingsley Amis, Evelyn Waugh, T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land is one of my most memorable reads), Ezra Pound, and Sir Walter Scott? Also Brian Jacques (Redwall).
I don’t drink Old Fashioneds, but do think Conrad is awesome.
Thanks for this! You are too cool!
[…] People by Their Favourite Philosopher 23 12 2009 Continuing in the spirit of recent helpful stereotyping efforts, I contribute […]
John Banville
Didactic auto-didacts.
or…
Uxurious men?
Make that: men who wouldn’t piss-spell uxorious!!
Ooh…. do me! Raymond Carver.
I am a woman and i like Dostoevsky, what does that make me
I agree with the list thats so true, I like Marquez, and im pretty much like your description.
i just want to know your take on Honore de Balzac,
have a nice christmas.
[…] Lauren Leto har laget en liste over hvem du er ifølge hvilken yndlingsforfatter. Mye skjære-alle-over-én-kam-moro her. Finner du din? […]
“Richard Dawkins
People who have their significant other grab them under the table in order to shut them up whenever someone else at a dinner says something absolutely ridiculous and wrong.”
Fucking priceless 🙂 You’ve hit it on the head in my case 🙂
I like yr list.
How about Flann O’Brien? I’m thinking “People who might try to slip arsenic into your drink – but only to see what would happen.”
Fantastic list, but I think the Chabon item was tops. To hear any interview with her, Ayelet Waldman’s entire life is defined by being Mrs. Michael Chabon. The kicker was her comment to the effect that she could survive losing her kids — all of them — but not her husband. Super-creepy.
Nicely done. This list is genius. I’ll try to think of one for Julian Barnes.
What of Elmore Leonard fans?
[…] wurde das ganze von einem Artikel, den ich noch lustiger fand: Was der Lieblingsautor ueber jemanden aussagt. Einen einzigen Lieblingsautoren habe ich nicht, aber wenn man das aufteilt, sollte ich wohl ein […]
[…] Complete list here. […]
Ha! This was hilarious!
List was somewhat dece. What about Milan Kundera? He’s my favorite…
[…] Leto lists the stereotypical readers based on their favorite authors. Some of them are fairly […]
Another second for Tom Robbins. I think I’m tied for favorites between him and Dostoyevsky. A rather odd combination, I admit. (That in itself may speak volumes …)
What about:
Neil Gaiman
Robin Mckinley
Nagaru Tanigawa
my faves!
ahhh! my soulmate!
the bret easton ellis one kind of makes no sense. foo fighters? to mainstream and contemporary. i would say new order, or something of the sort.
*too
[…] From the original list: […]
please do one for tom wolfe!
[…] [more@source] Related Posts:Bijli & Sadak 'OK', but Paani?On the way…Luxary Home : You can own, if asylum seekerProposal with immediate effectSuicide! No way, this's not done Share and Enjoy: […]
I studied philosophy at university and I can confirm that somebody in my class had a stupid Gonzo tattoo.
Camus, Dawkins, Nietzsche and Dostojevski,
but only because Saul Bellow is not on this list…
How is this possible?
Give me one for Malcolm Gladwell
Also, I LOLed at Thomas Aquinas
That would be absolutely true if I had a significant other. Maybe people would like me better… >.>
Wait, never mind. I love arguing at mealtimes and my friends still love me for it. I think I shall remain single.
J.K. Rowling? Smart Geeks?
Not a chance. You might really enjoy her books, but they are at 5th grade level at best.
J.K. Rowling is for people who aren’t smart enough to read Tolkien or even Robert Jordan.
Don’t be pretentious. I know hardcore Rowling fans who actually read Tolkien in 5th grade.
You pretentious little prick. Harry Potter may not be high literature, but it’s certainly a multi-layered and immersing story with fully-fledged characters, a plot you can care about, and yes, even motifs and symbolism. It’s also a lot of fun to read.
By the way, I read Tolkein in 4th grade, so suck it. And you know what the best part is? I still think Rowling is a better storyteller.
Agree.
yes, that proves your literacy
Just checked the P-list—No, none of us were fans of J. D. Salinger in High School. But we still don’t fit in.
what about bukowski!
[…] Readers by Author « Lauren Leto (tags: blog funny blogs humor culture writing books people authors author reading list lol haha) […]
I read that entire list waiting for Bukowski 😦
Would be more fun if the list were alphabetized :o)
Haha, love it. No Chekov or Steinbeck, but that’s cool, you can’t get everyone.
I was surprised not to see Raymond Carver who is clearly for those who are in their first creative writing class at a community college.
sophie kinsella!!!
I have to admit, I don’t understand the Ray Bradbury stereotype. He’s my favorite author, and…well, where does golfing come into play?
This makes me realize how many potentially great authors there are that I haven’t read. Now I feel I’ll be inclined to check them out based on their reader stereotypes.
John Updike. Guys who were good at sports in high school only to realize as a grown up that they have no marketable skill.
Jon Krakauer – People who need a pat on the back for being purposely distant.
pure greatness
So if I’m a girl, and I love Dostoevsky, what does that say about me?
You’re not a girl.
Sorry.
I find this list amusing. Haven’t read most of the authors’ works on this list, so it’ll be interesting to run their names through Google or Amazon. Ingenious list though!!!
John Kennedy Toole, definately. for People who love the name “Ignatius”.
HAHAHH!! This list is fantastic!
I do love Salman Rushdie…and yes, I have google image searched Padma Lakshmi…but during the day..
[…] a comment » After seeing this delightful post stereotyping readers by author, I had to get in on the […]
[…] Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author/Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Indie Bands […]
you seem incredibly arrogant and pretentious.
No, check the list– you’re probably thinking of Swanwick and Thompson fans. Easy mistake.
Agree with all of them, except for J.K Rowling. Smart Geeks actually read good books. ZING. But no, really, 11 year olds and basement dwellers read Harry Potter.
Really? You want to sleep with me?
Tom Wolfe is clearly for people who wish they had a stylish white coat.
Richard Price
Irvine Welsh
John Kennedy Toole
Philip Roth
I am enjoying this
I thought this was a joke but after I took care of my dying grandparents, two years ago, I read Jorge Louis Borges.
This is great!
You’ve got a few of my favorites on here:
Richard Dawkins
Christopher Hitchens (actually just took a small break from reading God is Not Great to read this list)
J.K. Rowling
Douglas Adams
All of them, you were spot on!
[…] Lauren Leto stereotypes people by their favorite authors. “Jeffrey Eugenides: Girls who didn’t get enough drama when they were younger. Lauren […]
This seems rather silly…none of these stereotypes really even come close to matching reality, or are so forced that they’re not really funny. And I enjoy stereotyping quite a bit.
[…] December 24, 2009 at 6:38 am (To Do) (Book Talk) Thanks to Kottke.org for this list that Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author […]
[…] While I don’t condone stereotyping, this post about stereotyping by one’s favorite author is pretty funny. […]
Jeanette Winterson?
I think it would be more accurate to say about David Foster Wallace fans, that it’s people who think they are much smarter than they actually are, or people who want to appear much smarter than they actually are.
Hawthorne: Yep.
[…] 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People by Their Favourite Author” was quite more amusing than Flavorwire’s equivalent for indie bands (like, OK, I get […]
Hahaha great list! Totally laughed at the Jodi Picoult and Nicholas Sparks ones. I also recommend adding “females with an extended vocabulary of synonyms for ‘shiny’, but otherwise a shorter than average vocabulary”, but it seems too verbose.
Lastly, where are Neil Gaiman and Oscar Wilde???
No Steinbeck? c’mon
Not true of Nabokovians. Our favorite words are “penumbra” and “synesthete.”
I love Nick Hornby, and I am a girl who wears skinny jeans and I love other girls. So you almost had it right 🙂
You described the most devout Toni Morrison fan I know 100%. On the other hand, I feel like the description for Virginia Woolf might suit Proust better.
I love this list! I’m a Murakami reader and I think I do have one of the most well-edited iPod playlists where I come from. This made my day. Happy holidays!
