Do men like fiction?

[tobee]

Deliberately provocative title to attract attention! 😃

What sort of fiction do they read? I saw something today from an American news outlet (forget which) about the Netflix series of Thursday Murder Club and it got me thinking,

So many best seller books seem to be written by women. And I assume they are read by women. So like books by Liane Moriarty and Lisa Jewell. Or Taylor Jenkins Read.

Do men read classics? The latest Booker winner? Or celebrity written fiction?

But am I wrong? Do men read Sci Fi and Fantasy for their fiction? Or what?

What do men look for in a book? Is it true that women read way more than men?

Or is there no obvious difference between the sexes?

Well I do 😁. I'll read more or less anything. Currently reading a 'Japanese cat book' because someone bought it for me. If I'd thought about beforehand I'd have assumed it was written by a woman, checked today and I was right.
I also read a lot of non fiction and I usually have two or three books on the go at any one time. DW is also an avid reader, more into crime fiction than I am. We regularly swap recommendations.

My DH reads all sorts, he’s not keen on grittier crime or spy stuff, which I like ( Ian rankin or le carre). But he’ll read most things from wolf hall to count of monte cristo to rivers of London. He’s a good source of recommendations.

DH reads some fiction - Anthony Horowitz's Hawthorne series and the Rivers of London books are particular favourites. He also devoured the Julia Quinn Bridgerton series when the TV version first came out!
One of my sons reads a bit of Terry Pratchett and the same as his Dad; my younger son did an English degree and is very widely read, with a balance of male and female writers, translations from other languages, all genres as well as classics. He's probably the most widely read of all of us.

An interesting question OP! I’m sure I read a recent article which stated that only a third of fiction readers were male, will try to find it.

My DH reads a lot of fiction and very little non-fiction. He mostly reads science fiction and fantasy (aka speculative fiction), as do I, but we both enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club series and he does read some thriller-type books (Tom Clancy style). His dad reads a lot as well.

DH will read male and female authors, and probably skews more towards female authors (maybe 60:40?), as he likes urban fantasy which is mainly written by women. Science fiction and fantasy has a stereotypical image of being written by men, for men, but that’s really not true.

Mines the same, we like a lot of the same books. He also really enjoyed the Thursday murder club series and others like it; I almost see those as a soft crime version of our chick lit. Sometimes you need something a bit more light hearted as a break from the serial killer / psychological ones

Not always. Neither my husband or I even notice whether it is a male or female author; unless it is a favourite author. We both love Lisa Jewell books for example; but we have several preferred authors, and the gender does not come into it at all.

Current DH doesn't really read much, and if he does it tends to be things like autobiographies, anything to do with The Beatles, long walks, motor racing, guitars or Bill Bryson books. I have sometimes caught him reading travel guides in my occasional purchase of Woman's Weekly.😂

ExH was much more of a reader - DH Lawrence, HE Bates, Dorothy Dunnett, Daphne du Maurier spring to mind. Also very fond of cookery books, especially world food.

How could I have forgotten...... he absolutely adores Agatha Christie, especially the Marple stories.😖

DS reads a lot, he is really into sci fi and some fantasy, he loves Japanese fiction and is a big Murukami fan. He does read quite widely though, he loved Secret History and and actually is a pretty good writer himself!

DH only read male authors when I met him but I'm pleased to say that has now changed. He's a big Tolkein fan but is not that into other fantasy, he does like sci fi. He likes Iain Banks, Mick Herron, but also history, he also likes some mysteries stuff like the Merrily Watkins and Elly Griffiths

DF always loved the classics, especially Dickens, but these days seems to read mostly history, particularly quite recent history and likes memoirs of that time.

If we are talking about stereotypical reading I have to say that personally I'm not a big fan of the bestselling books by women writers you list at the beginning, just not my thing.

@tobee "My Dh did English literature at university … Then he used to read plenty of stuff as it came out like Tom Wolfe etc. but now only reads non fiction and only occasionally."

Interesting question. I'll start by asking your DH's age. I (F) used to read loads of fiction, including 'trendy' stuff like Wolfe. However, in my sixties, I read loads more non-fiction. I see it as a definite change as one ages. YMMV, etc.

