I've always enjoyed reading biographies. History or the media can portray an individual as an icon or a villian; I love reading a biography, usually more than one about the person, so that I can discover with greater detail how that label of icon or villian came about. Usually, the label is incorrect or incomplete at best.

Some interesting examples:

Call Her Miss Ross (J. Randy Taraborrelli) - How do you spell 'diva?' In Miss Ross' case, it's spelled 'b-i-t-c-h'. It was written by the founder of the first 'Supremes' fan club, whose opinon of Diana Ross changed after his extensive interviews with co-workers, friends, fellow artists, etc.

Jackie Oh! (Kitty Kelley) - Where to begin? Miss Kelley, known for her scathing descriptions of important people, had a field day with this one. Described as "the world's biggest 16 year old" who spent an average of $40,000 a month while First Lady on "odds and ends," she quickly exceeded the amounts allocated to her by both JFK and Aristotle Onassis.

Lady Bird (Jan Russell) - a sympathetic and touching treatment of the former First Lady, it totally changed my opinion of Mrs. Johnson. Called "the rube" and "Mrs. Pork Chop" by Jacqueline Kennedy and the target of continual verbal abuse by her husband, Claudia Johnson emerges as a strong and principled person who endured LBJ's many sexual encounters with grace and dignity.

Louis and Antoinette (Vincent Cronin) - one of my all-time favorites, this book paints a clear portrait of France's last king and his Queen. Louis XVI has emerged from history as a fat, bumbling incompetent responsible for the demise of the French monarchy. Marie Antoinette has emerged as a selfish, mindless hedonist who felt that the starving masses should "eat cake" if they didn't have bread. Nothing could be further from the truth. You'll need a tissue to get through their imprisonment, trials, and executions.

A great way to get these books, and any others you may want, is through:

http://abebooks.com

The books are used, but they're inexpensive and in good shape.

I agree with your ideas on reading biographies. They can be quite interesting.

I've recently read:
Karl Marx by Francis Wheen
Leonardo. The first scientist by Michael White

I'm currently reading Ian Kershaw's biography of Hitler, which is very good.

I read a lot of biographies.
The last one was Billy about Billy Connolly the Scottish comic, a really wonderful book written by his wife.

I was going to go for the Antonia Frasier Marie-Antoinette, then erred on the side of caution for another two of hers this past summer.

Another funny one is "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People". By Toby Young. It's an interesting look into Conde Nast and New York by an Englishman. He's obnoxious but he does give an interesting look at that world!

I agree that a well researched biography can be a corrective to the ideas that we pick up from the gossip-mills: this is just as true for subjects who lived centuries ago as for those of our own time. The biographies I remember best are mostly, but not all, lives of authors, such as:

Lord Rochester's Monkey by Graham Greene, written in the 1930s but not published till the 1970s because much of Rochester's verse was still deemed to be unprintable. A more recent life of Rochester, So Idle A Rogue by Jeremy Lamb, looks more specifically at Rochester as a classic example of alcoholism.

Samuel Johnson by John Wain, who like Johnson is a poet and a Staffordshire man.

Alexander Pope by Maynard Mack, a remarkably thorough work of nearly a thousand pages that covers just about every tiniest detail of Pope's life and work.

Like Valois, I've also got Vincent Cronin's Louis and Antoinette on my shelves, though it's a long time since I read it. But the most moving scenes that I can recall in a biography are in Robert Lacey's life of Sir Walter Raleigh. I think I managed to stay dry-eyed over Louis and Antoinette's fate, but I found Raleigh's letter to his wife (written in the Tower in 1603 when he expected to be executed next day), incredibly moving.

By a coincidence, I read a recommendation for abebooks recently in the London Review of Books. I haven't bought anything there yet, but I've reconnoitred the site and it looks good: I've done a few searches for books I've been wanting for years, and many of them are there. They now have a British site at www.abebooks.co.uk , where you can restrict searches to UK booksellers if you're worried about shipping costs from the other side of the world.

Another biography reader here, I am such a nosey person, I love to read about the lives of famous people, and even those less than famous.

I like biographies too. But I think I prefer autobiographies. One of my favorites is Victor Borge's autobiography. The footnotes are hilarious.

I read so many biographies I sometimes need to force myself into a bit of fiction. My life isn't that dull but I do enjoy marvelling over the great acomplishments of others and seeing the world through others eyes.

I prefer to read older biographies as it's always a good snapsot of yesta-year, and a reminder that we really haven't developed much in the last 200 years. (Technology aside)

Why read a fiction novel when the world of biographies is offering real and incredible experiences that are sometimes so unbelievable they could never be dreamed up!