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

[ringle]

He is an academic and very well and widely read. Save that he has never read a book by a woman.

He likes classic texts basically. Stuff that would make him better read.

Where to start? Could you help me make a shortlist?

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

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.

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 hate cryptic threads.

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.

With respect, the "my male relative has read books by women" remarks are just anecdotes. All the ultra posh cricket-jumper-wearing boys I met at Uni were pretty well read too. Their wealth and privilege presumably gave them a bit of a free pass. By the boys at my own school would have kept their reading habits to themselves, and doubly so if the books were by women. There was (and yes you do have to be older to remember this) a terrible fear of being accused of being homosexual amongst boys at that time (we are talking pre Boy George).

'The boys at your school' are anecdote too

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.

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.

True anti.

I would say touché....ah, found the accent.

I think though Anti that, if on this thread, he would testify to a similar school background to mine and a similar need to be careful (we used to talk about this more 25years ago).

So I do think that was his lived experience.

poster GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

Thanks, have noted that one.

He's the same with films. We were trying to figure out why we both liked the film "wild" so much and realised how different it was to what we grew up with.

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.

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?'.

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.

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.

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.

"Yes, pretty much everything got you called a poof, especially reading a book"

That's pretty much the long and short of it though in his country the word wasn't poof.

Re Adrian Mole, please RTFT

But, ringle, to have gone another 25-30 years without reading a book by a women because of school teasing is just odd, and to think of yourself as well-read?

Thanks JoJoBow x,

Yes, I know he has read Adrian Mole. I was merely recording verbatim the reaction of someone with a very similar background. Rest assured that I did pass on that information in my verbal reply.

dis he not grow up in Britain? Or you just mean the song was different in his part?

"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? "

Thanks Bertrand. Hurray for the more realistic answers! I had forgotten the JK Rowling thing...