[…] 12/25/2009 Karen Leave a comment Go to comments Lauren Leto stereotyped people by their favorite authors, and apparently I am the kind of person who really likes monkeys because I like Terry Pratchett. […]
Yeah, i’d love an explanation for that one 😛
I LEIK TOLSTOI & IM A GURL
SO THIS IS WRONG
YOU SHOULD CHANGE It
jk this was funny!
ms. leto,
wonderful list. as a fellow michigander, you went to james madison, didn’t you? tocqueville was a dead giveaway =)
love from sweden, this was so fun.
though smart geeks don’t like harry potter, that’s for kids and people in their early sixties (my dad and his wife). Gibson maybe (or Gaiman or Coupland.. Aisimov?).
plz, do Greene, that’s lying wankers like me
Ms(?)Leto your list is beautiful but this was so funny
” Larian LeQuella said, on December 21, 2009 at 5:13 pm Brilliant list. An old one I heard a while back:
J. R. R. Tolkien
– Guys who have always been curious but never tried it.”
Dude. YOU made textsfromlastnight?! Comment-jacking here, but tfln is possibly the greatest website in the WORLD. ❤
That’s how I decided the list stereotypes were legit, haha.
[…] a witty blog entry by Lauren Leto that stereotypes readers by authors they like. A few authors I like made the […]
hilarious!!
You left out NOAM CHOMSKY!
no paul coelho? i was disappointed 😀
i update every weekday.
Paulo Coelho:
People who think farting in a dark room full of smelling candles is a great transcendental experience.
My favorite author is D. H. Lawrence. Tentative suggestion: Girls who smoke joints before sex?
[…] from The Fall, VVORK supplies the sludge, Spencer Ackerman talks beautifully about Guantanamo Bay, Lauren Leto stereotypes people by their favorite authors (a favorite: Thomas Aquinas – Premature […]
This is brilliant. I highlighted this on my blog.
One question though… my fav is P.G. Wodehouse – what does that say about me?
Little late to the post but what about Melville, Annie Dillard, or Frederick Buechner?
I shouldn’t tell this… I am Dostoievsky, but you can call me Tolstoy.
What about Oscar Wilde or Balzac, maybe (bleaaargh) Gunther Grass?
(merry christmas!)
[…] tais considerações, a blogueira Lauren Leto publicou um post chamado “Readers by Author”, que fez algum sucesso na blogosfera, descrevendo de forma impiedosa os leitores […]
This was a great idea but executed poorly.
Do it better! I think it’s fascinating regardless of execution, and I’d legitimately like to read other peoples’.
[…] Stereotyping people by their favourite author (according to Lauren […]
italo svevo: who? tell me who i am, im lost
georges perec? I must be totally out of this world!
[…] quick read of the evening: Readers by Author – Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author, from Lauren Leto’s […]
[…] your favorite authors define you… how did you do? « Previous Post […]
Hilarious! I read (and enjoy) too many from the list to fit in one catagory – but it was still a funny read.
How about John Fowles and Roald Dahl?…
how about ann patchett, eh?
You are who you are. Appreciate your respect for what you read. Do not ask a judgemental world to pass judgement on you. Do not encourage the folly.
The UTTER FOLLY.
Is it possible I know how to perform a Michigan left without knowing what it is?
I’m sorry, but this is utter folly. Your stereotyping is totally based off your interpretation of an author. This is about as low as stereotyping–an already dubious practice–can go.
this list is wonderful!
Love to know what you think about people who read Jodi Picoult
Would love to hear Victor Hugo, he is my absolute favorite! Also, Oscar Wilde?
So I am a gal who likes Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, AND Austen+Brontes which seems to say that I am lesbian according to this list, but I am most definitely not! Hehe.
I think I’m going to use this list to find new authors to read by looking at their stereotypes!
P.S.: my boyfriend loves Kafka – would be interested to see what he would be.
Haha, the Austen thing was right on for me!
[…] People By Their Favorite Author Lauren Leto explains how knowing people’s favorite author is a great way to stereotype them. Below are some […]
I’m sorry, KV is my favorite author, and I hate Radiohead. Sooooo…….yeah.
I really didn’t think many of these were very spot on. For example, the Bronte sisters should be read by 30 year old virgins. But hell, Twilight is just the Wuthering Heights of our time.
Beautiful, girl. Your evil is beautiful. You pegged me on the David Foster Wallace, I hate John Irving while my friends of broken homes love him, and my hippie cousin who lives on Martha’s Vineyard with outdoor showers leaves Anne Rice books around her house! My only exception is that you should switch the Shakespeare and Mark Twain stereotype. Anyone who doesn’t LOVE Connecticut Yankee or The Mysterious Stranger is lying.
You forgot Edward Abbey.
Or maybe you never knew him. You may continue wasting your lives in the aisles of crate and barrel.
David Sedaris, Tom Robbins, John Steinbeck and Sarah Vowell
On a side note my roommate loves Hunter S Thompson so much that he has multiple quotes tattooed on his arm and when I read this to him we both laughed a lot.
oh and Edward Abbey.
Requests:
A.S. Byatt
Nadine Gordimer
Pat Barker
Peter Carey
E.M. Forster
Lauren Leto: SMOKING HOT!!!!!!!!
Brilliant! Your blog: straight to bookmarks.
HAhahaha, Joseph Heller. Ive read Catch-22 countless times and Im always the first to order a round of shots, followed by many more rounds of drinks until last call. Spot on!
Carson McCullers: women who, growing up, felt inexplicably drawn to the weirdo on their block. In an innocent way.
yes.
This list is fantastic, but more southern writers please! What about Flannery O’Connor, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Eudora Welty?
Also: Tom Robbins, Alice Munro, Roald Dahl, Jasper Fforde, Neil Gaiman, Maya Angelou, Christopher Moore, Frank McCourt, Helen Fielding, David Sedaris
I am a straight woman and I eat cream cheese and I LOVE Cormac McCarthy. What does this mean?
Is your favorite book “All the Pretty Whorses”?
Looking for Jonathan Lethem, Doris Lessing, Joan Didion?
I am very disappointed that this list does not have every author you have read also.
[…] Una extraña manera de estereotipar a los lectores: completamente arbitraria, pero no por eso menos divertida. La lista completa, acá. […]
Your Thomas Pynchon joke made me laugh out loud, ditto Hemingway. I haven’t read any David Foster Wallace (I’m saving him for when I’m dead, as Julian Barnes once wrote), but lose the apostrophe in that joke. Mistakes like that make the literati bristle. Or make you look stupid because you’re supposed to be widely read. Should we now suspect that you haven’t read most of the authors you listed?
[…] Before you read THIS, you should know that if I were forced to either choose a favorite author or be mock-executed, […]
[…] La lista original: Lauren Leto […]
Terry Goodkind seeks Lauren Weisberger.
fantastic list! bookmarked!
[…] The Virtue of Selfishness – Ayn Rand (Rand has rightly been called the solace of the over-worked. Still, have been bowled over by the little that I have readof this slim […]
Now all the peope is expert!
this is unimaginative
Unimaginative would’ve been
OSCAR WILDE
Gay.
God, thank you. I sent this to everyone in my book club. We’ve read Palahniuk (totally agree), Larsson (guy who picked this shrieks at spiders, so prob correct), McCarthy (meeting for this one is in Jan, I’ll bring something w/cream cheese to test this out), and Murakami (spot on) lately. Murakami was my pick, and everyone hated it. Thanks for validating me, Lauren Leto!
Yeah, like I’ve read ALL of them. Plus a million.
[…] is an amusing read: Readers by Author. Speaking of music (see Readers by Author > Murakami), I own two albums and have heard of five […]
A lot of good stereotypes but the Kerouac one is way, way off.
see: Jawbreaker, Banner Pilot, Lawrence Arms, or other lyric-s based artists, not a progressive improv jam band.
I’m sure a lot of guys are going to change their reading lists to Tolstoy after this! Beware!
[…] Πολύ αστείο και ευφυές. Ενίοτε και άστοχο. Jeffrey Eugenides […]
Nice list. Jeffrey Eugenides was mine, but the opposite of the stereotype is true for me. Regardless, nice list. 🙂
This list was tweeted by Alyssa Milano. I loved “Who’s The Boss” as a kid. How about stereotyping people by TV shows? 🙂
All I have to say in response–
“The Virgin Suicides”
Naturally, although I haven’t met you, I’m now reading Fyodor Dostoevsky…
Firstly shocked that Arthur C. Clarke not among listing
Secondly I am not among the listing, oh yeah, because I am not YET famous, oh there is a famous JOHN HARVEY, its just not me, and quite frankly he’s preventing me by taking up the first 16 pages of Amazon for our name.
