(no subject)

[skygiants]

bookblather asked me about TRUE CRIME for December 7th, and at first I didn't think I had a ton to say about true crime, but that's a lie. It's true I don't read a ton of true crime books - I like discussions of historical crimes/mysteries and I will happily read them and talk about them if someone recommends them to me, but otherwise I don't usually think to pick them up. (And speaking of, if anyone has any great historical true crime books to recommend -- I'm ALL EARS. Eyes. Whatever.)

But I do intake a ton of true crime stuff, actually, because I work as a transcriptionist at a company that gets a lot of business from ABC 20/20, and 20/20 LOVES true crime -- the weirder and more sensational, the better.

I always feel a little guilty for being relieved whenever I get assigned the 20/20 stuff at work, because . . . like, sometimes I am listening to people talk about quite horrible things! But nonetheless it's the best option, because:

- guilty as I feel for getting interested in the salacious details . . . I do totally get interested in the salacious details, and it makes for an infinitely less boring shift than the mornings that I spend transcribing Financiers Talk About Tips For Balancing Your Asset Investments
- professional reporters interviewing people about weird crimes for sensational TV news specials UNDERSTAND HOW TO ENUNCIATE, and you have no idea how much easier that makes my life

But it's okay, because soon I will get to quit my transcription job! And so I will stop having to feel guilty about enjoying the days when my work consists of "TEEN BANK ROBBER COMPELLED TO JOIN HEIST BY EVIL FATHER! LET'S INTERVIEW HER IN PRISON!"

Comments

[ceitfianna]

I know this feeling very well. The past couple of years during long reference shifts I discovered longform.com and longreads.com full of fascinating longform stories. A lot of them are about criminals; murders, imposters, bank heists, art thefts and the like. They pull me and tend to leave me unsettled and yet, I still read them. As well as watching the documentaries that are the equivalent of the stories on Netflix Streaming.

Somehow the fact its real adds an extra layer of fascinating and horrible and yeah, I know where you are.

Speaking of actual books, Manhunt, which is about the chase for Lincoln's killers is a great read. One of those non-fiction books that gets suspense, narrative and all the information. Also another Booth book with a focus on the world of the theater and the Booth family is My Thoughts be Bloody, its the sort of history I think you'll like. Manhunt is much more the crimes and the chase while the second is what led about to it. I liked them both but the second book was more interesting to me due to the picture of the world of theater in the 1800s. The first is a quicker read, a snapshot of a getaway and chase, just a really, really detailed one by a benign fanatic.

Sadly most of my history at the moment has been Civil War stuff. I do read other things but somehow that's my current well that looks interesting spot.

[skygiants]

Thanks for the recs! I just spent yesterday at the Newseum wanderng through the Kennedy assassination exhibit, so dead presidents are certainly timely...

[kate_nepveu]

Yay quitting soon!

[skygiants]

\o/ I'M EXCITED. (Although not excited about the process of telling them I'm leaving, because they are very old and occasionally very sweet and I know I'll feel guilty.)

[evewithanapple]

I have a soft spot for true crime stories which I suspect- as many things- stems from my Law&Order addiction as a tweenager. It's just really interesting! The social historian in me likes taking apart the criminals to figure out what circumstances led to their turning to crime, and the procedural addict in me enjoys reading about how the case unfolded. In terms of nonfiction, I recommend Douglas Preston's The Monster of Florence about a serial killer who was active in Italy in the 70s and whose case ended up being a HUGE bureaucratic nightmare and Simon Baatz's For The Thrill of It, about the Leopold&Loeb thrill killing in the 1920s. There's also TruTv's crime library, which is trashy as trashy gets, but is always extremely entertaining.

[skygiants]

Hah, I'm the opposite -- I had a police procedurals block for many, many years, so I could never do L&O, and am only recently training myself out of it with Elementary. But true crime works for me in a way that police procedurals don't, because it's a whole story instead of a bite-sized one, with weird and interesting personalities and puzzles! Thanks for the recommendations. :D