Men vs. women reading novels

Oh, he was good, as you’d expect, but tbh, I found his delivery a bit much. It was a bit overly performative for me — too boomy and operatic? Lots of quoting poetry from memory, even when it wasn’t by the subject of the lecture. One lecture was on Shelley, and he recited a lengthy Wallace Stevens poem from memory which was intended to illuminate something about Shelley but seemed to go over the reads of many of the students.

I’ve certainly had as enjoyable and more effective classes with academics like Hermione Lee and Helen Vendler, and the most inspirational university teacher I ever had in my life is comparatively obscure as a critic, but I will remember to my dying day looking forward to her classes all week.

My NYU friend who was actually taking Bloom’s module complained about his assessment techniques. He was notorious for setting poetry exams that required you to identify a list of obscure 2-line quotations from the huge course anthology. If you didn’t recognise any, you got a zero.😃

I think if it has to be any of those it's the first. My husband reads some fiction but he also has books on DIY, crosswords and usually a biography by the side of the bed. he doesn't have the time to include fiction as often.

ETA I don't think he has any issues with female fiction authors.. I don't think the sex plays into his reading choices very much. He just knows which genres he's interested in and he keeps to those

BrezhnevsLuxuriantEyebrows

Was that to me? It was a boys school so literally they had all men’s books, nothing for teens or any readers that liked anything magical or fantasy or any even innocent younger books- was gutted after hearing the boys had a chance to browse the library daily!!

My dad was a big reader of fiction and we had very similar tastes in books, thrillers, crime fiction , spys. He was however very reluctant to read anything written by a woman. He used to say that was because he'd never found a female author he liked.

DH only reads history books. Once on holiday he ran out of books and read one of my novels, that was probably 40 years ago.

I have two adult DSs. The older one was an early reader and very academic but stopped reading fiction when he was 7. He only ever enjoyed science/ technical maths books but would stretch to a biography if it was about a mathematician. I don't think he's read a book since he was 17 (now 30).
DS2 was a very reluctant reader aged 5 but ended up loving fiction. He reads the same sort of thing as me and although he doesn't read a lot now he'll always have a book on the go.
This is why I don't think it's a huge concern if a child doesn't want to read for pleasure. As long as they are capable it doesn't affect their academic achievements. Yes if you love to read you want them to experience that pleasure as well but you can't force it.

I'd be happy with anything that encourages the joy of reading. You can sneer at Lee Child but for many men that's the stuff they enjoy. My youngest was a reluctant reader but as a teenager he loved Lee Child. It was a good connection and we used to make up plots together. As an adult he's the only male in my life who reads fiction.
I certainly don't choose my reading material for self improvement, it's for pleasure.

I tried to get my brother to read Morning Glory Milking Farm which is one of the best literary pieces of fiction in the last decade and he just scoffed at me.

Until we can socialise men and boys into finding fulfilment from novels about being railed by a bull man instead of tacky subjects like the Roman Empire then I am afraid they are simply a lost cause at the moment.

My Dad often read fiction. As did my mother. They'd often both go to the local library, get out a pile of books and share them until they had both devoured all of them

My DH liked fiction too, mostly of the crime and spy type. I like a mixture of fiction (often sci-fi and fantasy) and some non-fiction.

I can't work out if this is meant to be mocking women. I mean I'm familiar with what you're referencing but it's not read widely by either sex.

It's a 'monster bait romance' apparently. Minotaur erotica 🤯

Looked it up. I think I’ll stick to Lee Child.

SunnyRandal

I didn’t mean I was sneering(my favourite authors are Fiona Gibson and Sophie kinsella!!) , I mean a 13/14 yo probably won’t pick up a male adult fiction book, there was no fantasy, magic, animal books, anything like that.

Interesting. My father read a lot but mainly thrillers like Tom Clancy, Jeffrey Archer, John Le Carre. Thinking back on our book shelves growing up, there weren't many female writers, and the ones that there were were mainly family saga types that my mother liked e.g The Thornbirds.
DH and his father both read loads too but mainly SF. I was talking to DH about reading books by women a few weeks ago and he said he doesn't particularly notice, but the majority of SF is written by men. He has read people like Ann Leckie, N K Jemison and Ursula Le Guin.
My brother reads modern fiction and I don't think he would distinguish much between male and female but would be less likely to read a romance. I agree with the "dick lit" comment though. My brother would probably read David Nichol but maybe not someone like Meg Mason. I think we both grew up in reading households so it was just something you did and both of our children do too.

I would say I know quite a few women who don't read or read only non fiction too. Maybe the world is just split into readers and non-readers.

Sadly there is only 1 boy in Dd1's English Lit A level class, and she is one of only 4 girls in her Maths class, thus perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Yes, sorry, it was replying to you, but my post got temporarily blocked - and I forgot to quote you when I rewrote it to avoid the extraneous 'auto-perv' censor!

Ah, that changes it a lot. That is really sad that they didn't feel able to provide a proper selection of age-appropriate books of all kinds, rather than just what they reckoned boys 'should' like.

Ok I misunderstood. My DS at 13 loved Lee Child along with a bit of dystopia and fantasy. However he was and still is an avid reader having hated reading when he was in primary.

Maybe the world is just split into readers and non-readers.
I think that sums it up, by teenage years the die is set one way or the other.

Hi - another man (early 50s) here.

This is a fascinating thread.

Personally I love reading and reading fiction in particular and have done since my teens.

A few years back I went through a phase - maybe it was after reading a spate of poor novels - where I thought I was just going to concentrate on non-fiction. After a few months I happily went back to fiction!

I tend to go for classics and stuff on the literary side, but I try to read a broad range. Its funny though, thinking back when I used to read in my teens and twenties, I read very few female authors. These days I read at least 50% women authors.

In terms of my experience of men reading generally, I would love to have conversations with the people around me about what we're reading but I don't really have a lot of men friends into fiction. The men I know socially and at work don't tend to talk about reading books.

My experience confirms that it tends to be women who will read more than men. My wife used to read a lot but not any more. In her case I feel like social media has taken over.

We have a young teenaged son, who I keep trying to encourage to read. He reads Manga and graphic novels, but its difficult getting him to try a novel or even short stories. Again, I think the allure of social media is too strong.

Join a book group? There are two I attend periodically if I like the book under discussion, both run by local bookshops, and one certainly has plenty of men attending, though the other, which skews younger, is certainly female-dominated.

Yeah you are right, I should do so!