He writes crime, I write comedy, political intrigue, romance, scifi, crime, and considering fantasy for young adults. The last 4 under nom de plumes so I avoid that whole 16 page problem.
What is that of doctor that went to medical school in the DR! I’m Dominican and medical school here is actually excelent. I find your comment insulting.
I know it is – my doctor went there 🙂
[…] The Virtue of Selfishness – Ayn Rand: Rand has rightly been called the solace of the over-worked. Still, have been bowled over by the little that I have read of this slim […]
Do you have anything on Laurel K. Hamilton fans?
Happy New Year.
Ha! This is BRILLIANT!
Confirmed 90’s literati?? I’m hoping it’s just a typo, and that you really understand the difference between ’90s and 90’s.
Nice Catch-22 reference. My book collection turned up a large number of works by the following authors:
Chuck Palahniuk
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Christopher Buckley
Ayn Rand
William Shakespeare
Ernest Hemingway
Lewis Carroll
Kurt Vonnegut
I am really confused as to what this says about me.
Tucker Max gets points for his childish narcissism.
So The Brothers Karamazov is my favourite book of all time.
Your place or mine?
I agree with everyone who suggested Flannery!
People who like peacocks?
Naguib Mahfouz – People who have no understanding of the English language.
“Confirmed 90’s literati?? I’m hoping it’s just a typo, and that you really understand the difference between ’90s and 90’s.”
I said the same thing and got no reply. I fucking hate blogs. And the bloggers who run them. And the blogosphere they all think matters.
It clearly matters enough for you to comment on it.
Unless you were being ironic and I’m too tired to spot it, in which case I refuse to apologise out of exhaustion and stubbornness.
this was bloody brilliant!
J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and Tom Robbins, please!
So Rowling, Hemingway, and Orwell are my current favorites, that means….oh crap! Unabomber!
[…] a more casual note, Lauren Leto has analyzed readers by their favorite authors and posted this exhaustive list for those of you too lazy to do it yourselves. Are you on it? I […]
wow, what a bunch of bs.
How in the world do you draw these conclusions? Please e-mail me and let me know. I want to know how you got the F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce ones, because I don’t understand in the least. Also, I am an Honours English student and read constantly and I’m a devoted Klosterman fan. Why do you propose Klosterman enthusiasts cannot read? Some of these are witty, but so many of them seem to draw on nothing whatsoever.
They’re jokes.
F. Scott Fitzgerald–
His characters have a serious case of class-envy and ultimately do everything in their power to become a part of the elite class–think of summering in the Hamptons. Hence, adjustable rate mortgages.
forgot to add, then they FAIL big time.
Lauren,
Would you be able to do David Sedaris?
[…] Kottke of Kottke.org posted about Lauren Leto’s nerdy, bookish post Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author in December and it’s too good to not share […]
[…] Can you stereotype people by what they read? […]
If you like Notes from the Underground, I think you might like this blog post I wrote: http://marquisgrissom.blogspot.com/2009/10/21st-century-sex-diary-of-narrator-of.html
What about Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake, The Interpreter of Maladies, An Unaccustomed Earth)? I’m curious. And I love F. Scott Fitzgerald and I can’t even begin to think about affording a house….
That’s easy… children of immigrants.
Any thoughts on Alexandre Dumas?
Apparently you want to sleep with my husband.
What of Joan Didion, Raymond Carver and Henry Miller?
[…] by Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author,” we realized the incredible potential for a mercilessly judgmental list of indie band […]
[…] is in large part due to being scatterbrained and having a regressing attention span. When I found Lauren Leto’s post “Readers by Author” I figured I might be able to find a few new authors; instead, I got a good laugh at what type of […]
additions required for T.S Eliot and Walt Whitman!
This is very witty. Except I must disagree with you when it come to Chuck Palahniuk. I loved Fight Club, and I took AP English in High School.
Oh, and by the way, I like reading Tolstoy.
You’re still a boy with a sense of inadequacy to think AP English matters to anyone here.
Pretty please do Steinbeck, Chekhov, or Guy de Maupassant for me! I need a stereotype!
This list is already brilliant though, the Shakespeare one especially.
I’d love to see an update with both Pat Conroy and Neil Gaiman.
I *actually* laughed out loud when I read the Dan Brown one! I’m putting in my requests for: William Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, Elizabeth Hand and Geoff Ryman.
[…] Read more… Tags: bloggers, books […]
[…] I stole/appropriated this idea from Lauren Leto’s Readers by Author. […]
funny list.. didn’t read all the posts so maybe these were already suggested, but….
Philip K. Dick
T.S. Elliot
Annie Proulx
Robert Frost
Bill Bryson
Lewis Hyde
William Blake
David Sedaris
few problems w/ the list. sommeliers read Nietzsche? that’s the best you can do. what about- teenage boys that think increasing the number of push-ups they can do is “existentially fulfilling”. but your the humorist, i guess. Also, Chirstopher Hitchens is “people i’d love to hang out with”? fucking gross
I thought about this post when I was browsing at the bookstore today. You what I really need? An algorithm to help me figure out who to read in the new decade. Like, if you used to read VS Naipaul, now you read….”
Looks like I’ve got a new pickup line!
“Hey, baby. One of my favorite books is Notes from Underground and I identified fairly strongly with the protagonist.”
Try to resist it.
Amazing! But I didn’t see Dorothy Parker. double 😦
dear lauren leto,
people like you are dousche bags. get a life.
love, christina
i think you mean “douche bag”.
That’s a tad rude. This site is all in good fun. I hope you didn’t take anything personally; I’m sure I have much more cause for anger since Lauren labeled me an illiterate, drug-abusing, workaholic pervert.
The only REAL douchebags are the guys who are trying to use book-related pickup lines on a blog.
20,000 points for sean
Thank you for the points.
Start a charity devoted to improving literacy rates in developing nations and I’ll donate those points to it (or a douchebag-eradication charity; your choice).
For now, they will sit in an escrow account.
Stellar idea!
…Stephenie Meyers fan? or maybe Sparks?
[…] rapid succession, I received two emails updating me on recent comments to a blog post that I had commented on. The blog post was a fairly comical inventory to stereotypes of readers […]
I will add to the requests for Tom Robbins and Robin McKinley.
[…] via Falstaff and Lauren Leto […]
holy shit.
it’s like you never go outside & actually have human interaction.
this list is completely incorrect in so many ways.
the only ones i can remember to say off the top of my head without it exploding with anger are:
salman rushdie readers don’t give a F about padma. stop watching so much bravo.
george orwell didn’t just write conspiracy literature. stop watching so much john stewart.
holy shit holy shit.
i want to pour acid in my ears to dissolve my own brain after reading this.
i bet you are the kind of female who reads harry potter AND sees the movies AND can justify it with some sort of bullshit about never growing up & always needing a world to escape to. and i bet you a million dollars the girl who compiled this list reads jodi picoult. we all know picoult fans are anyone between the ages of 16-50 who has a vagina and thinks pornography is demeaning to women.
i’m melting. meeeeeellllllltttttiiiiiiiinnnnnngggggggg.
Did you really make your name a Sarah Palin quote?
pwnd.
totally agree about dostoyevsky vs. tolstoy
While a couple of these are almost funny and it’s an interesting idea that might work provided you put some more effort into this, most of it was pretty much garbage.
First – Rowling for “smart geeks?” How do you figure? Maybe if they’re smart for fifth graders.
Huxley and Orwell are for conspiracy theorists? Camus for art school dropouts [an absolute miss]? And Hemingway… Men who own cottages? These are the stand-out losers, but most of these seem arbitrarily picked, likely premised on anecdotal observations. Hence, your desire to want to have sex with anyone who reads Dostoyevsky…
… were I a betting man, I’d wager there’s some sort of ex you’re still clinging to who idolized Fyodor based on an undergraduate literature course.
😉
Though, in fairness, this one did make me chuckle:
Chuck Palahniuk
Boys who can’t read.
😉
Thanks for a bit of entertainment. Hope you continue working on it.
