I have this type I defined myself: data Item = Book String String String Int -- Title, Author, Year, Qty | Movie String String String Int -- Title, Director, Year, Qty | CD String String String Int deriving Show -- Title, Artist, Year, Qty I've created an empty list all_Items = [] With the following function I am trying to insert a new book of type Item (Book) into the all_Items addBook all_Items = do putStrLn "Enter the title of the book" tit <- getLine putStrLn "Enter the author of the book" aut <- getLine putStrLn "Enter the year this book was published" yr <- getLine putStrLn "Enter quantity of copies for this item in the inventory" qty <- getLine Book tit aut yr (read qty::Int):all_Items return(all_Items) I however am receiving this error: Couldn't match expected type `IO a0' with actual type `[a1]' The error points to the line where I am using the consing operator to add the new book to the list. I can gather that it is a type error but I can't figure out what it is that I am doing wrong and how to fix it. Thanks in Advance!