My DH has expressed an interest in reading a book by a woman

I can completely understand the idea of a boy hiding a reading habit. It still happens nowadays. We had a concerted campaign at our school to challenge the "reading is for girls" stereotype. And boys and men who do read are less likely to read women authors-why do you think JK Rowling did not publish as Joanna?

What I can't understand is an adult describing himself as well read without having read Austen, Eliot and the Brontes. To name but 6.

Gendered book covers/book marketing is still quite a prevalent phenomenon. Ringle's DH is going to be far from the only man that primarily reads male authors.

Fiction - he might like the pairing of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea, Margaret Attwood the Handmaid's Tale, The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Non Fiction - Diary of Anne Frank, Wild Swans by Jung Chang, possibly The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, No Logo by Naomi Klein.

What utter bollocks.
Even if he didn't want to read books by women in case he was accused of being gay as a teenager ( a ridiculous premise) he is an adult now.
He sounds a twat.

Eh? DH was born in 1973 and went to a rough as fuck comp in an area where most of the boys went straight into heavy industry. He was the first person in its history to get into Oxbridge.

He's currently reading, and cracking up over, Emma. I've never once thought to track whether he's reading books by men or women because it's a non-issue but he recently read The Handmaid's Tale (shamefully late in life IMO) and has read a wide range of classics including those written by women.

He came in as I was writing this and I told him about it. He finds it very amusing and says 'well, yes, pretty much anything got you called a poof, especially reading a book, but not to read anything by women is just weird. Hasn't he read Adrian Mole?'.

I agree with others that this is simultaneously almost credible and truly, truly sad. How on earth has he not - over the last 20 years since he's been a sentient adult (& I'm being kind...) not noticed this gap and wanted to balance it - assuming he reads fiction, it's just so obvious that he's been ignoring a massive chunk literature and at 40, I'd be utterly embarrassed to admit to avoiding such a group. Like others, I'm afraid I'm not going to compile a list - seriously, just look at any list of 100 books you should have read. Fill in the bloody gaps. Testosterone Rex might be worth a look though. www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/19/testosterone-rex-royal-society-science-book-of-the-year-cordelia-fine

I utterly dispair at the state of his academic teaching if he's felt in the last 20 years of adulthood that not one female has written anything that he thinks is worth his while. No matter how male his sector, that's pretty terrifying, actually.

My Dh reads quite a bit, but almost invariably rather 'learned' non fiction, so often written by men.
On holiday one year I got him to read a couple of short novels. One he really enjoyed was The Girls Of Slender Means, by Muriel Spark. (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
Obv. a period piece now, but a brilliant read.

I know of NO children that consciously decide not to read a book because it's written by a woman like.

Your husband knows that authors use pen names, right??

So unless he was consciously checking every author out, and making sure that they weren't female, then he's talking shit.

You have confirmed he's read at least 3 books written by women. So he has definitely read more than that I his lifetime.

He's talking bollocks and so are you.

'The boys at your school' are anecdote too

It's actually insulting to the point if being offensive to see people feeling obliged to list women writers as if they are some rare and little known species.

It's already been said but - if this is real (and I'm struggling with my scepticism) - your husband is not well read. And I worry about the state of academia wherever you are. Am not finding this amusing at all.

I hate cryptic threads.

Have you pointed out that he has definitely read books written by women?

Why is he making it sick a big issue??

Why is it your job to find him books to read?

I think blaming society is odd. My dad's older and has read books by women. My DP mainly seems to read books by women.

Your DH has had plenty of time since school to read a broader range of books.

Given most women have written under pseudonyms or with just their I initial I am sure he has actually read many books by women without realising it

And agree he isn't well read if he's missed out Austen, brontes, Elliott etc

Have to be careful? What does this even mean?

Hahahha, ‘society’.
Society has many faults, but preventing a well-educated, financially solvent male from reading books by women definitely isn’t one of them.

I am an acandeic, and some of my best friends are male academics , and do you know - some of them have even recommended books to me that were written by women (whisper it, some of those women weren’t even white )

ringle are you from a culture where it is forbidden to read books by women? And if so, how have things changed now?
If you stopped talking in riddles we would be better able to help.