What about Joyce Carol Oates, just saying…
“Girls too awkward to make the sorority.”
funny because it’s true. My favorite on this list is Margaret Atwood and I wear a LOT of hunter green! 🙂
[…] a particularly inspired bit of stereotyping that was bouncing around the internets a bit ago: people stereotyped by their favorite authors (via). As someone who can and does read this was right up my alley so I was curious as to how I […]
lauren: love your site & tweets !!! curious & nervous what a “tom robbins” reader is to be ? and john kennedy toole ? look forward to your updates .
i don’t quite agree. i don’t watch simpsons and know i can’t quote it. but i am in love with H.P. Lovecraft
Hi[:
I don’t usually comment on things like this especially since I’m only 15 but, I had to. This was one of the best things I’ve ever read, like EVER. I’ve only read stories from about 15 of the authors but the ones i did know were very funny. Ahah.
Anyways, I actually spent my entire day reading texts from last night ahah… home sick from school (: So I wanted to say thanks! ahaha.
Have a good day.
~Bye.
AND JANE EYRE WAS A GOOD BOOK! SOO! 😛
I can’t argue with this list (even if I only know around 50% of the authors) after I read the Stereotype of the Marquez readers. I’ll try to be a better liar from now.
Now I’m gonna read the letter to Vonnegut’s fans…
Hey! I never made love to Creep by Radiohead! I always keep my depression to myself. Maybe if I had some pot I would try the second option.
This is one of the worst lists I’ve ever seen. And I’m not saying that as someone “scorned” by authors I like on here, but even plenty that I can’t stand, I think you summed most of them up completely horribly, this is ridiculous, why the hell is it so damn popular? Get a life, or go back to your drunken texts.
Yeah, because stereotypes are supposed to be true and stuff.
No, you’re saying it as someone who doesn’t even understand basic grammar.
It’s popular because everyone gets to pat themselves on the back for having read one book by one author regardless of how the stereotype fits.
[…] via dias felizes; lista completa aqui. […]
[…] via Falstaff and Lauren Leto […]
wow. great list. but i might say there must be something more to chuck palahniuck. but you totally got me with albert camus.
heehe thanks for a great read!
can you do ursula le guin and franz kafka, roald dahl and sir arthur conan doyle??
awesome im a murakami!
I’m disappointed. I love Terry Pratchett, but I really don’t like monkeys.
what no bukowski
I missed some french guys, like Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. The list is really awesome, anyway.
This is hilarious… pure genoius. I can’t stop laughing.
This is my favourite
Aldous Huxley
People who are bigger conspiracy theorists than Orwell fans.
I too noticed the lack of Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo.. but well I think you can put them in “people who have way tooo much time in their hands and grow a kind of goatie”
🙂
Kisses
T.
[…] zum Abschluss doch nochmal was Leichteres: Sag mir deinen Lieblingsautor und ich sage dir, wer du […]
You’re a fool to put people who love Austen and people who love the Brontes in the same category. They’re polar opposites. Regardless, on the whole fairly amusing.
Agreed – like the list, don’t get the grouping of Austen and Brontes. Of the two, Austen better fits the stereotype you gave (she’s my favorite author, and I’m a Smithie who knows many other Smithies who love Austen…and you know what they say about Smith girls). People who read the Brontes are more like…middle-aged women who secretly love melodramatic romance novels but want to seem cultured.
Ah! I defer to the greatness of Smith girls and consider myself pwned.
I mean, I’d even argue that Emily and Charlotte are radically different, even if you can’t quite count them as opposites.
I thought this list was so funny that I blogged about it. Hope that’s okay…
http://hivingout.blogspot.com/2010/01/are-you-who-you-read.html
pls add Irvine Welsh 🙂
Holy crap I just about pissed myself when I saw the Charlaine Harris one…..it’s so….TRUE. Oh, and well played regarding Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Omga, I LOVE THIS.
This is ridiculously stupid. Seriously, shut the fuck up. Just because you have a (kind of) successful website doesn’t mean people want to read your contrived ignorant bullshit.
No one forced you to read this. It’s kind of like TV. If you don’t like it, change the channel.
My only complaint is it hasn’t been updated in a while.
You attend NCSU? North Carolina State University? Never heard of it. Maybe that’s why you have an inferiority complex. (I can see your IP)
ZIIIIIIING!
20,000 points (yeah, I regifted your original points back to you).
And 20000 points right back to you!
Actually, the fact that her website is successful would indicate that indeed people want to read her “contrived, ignorant bullshit.”
No, just indicates that people are reading the Daedalus Books catalogue and asking, “Lauren who?” when they see her name in it.
NEIL GAIMAN
NEIL GAIMAN
NEIL GAIMAN
Erica Jong?
Oh man Dostoevsky is my all time favorite author. I wish I could meet a girl who doesn’t say “The Brothers what?” when I tell her my favorite book.
See Lauren, this is why you don’t encourage stereotypes. I’m sorry you think you’re so much smarter than everything you want to stick your dick in, Kevin.
[…] is why Web Watch would like to point you to a recent posting Lauren made entitled READERS BY AUTHOR, a look at what proclaiming who your favorite author is says about you. And after reading the […]
[…] Read the entire list here! […]
[…] Jump to Comments Kind of wish I’d thought of this myself… Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author. Entertaining and awfully true, for the most […]
Kerouac one was spot on! My brother is a sophomore in college; huge Umphrey’s and Kerouac fan. Nice work. I read Terry Goodkind in junior-high and…yeah I never got to DM, had a level 17 Half-Elf Thief though.
[…] Written by Lauren Leto… it’s brilliant. Please read. Readers by Author […]
This is brilliant. I posted a link to your lovely post on my blog. Thanks!
STEVE GUTTENBERG HEADER?! I love you!
This was a fun read. Corny, funny, and sometimes spot on, too!
What amazes me is how defensive some folks got over it.
It’s not exactly DMS-IV now is it?
Seems like some of us have been hitting the hard stuff for too long and could use a little Jerome K Jerome, Dave Barry, Garrison Keillor, {insert funny author here} and comic books to exercise and/or restart the humor sections of the brain.
Life is hard enough without making everything so dreadfully serious.
So thanks for the laugh and I hope everyone learns to laugh more at life cause otherwise we’ve got too much to cry about.
Thank you! 🙂
I’m afraid people who read the DSM-IV have thier veryown list.
I’ve read all of Thoreau’s works for whatever that indicates..
This list will seem like smart-ass bullshit to you in 20 years. Trust me.
So will that comment, this comment, and most of what anyone says. That’s how time works.
Is this a way of being all intellectual in a nonchalant manner by showing that you have enough knowlegde about ALL these authors to make insider-jokes about them..?
No, it’s a way of being actually intellectual, by reading a lot of books. Which I think you’ll find is one of the more popular routes.
Ah, yes. Because everyone who reads aspires to be intellectual. Are you familiar with Texts From Last Night?
I would agree if I thought Lauren Leto had the knowledge to make insider jokes. Most of these are funny only because they’re wrong, but it’s a good idea.
Ha, I don’t own a cottage or even know who the hell Umphreys Mcgee is but now I feel even MORE pretentious admitting that ‘Crime and Punishment’ recently became my favorite book and ‘Underground’ is scaring me even more. Oh well, time to drink some scotch.
Orwell fans are not paranoid, they’re just out to get us, that’s all.
So funny. I can’t imagine the effort put into this.
Not very good–she just makes shit up, but it could be fun to try this.
[…] Readers by Author « Lauren Leto – Genius diagnostic of who you are based on your favorite author. […]
Lauren Leto
dumb stereotyping bitch
Someone’s a Sparks fan
hey I’ve dungeon mastered before. With tenacity.
i love cormac mccarthy and cream cheese
seriously these are two things that i greatly enjoy
I just watched the movies hecklers
Then I just saw this
And now my head wants to explode
AHH! so much to think about!
Thanks Lauren. I got a pretty good belly laugh going there a few times reading your list. What I find amusing, in a pathetic sort of way, is how many readers were insulted by your list.
Cheers
i don’t get the foo fighters one…shouldn’t it be something like “people who say they loved ‘Heathers'” or “white Prince fans?”
no no no. Palahniuk fans are the kind of people who think the idea rioting in the streets is beautiful and sexy.
you missed a few:
Piers Anthony: Nerds without an imagination
J.R.R. Tolkien: Nerds in costume
Terry Goodkind: Nerds with long hair
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman: Nerds who own at least three dragon posters
Hmmm Terry Pratchett and I am an anthropologist/archaeologist…
But I still prefer him and Tolkien over Rowling… more original.