My late partner used to read plenty of classic Sci-Fi (Asimov/Clarke) but loads more techie non-fiction stuff.

My brother (over 60) likes buying 2nd-hand paperback fiction and reading these in coffee shops, his major hobby.

My brother-in-law reads loads of straight-down-the-middle blokey fiction, as listed by PP.

@slightlydistrac

Oooh, Dorothy Dunnett. Rare and special. Which series did he prefer?

Plus "my occasional purchase of Woman's Weekly," I hope he was also a Victoria Wood fan?

My DH enjoys lots of female authors - Sally Rooney and Emily St John Mandel in particular. He is finding Madeleine Miller slow going though. He doesn't like crime/thrillers and is the same with films. He has been reading much more in the last year or so and is getting into book tok too!

Dad read / reads a lot of sci fi, Terry Prachett, Rivers of London. Read the Shardlake books.

DH reads a lot of Sci Fi, but mainly the old classic stuff that was written in the 50s, 60s, 70s. Also reads a lot of historical fiction- CJ Sansom, Andrew Taylor, Hornblower, SG McLean. Also reads some classics. And horror - James Herbert.

Like pp previously, years ago, said he only likes male authors but since discovering that SG McLean is female- Shona - has shifted on that.
Ironically his favourite author back in the day was Dick Francis (written by his wife).

My Dad read loads of fiction - he’d read anything if it sounded even vaguely interesting, and preferred fiction to non-fiction (which was fantastic for me as a book-loving child; I had a huge and very varied choice of books to pick from!) My DH enjoys biographies/autobiographies, but fiction doesn’t hold his attention in the same way.

While a few male friends enjoy fiction and have quite broad tastes, the vast majority of men I’ve known either stick to sci-fi/fantasy/historical, or aren’t interested in fiction at all. It’s something I’d not given any thought to before, interesting that this seems to be the case among the men in my life!

My DH’s favourite author is Ursula LeGuin. He loves sci-fi and fantasy.

My dad reads everything! Daphne du Maurier and Jane Austen are among his favourites but I think Thomas Hardy may pip them to his #1 spot.

My dad did. It was a big thing we had in common, thrillers mainly.
DS2 (25) was very reluctant as a child but unlike his brother who could read before school he now enjoys reading. He's currently reading Ursula Le Guin.
DH has never read fiction but reads history books. DS1 never reads books though he is by far the cleverist of us all.

DH reads a lot of fiction he used to give me lists for Christmas and birthdays. I went off piste a few years ago and bought him some books that had been enjoyed on the 50 books thread. He enjoyed them so much he has stopped giving me lists and just says get me whatever mumsnet are enjoying

I tend to go through phases of reading mainly fiction and then a couple of years later mainly non-fiction. I'm in more of a non-fiction theme at the moment but that'll inevitably change.

I've never really thought about it before but it's true that the majority of authors on my bookshelves are men. I don't think I consciously look out for male authors but it's possible that the kind of genres that attract my attention are the kind of thing that men tend to write more than women. Saying that my username is from Emily St. John Mandel book that I adore and there are a fair few other female authors on my shelves. Maybe I should make a point to read more women.

Sometimes it's not easy to know if they're male of female. Took me a while to realise PD James was a woman or Andre Norton. With writers using pen names who knows what sex they are unless you go out of your way to check.

This has been my experience with most of the men I have known. They almost exclusively read books by other men.

I always used to say the world would be a happier place and men would understand much more about women if they read more fiction written by women, with women as the main protagonist.

DH always has two books on the go - one fiction, one non-fiction.
Everything from the Dickens to M.C.Beaton alongside biography and Haynes Manuals.

DH reads fiction - he reads more than me. He reads book reviews in the paper and then gets anything that sounds interesting from the library. He reads plenty of books by women but not the authors you listed. He likes family/relationship drama type stuff and satire.

My husband has just read Wolf Hall. Last holiday he read The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments.

It's a generalism which I have not found to hold true that men only read books by men.

Yes my ex was all about the crime mysteries fiction

My DP isn't hugely into reading but always has a book on the go and tend to be sci-fi or David Baldacci. Does listen to alot of audio books as does alot of travelling