Good Books About Groups?

December 2, 2008 12:30 PM

Good books that about a type of person/subculture/etc., which does not necessarily hang out together or think of itself as a group?

I'm trying to compile a short list of good books that deal with a social group (people with something in common: e.g. nerds, owners of a certain kind of dog, people with a certain medical condition, etc.), which does not meet physically (like, not a study of Trekkies who go to Trekkie conventions).

Sociological books would be OK, as would books that would be better considered journalism or essays.

I'm just wondering how writers have approached the challenge of writing about groups that don't necessarily gather physically or even virtually.

posted by toomuchkatherine to media & arts (3 comments total)

Surely you've got Here Comes Everybody on your list, no?
posted by ulotrichous at 1:22 PM on December 2, 2008

Kurt Vonnegut coined the term "granfalloons" to apply to some of those groups. IIRC, his point was that merely identifying a common trait in a random selection of people is meaningless.

And please, it's Trekkers.
posted by JimN2TAW at 1:24 PM on December 2, 2008

It seems like any of the numerous books written about people who share anti-social psychological traits (e.g., psychopaths), behaviors (e.g., serial killers), private preferences (e.g., cross- dressing), and even diseases/maladies (e.g., hypertrichosis) fit your criteria. Think of the situations that interest you and plug them into Amazon's search feature and you'll be inundated with examples.
posted by carmicha at 4:10 PM on December 2, 2008