[…] via- https://laurenleto.wordpress.com/readers-by-author/ creator of Texts From Last Night. […]
i love me some sir arthur connan doyle, although i must say i am more of a burbon lady myself.
Uh, oh. Can’t choose. I’ll just settle as someone with MPD.
[…] your favorite author says about […]
[…] 27, 2010 · Leave a Comment Flavorwire did a spin on the stereotyping readers by their favorite authors blog post, except with indie bands. The results are hilarious (and pretty […]
Bad form on the Morrison.
This is great! Nick Hornby is dead on, I’ll admit it haha.
BOO THIS WOMAN!
BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
My favorite authors are Nabokov and Gaiman. I’m a woman, but I like a word with some heft to it, and I can name more than two Miyazaki films.
I’d like to suggest Iain Banks for future consideration.
This is good stuff, but it’s a shame there’s no Voltaire.
“People who read Bartlett’s Quotations like a regular book.”
Fuck reading, i have better things to do with my time…like watching paint dry.
What stereotype does that make me?
I love this list! So funny!
If Kerouac fans listen to Umphrey’s Mcgee, what do Ginsberg fans listen to? Rage Against the Machine? I’m also not entirely certain that I want to know what Burroughs fans listen to.
Amazing!!!!
Doris Lessing
Women in their sixties who wear their hair in a long braid and live with cats
missing bukowski and tom robbins
otherwise, fantastic, and, for the most part, dead accurate.
Yeah im a smart geek….but I also loved Mary Browns book the unlikely ones its been my favorite book since I was 11….I would say the sterotype would be people who didn’t have much of a childhood….but Id like to see what you think. Sorry for any bad spelling I have dyslexia.
Thomas Mann?
John Green?
brightened my day 🙂
What was with that Chuck Palahniuk one??
So what time should we meet up so you can sleep with me?
So what time should we meet up so you can sleep with me?
your being a bitch. do something beneficial with your time please.
Please do something beneficial with your time.
Please do something more beneficial with your time.
please
Hahaha! I loved it. Im reading Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky right now as a matter of fact 😉
Awh, you forgot Bukowski, how am I going to be stereotyped when I read nothing by any of these authors?
“Punk girls who were never punk.”
I’m a lying geek who moved to Thailand with only my Amazon Kindle because I pissed off the wrong person at a dinner party who was claiming that Spirited Away was a stupid movie.
Nice
According to this, I’m a:
Smart geek, who thinks she’s gonna be an author but will end up in marketing, who drinks scotch, was goth in grade 7, who can quote the comic book guy from the Simpsons, who bought the first generation of the Amazon Kindle, who really likes monkeys and can name at least two Miyasaki films.
More accurate than I thought it would be.
I can’t quote the comic book guy and I didn’t buy the kindle but everything else is about right… I want to try put scotch now…
Can we get some Mordecai Richler or Leonard Cohen added?
No. I am a Richler reader and I can tell you now that the stereotype would be a middle-aged male curmudgeon. Very off-base.
What really bothers me about this list is the implication that some authors are just not worth reading if you don’t fit into a specific clique.
Ha! This is amazing. I agree with the Russian authors, and the chick lit authors…I can’t imagine having a brain and wanting to read chick lit books.
Although, I do love Dickens and I have no plans to write books, ha, but really quite what I have seen in people who enjoy these authors.
Really neat 🙂 I got a very strange combination indeed.
ROFLOL 🙂
Loved the Salman Rushdie one “People who google image search Padma Lakshmi late at night”
Humour of the highest order!
Cheers!
Vasu
Thanks 🙂 First timer on this blog, and just read your faking it section!
So, tell me without faking it, have you read all the authors above?
Cheers!
Vasu
Dorothy L Sayers: Women who won’t let men open doors or pull out chairs for them 🙂
Men should never pull out chairs for women. Opening doors is a common courtesy for whoever reaches them first.
Wow! I’m speechless.
Oh, and what about Primo Levi? Please, pretty please, stereotype those who read him.
This is hilarious, for me personally, they’re way off, but it’s still funny. I adore Nicholas Sparks and Dean Koontz however my digestive system works very well and not only have a german shepherd, but also a chihuahua and a boston/rat terrier mix. Doesn’t fit, but it’s still funny.
Ah happy you like it!
Oscar Wilde was spot on!
H/T @Alyssa_Milano
Funny. Never was a youth group leader; never will be. Nor have I ever picked my nose (though I do confess to biting my nails on occasion).
Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky ….
… without him, half of literature would be dead, (or as good as…)
passion…genius…madness…
…. good call on your part.
I didn’t see one of my favorites. Her name is Laurell K. Hamilton.
checked for samuel beckett. could not find. feeling upset.
That was fantastic. I got a little defensive for some… haha I love Anne Rice and use conditioner everyday! But I love Philippa Gregory as well… and do enjoy a Ren Faire once in a while (but I don’t dress up). Susan Wiggs was just hilarious.
Good job. Thankfully my favorites aren’t in there… I’d be afraid what it would tell me! One is lesser known so it’s no surprise.
Good job.
I love it congratulations!! I’m a huge fan of Jane Austen and reading the description makes me laugh a lot!
What, no homer?
[…] like too many on the list. Here’s a few: Jodi […]
You nailed the Stephenie Meyer one!!! I like her, but I don’t type like that, but I know some girls who do…
I think the Lauren Weisberger and Stephenie Meyer could be combined haha
Great list…
1. I actually learned to read with a Chuck Palahniuk book.
2. I went and bought a pair of skinny jeans after reading High Fidelity… unfortunately it didn’t work out between the jeans and me.
I’m a statistic of this list.
what about sir jeffery archer
? So what about Clive Barker? Would be totally interested in your opinion – great list!
This was really funny. According to this, at one time, I would have been really been into Tom Clancy! Lol! Thanks for the laugh… and yes, I would NEVER dream of owning a toy breed of any dog!
What about Kate Chopin? Great list, BTW!
Wow. I’m surprised to see Max Barry on here. I’ve yet to meet any one else who reads him
Being a Dostoevsky, Marquez, Nabokov, and Vonnegut fan, I applaud your stereotypes.
Early TS Eliot: College sophomores
Late TS Eliot: People who convert to Catholicism
I had to read To Kill A Mockingbird in year 9. How did you know?!? Although it’s definitely not the only book I’ve read. I’ve read Arthur Conan Doyle during primary school. So I had scotch at 12? Hehe
I like your list; it’s pretty witty. But its missing classical authors. More Homer please!
Pratchett is for people who really like APES! You will be bounced on your head by an orang-utan for that blasphemy.
Pithy.
J.D. Salinger haha so i’ve heard that i’m not like other people xd
Carl Sagan, please.
Sagan fans are people who like hot air balloons.
Mines not on here, so i made it up.
John Green:
Made of awesome
[…] Truth about readers, as defined by their favorite authors. [Lauren Leto] […]
Suggestion:
John Green: Nerds.
c:
Paul Auster, please! 🙂
Paul Auster:
Writers who want to be detectives who want to be writers.
JOHN GREEN :: DFTBA / nerdfighter*.
nuff’ said. ;P
this is the dumbest thing ive ever seen.
way to lump together jane austen and the bronte sisters. that’s so lame.
there seems to be quite a thread of misogyny running throughout, actually.
also, chris hitchens is a pompous toolbag who deceptively manipulates his readers.
Pompous? Yes. Deceptive? No. But then again, that’s all religion really is: deception and delusion. You don’t sound like the type that would agree.
OK, I’ve got two that I didn’t see: Tony Hillerman and Robert Jordan. Eh?
I’d really like a John Green one. But that one is slightly oubvious.
Updike!
Dostoevsky and Tolstoy? best writers! i’m ready to sleep with you.
What about Ian McEwan?
where is sidney sheldon???
[…] @Aarti from Booklust tweeted the following link to a blog post that’s about stereotypes concerning readers and their favourite authors. Some of these rang […]
[…] What is your favourite author? Animals in the womb Cute camera accesoiries Vintage brooch bridal bouquets Cute baby mobile Vintage fan Swing necklace A penguin’s life Posted in Weekly round-up | Leave a Comment » […]
don dellilo?
make that don delillo.
i agree, don delillo plz.
this list is terrible & shows how many of these authors you haven’t read
the pynchon one is the most laughable imo
[…] also a big fan of “what liking ____ says about you” lists. I particularly like this one because I love Kurt Vonnegut, agree with the Cormac McCarthy, and severely dislike Lauren […]
I don’t get Joyce. Granted, Cusack’s only good movie was High Fidelity
Sad that none of the authors I read were on that list.
