Proven Stereotypes: How What You Read Says Who You Are

Lauren Leto has written about many things, and even has one of those blog-to-book deals that Web Watch is fond of pointing out every occasionally – so when it comes to books and their authors, and what that all means to us, the reader - Web Watch believes that Lauren knows what she is talking about.

Which 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 list, Web Watch can confidentally say that Lauren speaks the truth.

Some of our favorites are:

• Sue Grafton: Women who have an @aol.com email address.
• Stephenie Meyer: People who type like this: OMG. Mah fAvvv <3 <3.
• Hunter S Thompson: That kid in your philosophy class with the stupid tattoo.
• Mark Twain: Liars
• Michael Crichton: Doctors who went to third-tier medical schools.
• Tom Clancy: People who skipped school by hiding out in the gym.
• Douglas Adams: People who bought the first generation Amazon Kindle.
• Dan Brown: People who used to get lost in supermarkets when they were kids.
• Tucker Max: Guys who haven’t convinced their girlfriends to try anal yet.
• Jackie Collins: Your drunk stepmother.
• James Patterson: Men who score a 153 on their LSAT exam.
• David Baldacci:   No one. Even the police say Clancy before they’ll say Baldacci
  (Web Watch will counter, however, that Baldacci has enjoyable books-on-tape fare for long car trips)
• John Irving:  People whose parents are divorced. �
  (Actually, Web Watch will debate this one as well as enjoying John Irving is not necessarily a reflection on the marital state of one’s parents.  Oh, there may be a large amount of dysfunction, but divorced parents is not necessarily a proven concept here.)

Lauren has read the comments and is continually updating the list based on suggestions from the peanut gallery.  Even the comments offer valid stereotypes of their own:

• John Updike. Guys who were good at sports in high school only to realize as a grown up that they have no marketable skill.
• J. R. R. Tolkien: Guys who have always been curious but never tried it.

Obviously it’s a growing list.  The most common requests seem to be for Tom Robbins and a number of high-profile sci-fi authors, and a large number of people have taken offense at the JK Rowlings stereotype.  Apparently, they don’t agree with their own classification.