No Tolkien, Douglas Adams, or Sedaris.
Douglas Adams was on there!
No Tolkein. No Arthur C. Clarke. No Robert Jordan.
I consider this list incredibly lacking.
What about John Steinbeck? From what I have observed, Steinbeck people would find themselves liking John Muir and the outdoors.
We’re primarily egalitarian communists who like guns.
I agree. We need some Tolkein in there. And, I don’t think I missed it, but Laurell K. Hamilton needs to be mentioned. She’d be perfect for this list! And, in case anyone forget. Additional suggestions: Alexander Dumas, Louisa May Alcott, Edith Wharton, Nora Roberts, Victor Hugo, Frank Herbert(sp?), Steven Erikson. The list goes on and on.
I think Franzen should be added
Out of all the authors on this list, I have to say that my favorite is Dostoevsky (awwww yeah), but that’s because you didn’t put Robert Pirsig, Sartre, or Maurice Merleau-Ponty.
Also, Thomas Aquinas… hahahahahhahahhaha 🙂
[…] Readers by Author […]
Nothing for John Green??
Pat Conroy
People with racist grandparents who are overly nice to minorities but still laugh at racist jokes.
Check out this site
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113272242042563&ref=share
Funny, you said that the shel silverstein readers are girls who can’t spell “leheim”
I believe what your thinking of is “l’chaim”
Fail.
You spelled it wrong.
[…] 16. juuni 2010, 21:50 Rubriigid: maailm & mõnda. Stereotyping people by their favorite author. […]
Haha, very funny.
If this is true, you may wanna sleep with me and I am somehow a conspiracy theorist with a golf head cover who took care of their dying grandparents.
But what about my favorite author!? Diana Wynne Jones anybody?
Bukowski?
People who are still drunk from last night.
Hilarious, by the way. How about Brautigan or Burroughs?
I find it interesting Lauren Leto, that you want to hang out with readers of failed neo-con socialist Christopher Hitchens. Hurrah for unilateral intervention. And America, fuck yeah! indeed.
and I’m sorry, but I tried and failed to find the Michael Pollan entry funny. As a man on behalf of women everywhere, I would like that churlish, catty and borderline cruel entry retracted.
[…] by Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author,” we realized the incredible potential for a mercilessly judgmental list of indie band […]
This was… awesome!
[…] Stereotype your friends by their favorite authors. Ayn Rand fans still the worst. [LaurenLeto] […]
[…] Os artigos citados acima foram baseados numa lista feita pela Lauren Leto, onde ela estereotipava as pessoas pelos seus autores favoritos. Vale a pena ler também (: Posted by juliaefe Filed in Música Tags: dicas, link, Música, […]
[…] STEREOTYPING PEOPLE by their favorite authors. […]
“Terry Pratchett
People who really like monkeys.”
Also… librarians.
Wonder what it says about me that my favorite authors on this list are Pratchett, Conan Doyle, Buckley, and Clancy….
Well done. Also I love Dosteyevsky.
“Neil Gaiman
People who can name at least two Miyazaki films.”
Ha….I can!!!!
Robert A. Heinlein
Rabid neo-Libertarians
i r 1
RRRoark said
: Robert A. Heinlein
: Rabid neo-Libertarians
+1
RRRoark said
: Robert A. Heinlein
: Rabid neo-Libertarians
+1
Link from Insty incoming… hide the scotch.
Thank somebody else’s god I never learned to read. Oh wait, there was Jack Kirby … but I swear I only looked at the pictures.
Grisham’s Law:
Bad legal novels drive out good legal novels.
Yeah, shouldn’t Grisham be “People who went to third-tier LAW schools”?
Ambrose Bierce
People whose parents should be extremely concerned for their health and safety.
Fascinating concept, jejune execution. Like a made-for-TV movie of a good book.
[…] you’re into ridiculously petty literary squabbles, you might get a kick out of this amusing list of reader stereotypes based on favorite authors. Just don’t take it […]
Almost all fiction is a huge fucking waste of time. If you want to waste time in “alternate reality”, just play Dungeons and Dragons.
J. M. Coetzee?
Not only do I love Dostoesvsky and especially “Notes from the Underground,” but I read him in Russian. Words forever seared into my mind: “Я человек больной. Я злой человек. Непривлекателный Я человек.”
I guess this is my lucky day.
Tom Clancy
–People who like him found Robert Ludlum claustrophobic in retrospect.
Which is my experience.
Terry Pratchett
–People who like him are NICE atheists.
You get the feeling he is sympathetic, and trying to make the time in life easier instead of ranting about the Abyss. I disagree with him since I have some elementary ability at logic, but he’s not a jerk.
Neal Gaiman
–People who like him may be Jerk Atheists.
I only read ‘American Gods’ of his, and it was not very good, if somewhat clever. Pratchett, Clancy, Rowling, and Ludlum were better.
David Weber
–People who like him may have fully hand-painted Napoleonic War miniature armies in their basement which their wife rolls her eyes about.
David Drake
–People who like him are REALLY not the sort of people one wants to burglarize in case the pump shotgun inserted into your mouth was not enough of a clue.
L.E. Modestit Jr.
–People who like him should be firmly restrained on Earth Day to avoid TEOTWAKI due to the pressing of any big, red buttons.
Richard Dawkins
–People who like him tend to be the sort who think the FSM is clever instead of half-baked.
Dick Francis
–People who like him love their English blood.
Vernor Vinge
–People who like him plan on being uploaded into their laptops.
Mike — the purpose of reading fiction is to practice compassion. Looks like maybe you could use some practice?
And my recent fave has been Modestit, so definitely keep me away from nuclear weapons.
But I could not list my favorite author, perhaps my ten favorite authors. Lauren, you need a tagline for those who devour SF+Fantasy indiscriminately (relatively so.)
Gene Wolfe: People who wish academics would take science fiction /seriously/. 😉
Oh, no, this is tough. 17th C.: Cervantes before all. 18th C.: Sterne, Fielding, Pope, Swift; 19th C.: Twain (weekly), Dickens (just Pickwick & bits of others), Turgenev, Austen, Melville (esp. the boring parts about sailing ships that everyone else hates), Poe. For the 20th C., just the best minimalists: Chandler, Greene, Hemingway, O’Hara. Sick of fiction, I now read mostly history and science. You call it.
“J.K. Rowling
Smart geeks.”
Nope. More like people who think they are smart, but aren’t even close.
Humph!!! 😦 No Zelazny….
But my closest seconds you were right on:
Neil Gaiman
JK Rowling
If Dean Koontz is on here then it would follow that John Saul should be too. What about Ken Follett….I love him, where is his name and how would you stereotype me as a Follett fan.
Follett: People who REALLY miss the Cold War. Also true for Frederick Forsyth.
Great and funny list! Who doesn’t love stereotyping, our last but not least, evil pleasure?
It behooves me to add my favorite authors but I don’t think my stereotypes are as wonderfully oblique as yours.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante-
Multicultural wannabes that really prefer watching movies and are desperate to score some pussy.
George Macdonald Fraser-
Partially recovered Conservatives that dig The History Channel and are desperate to score some pussy.
Mark Helprin-
Partially recovered intellectual wannabes that think, “Michael Chabon is just too… Jewish” and are desperate to score some intellectual property rights.
Kim Newman-
People that use conditioner but are still looking for something, “…from the Vampire’s point of view” A Simpsons quote from Otto!
[…] I like this. HT Instapundit — I hadn’t heard of Lauren Leto and her blog before, but I found this enjoyable: […]
Mighty proud to see the requests for stereotype (RFS) for Wodehouse fans (I once counted up my collection against a list I found on the ‘net, and I had all but about seven of his books . . . he rocks) and Kafka (ran the table on him, too). Let’s hear it for the John Kennedy Toole fans, and bravo also to the RFS for Bierce (whose non-fiction is just as intriguing as the rest). But two humble suggestions: (i) Commenter suggestions for specific authors, and the best dagger wins inclusion in your list. (ii) A companion list for non-fiction authors, especially those who write about “current events.” Well, maybe not that last bit; wouldn’t want to start a flame war. Maybe non-fiction authors prior to, say, 1985?
[…] Leto has written this amusing list of reader stereotypes based on favorite authors. Superhero Nation’s B. Mac offers a few more. Stephenie Meyer fans: “People who type […]
[…] Leto has written this amusing list of reader stereotypes based on favorite authors. Superhero Nation’s B. Mac offers a few more. Stephenie Meyer fans: “People who type […]
> Christopher Buckley (or William F. Buckley) — People who love excess verbiage.
The verbiage isn’t excessive if it communicates everything the author intended.
> C.S. Lewis — Youth group leaders who picked their nose in the 4th grade.
I’m sorry for you.
Actually, I think this is kinda mediocre with a few clever observations. Mostly, though, it’s mean-spirited and, as I’ve said before no one has the right to pick on people’s reading material as long as they read anything can be a gateway book.
For indiscriminate SF+Fantasy Readers
–People who were scared off by the freaky, frequently pervy nature of the English Canon of Good Books, and fled to the relatively unkinky land of girls in bikinis laser blasting BEMs.
–Escapists not smart enough to read Real Books.
Zelazny
–Girls who want to be rescued by a sword-slicing desperado; guys who want to be that desperado.
Tolkien
–Those seeking a truer, more beautiful vision of the world than the tawdry rags we have today.
[…] 2, 2010 by Scarlett This site… Stereotyping People by Their Favorite […]
Well done. I recognized myself in a few of these and cringed.
[…] Readers by Author « Lauren Leto Richard Dawkins: People who have their significant other grab them under the table in order to shut them up whenever someone else at a dinner says something absolutely ridiculous and wrong. […]
i figure people who read david wong’s work would be along the lines of HP Lovecraft?
nice, i’m also interested in your analysis of kafka readers
o…a smart geet that likes radiohead…too cute, but I dont have golf clubs….is that a prediction of my future I wonder? I smell a conspiricy. lol I cant wait to tell my friend he’s never gonna change.
Being a Dostoevsky, Marquez, Nabokov, and Vonnegut fan, I applaud your stereotypes.
I use conditioner. I just hate that two in one stuff. And that damn Pennywise is probably the cause of me not lliking clowns. He’s just scary. What an enjoyable list.
I like cream cheese….but then again I don’t like everything Cormac McCarthy writes.
Also, thanks to you I will now give Murakami a try and I will not read Thomas Aquinas or Ayelet Waldmen ( The first one alone may have saved a month of my time.) Thank you so much Evil Genius.
[…] Readers by Author […]
Hay admin , Why dont u put facebook badge on your blog? Because I want to follow your fb. Thank you Regards Admin
your list is a pile of wank, I am afraid to say–wait, no, I am fearless in referring to it as a pile of wank. Neither humourous or clever. Sorry.
I love the rest of the list, but you are giving Christopher Hitchens too much credit. Look at what he has to say about topics other than religion: he’s a sexist, right-wing tool.
No Tolkien? 😦
I absolutely loved this list (love your sense of humor more!), but where Umberto Eco, Frank Herbert and Daniel Keyes?
Have a good one!
-Jason
There’s supposed to be an “are” between “where” and “Umberto”, I swear it!
Lauren Leto
Pretentious knuckle heads.
I believe literature is like music; you should read/listen to what you enjoy, period. Never apologize for it.
Too many insecure dweebs attempt to display their reading material like some phony statement about themselves.
You’re impressing no one…not even your own ilk.
Paul Bowles?
I sure do like monkeys… 🙂
No Cory Doctorow? We’re weird too.
Little biased as he/she seems to worship Christopher Hutchens and Dan Brown but turns negative when covering Ayn Rand and George Orwell. All I have to say is BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING.
Way to spell “aides” as “aids” here… I don’t think all teachers have syndromes. This is a literary post after all.
I was hoping for a Ginsberg or Kerouac stereotype. 😉
Nevermind. Found Kerouac
the oscar wilde one is so spot on im embarrassed!
For stereotypes, these are pretty ludicrously specific. I feel like they fall into two categories: the nonsensical “humor” lines (see: Shakespeare, Pearl Buck, Shel Silverstein) and bland descriptions of the author’s most famous work (Salinger, Orwell, and I’m particularly surprised you even bothered with the Tocqueville one).
Occasional originality but kind of a waste of time, I felt like I just read a bunch of one-line encyclopedia entries rather than jokes
[…] Leto lists various species of readers according to their favorite author. (I actually can name at least […]
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That Douglas Adams one is clever.
Also, Oscar Wilde: Damn, you’re onto me.
No Neil Stephenson?
And actually, Chuck Palahniuk books are crazy and hard to follow sometimes. The way he structures his sentences gets crazy confusing in some books. Pigmy was an awesome book btw. I disagree with the boys who can’t read, you gotta come up with a different one for him :]
The Huxley is off the mark – it should be “people who take psychedelics” or some such.
On another note I’ve read some Dostoevsky but it hasn’t gotten me laid
yet
I enjoyed and was amused by the list, as well as at time being pleasantly surprised by it. Good job. But, in the way of constructive criticism (from my limited perspective as a self-admitted but non-repentant literature-snob–with a 20th century bias, to boot), I could care less who typically reads Dean koontz. Screw ’em. Why waste the space, if you are not going to give equal space to someone like Danilo Kis, an anti-Koontz. Not only is this a great format for humor and mockery, but also for a type of poetical affirmation, as evidenced by the Borges and Murakami lines, among others. … W.G. Sebald, Bolano, Castellanos Moya, Celine, Bruno Schulz, Pessoa, Thomas Bernhard, Sontag, Cortazar, Cioran, Hrabal, Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Adorno, Robinson Jeffers, e.e. cummings, Baudelaire, Heine, Holderlin, Hart Crane, Yeats, Celan, Primo Levi, Tennessee Williams, Fante, Flannery O’Connor, Juan Rulfo
Disappointed in the James Joyce one.
Where is Kurt Vonnegut Jr? How can Richard Dawkins be on the list and not Kurt Vonnegut Jr??
Didn’t get the Grisham category.
Also, I read Dostoevsky.
OH yes J. K. Rowling. Smart geeks (otherwise known as nerdfighters).
Nerd fighters!
You forgot “somnambulist” under people who read Nabokov.
Maybe you ought to be reading more of the man.
[…] thing about stereotyping you based on your “favorite author” which for most people is like they read one of their books once and liked it because they finished […]
Lauren, this is genius! You are a comedy genius, and philosopher extraordinaire.
Oscar Wilde: People who claim they’re going to change but never do – It’s like you know me.
can I get one for ken kesey? and pisi right on with the vonnegut and hunter thompson haha literally described my life
I LOVE THIS.
What are your thoughts on people who like Junot Diaz please?
I will (unecessarily) accept the Garcia Marquez typecast.
Excellent work.
That Chuck Palahniuk one just killed my ego because he’s my favourite writer, and I disagree, but hey, stereotypes are just that.
I read Gaiman and didn’t recognize the name Miyazaki. Upon research I have learned that I own 1 of his movies, seen another, and have another on to-be-seen.
Shockingly accurate!
Lauren,
Would you be able to do David Sedaris?
Well, I like both Murakami and Gaiman, and both of those apply to me (at least, I think so for Murakami). Not so much with Bradbury, as I don’t golf, and while I’m not obsessed with monkeys, I can see where you’re going with Pratchett.
Ok, my favourite author is Toni Morrison and this is rather scarily accurate. I’m a secondary school (Irish equivalent of high school and probably the last year or two of middle school) English teacher, who admittedly has a Higher Diploma in Education (because you need one to qualify as a teacher here), but still.
I read Pratchett and I’m afraid of monkeys ( as any sane person should be by the way ) .
What about men who love Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy AND Wilde? hehehe
Nora Roberts suggestion; women to whom English is a foreign language.
Have some fun with Gurdjieff while your at it
I love this. I don’t know how well Dostoevsky is going to help my sex life because I do not think I have ever met a woman who has read him.
However I did read somewhere that Laura Bush’s favorite book is The Brother Karamazov.
I personally don’t have a favorite author, but I did find this list amusing. I do like Leo Tolstoy, but I also like J.K. Rowling as well as Chuck Palahniuk. Out of those three, I strongly disagree with your description for Palahniuk because I believe that you can really get a lot out of his books. As descriptively horrifying they are, they are wonderful works of literature! Tolstoy took me a while to read. I found Rand a lot easier to read than him. I read a lot…
All this, and no Kurt Vonnegut?! I’m astonished.
[…] a man by his book. Jump to Comments I’ve just read a rather amusing post over at Lauren Leto, stereotyping people based on their favourite author and it got me thinking. Some of it was dead […]
No Tolkien?
Great list! My fave (Pynchon) sent me to the Salinger reference. A good addition might be “but find William Gaddis unreadable.”
Terrible and narrow minded
This list is a gross over simplification of a person’s ill attempt to pretend he/she understands what any of these authors had to write about and the people who enjoyed the reading. Thumbs down you agitator of ignorance and literary blasphemer.
What about Amy Hempel?
Totally missed Amy Hempel and Bret Easton Ellis is way off.
What’s happened to J.G. Ballard, Will Self, Gore Vidal and Martin Amis?
I had Self and Amis in mind as well, the scamps.
This is utterly brilliant. Still being in high school, I don’t have the time to read for pleasure on top of assigned reading all too often, so I haven’t read works by most of these authors, but still, incredible.
Thank you for making my night 🙂
Henry Miller – Guys who read books instead of having sex with women.
sorry, but you are a fucking moron. have fun wiping your ass with that liberal arts degree when you can’t afford toilet paper.
Aquinas fan?
I do not wear skinny jeans. I dig the list.
A disgraceful affair?
Funny, Michael Crichton has a doctorate from Harvard. Not exactly third tier, but nice try.
It never occurred to me that reading The Brothers Karamazov could get me laid…
Brad, reading a menu can get you laid. It’s how you read the menu.
Sir, I am the sexiest of readers. I get through ‘Hop on Pop’ and the ladies are just lining up.
That is some funny shit right there.
Also, I think Faulkner should be for the quiet kids that are secretly dirty minded. I mean how many times did he mention the ‘hills and valleys’ in As I Lay Dying?
And sorry for the repeated posts but. . . Harry Potter is for the mainstream crowd. Asimov is for the smart geeks =p
Worst. Stereotype. Ever.
Also, orangutans are apes, not monkeys.
And if you think Stephen King is just for 11th-graders, you haven’t read The Dark Tower.
I’m just supporting all these stereotypes, aren’t I?
[…] by Author, my rudest and most popular post to date. This, an idea copied from Lauren Leto’s blog, is a short list of what you might (and should) extrapolate about a person once you hear them […]
what’s funny is, i might be the only female 19-year-old scotch drinker that i know. right on.
[…] ran on January 19, 2010, comes in at position number 16.] Inspired by Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author,” we realized the incredible potential for a mercilessly judgmental list of indie band […]
ohmygod you just wasted so much of my time please shut up forever
Hit the spots! This was amusing.
The JK Rowling was… dead on for me >_>.
I wonder how conceited it is to say that my favorite author is Haruki Murakami, and your assessment is spot-on?
In fact, according to your list, my literary preferences (Murakami, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Heller) are pretty much the best combo ever 😛
Steinbeck? And Eugenides might apply to boys as well as girls, or some clever combination of the two.
uGh give me a breakkk. stephenie meyer is amAAAZing!!!
*~*edward’s wife*~*
I dont see Johnathon Franzen?
Roald Dahl?
Excuse me, author. Dostoevsky is my favorite writer and it’s wonderful that you’d like to have sex with me and other men of taste but my question is, why are we not fit to date?
None of mine fits, and that’s kinda wierd, since I’ve read at least 1/3 of these authors.
And Harry Potter = smart geeks??? Try “girls born in between 1988 and 1991.”
Oh, MY, GOD!!!
I really hope this isn’t true…
I am a complete bookworm who found about 3/4 of those authors on my shelves, and recognize all the rest as books I’ve read.
What do I do now?
suggestions to be added: Margaret Mitchell, Agatha Christie, Herman Melville, Lois Lowry, Francine Rivers, and Mary Shelly
Hey, I saw your picture and you are hot. Than I went down the list and Im like well my 2 favorite authors are Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and what do you know.
I guess I like FMD a little more so you can sleep with me first and than date.
She won’t do that since you obviously don’t know the difference between “then” and “than”.
[…] Une liste qui indique, suivant quel est notre auteur préférée, quelle serait notre personnalité. Méchant et facile : de la bonne cam pour la revue du web. […]
i guess i’m a boy who can’t read! a 49 year old, female, mom of three, phd!
Vonnegut. No Radiohead/pot sex for me, but I HAVE had an ever changing life path. Well done..
Very good list but I love Bret Easton Ellis but very much dislike the Foo Fighters, VERY MUCH.
awesome list. one can tell you had fun making it. but, Tom Robbins, where he at?
What about Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein? Not a Heinlein fan personally, but I’m curious of what you would come up with.
[…] By the way, the whole thing is a spin-off of Laura Leto’s Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author. […]
Hey! I read Hunter S. Thompson… My tattoo isn’t stupid. Is it?
What about Marion Zimmer Bradley…………
Hilariously fantastic- although how do guys that love Dostoevsky and Tolstoy equally?
and it would be great to see where Knut Hamsun or Louis-Ferdinand Celine fit in here.
SEXIST. only men like male authors and only women like female authors?
yep, this is really quite brilliant! Neil Gaiman fan here, with a little Pynchon thrown in for good measure. And if i’m honest with myself, Lovecraft.
Lauren Leto
Kid who can’t understand what she’s reading
you left out a lot of the best authors ever.. I’ve read many books by the authors here and I am none of these people you describe
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Lauren, I’m a big fan of this list. but if you’re still updating it, what about Marilynne Robinson?
Also, you’re quite spot-on with Dickens.
The Chuck Palahniuk one upsets me. I guess I can’t blame you though. Also, the Neil Gaiman one does not apply to me either.
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How did you know my favorite color is hunter green!?!
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Please add Barbara Kingsolver fans!
Tom Robbins: Can’t tell a story without going off on a very descriptive tangent.
“The afternoon moved slower than a walnut sized kidney stone.”
Too Funny! Im a hardcore reader and have almost all these authors…so I dont know what that makes me. You should’ve had that catagory as now I dont know what box I fit it. Im really a Stephen King fan but never watched the movie IT. Dont care for the movies made from books usually -so again, where do I fit in?? Im 42 and now Im so lost! HAHAHAHA.
These are really good.
I want to have sex with you
No Jules Verne?
We both know Verne fans are too busy trying to read a Star chart and learning survival abilities that they will never use.
Love it. Thank you. Please include Henry James, Raymond Chandler, China Miéville, and/or Donna Tartt.
That Dawkins one is a really good description of me.
Also Michael Swanwick was over for dinner the other week and I dunno if his is all that accurate. I picture his fans (myself included) as sci-fi/fantasy snobs.
Now do;
Homer
Cervantes
Goethe
Pushkin
Proust
NO WILLIAM S BURROUGHS D:!!
The thing about Harry Potter is that if it was only read by smart geeks, it would not be quite so popular.
Also: The Librarian is an ape, not a monkey.
I’ve seen seven Miyazaki movies, so I guess that one’s accurate.
[…] La lista original: Lauren Leto […]
I hardly write remarks, however i did a few searching and wound up here Readers by Author Lauren Leto.
And I do have a couple of questions for you if it’s allright. Is it simply me or does it look as if like some of these comments appear like they are coming from brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if you are posting at other social sites, I would like to follow everything new you have to post. Could you list of all of your shared sites like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
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My favorite color is not hunter green. I don’t consider myself a Gaiman fan, but I can name more than two Miyazaki films from the top of my head. I also don’t consider myself a Miyazaki fan.
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Pretty good, but you totally missed me. I think Chuck Palahniuk is a great writer, and I’m pretty sure I can read. Pretty well if I may add. Also, definitely agree with Dostoevsky. : )
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Voltaire?
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Wow…snotty. And all-too-typical of the present-day tendency to pigeonhole people into nice, clean, predictable categories so you don’t have to really go to the trouble of understanding them.
But what should I expect from a pointless blog, anyway? 😛
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[…] Stereotyping People by Their Favorite Author […]
[…] my current concerns are about looking too self-congratulatory. I probably think of Lauren Leto’s “Readers by Author” from her excellent Judging a Book by Its Lover every time I leave the house with the doorstop that […]
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Tom Robbins?
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