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?

My DH is an enthusiastic reader and enjoys fiction from a variety of genres. My adult son also reads widely and I get quite a lot of recommendations from him of books I might not have thought of picking up myself.

Two sons aged 20 and 17 . Both avid reader's. Eldest one loves science fiction, history and train books. Youngest is more fantasy (rick riordan - percy Jackson). He loves anime and and graphic novels. Still can't get him to read any Stephen king though....😵‍💫

My dh ( and two ds) read lots of fiction. DH likes crime fiction and is working his way through the Strike books (got cross with.me because I accidentally gave a little spoiler). Current favourite is Mick Herron. Reads a lot of music and nature books. Non crime he likes Jonathan Coe, ploughing through Dickens, Antony Powell. Used to love sf(as did i)

Funny you should ask, @tobee. I recently read an article I was going to post talking about the exact same thing, that men don't read much fiction, and, I imagine, certainly not from a female author with a female main character.

There are whole genres of fiction that are stereotypically male - scifi, the Tom Clancy-style techno thriller, Westerns, noir, military, graphic novels etc. Plus the fiction shelves of bookshops are heaving with male authors many of whom have presumably read fiction themselves at some point.

I'll definitely take on board that the average male reader is likely reading something written by a man but to claim that men don't read fiction flies in the face of the huge numbers of books aimed directly at them.

Can you post that article @MsAmerica please?

Do any of the women on here (or women you know) choose to not read fiction written by men? If so, why?

Anthony Trollope
Tolkein
Arthur Upfield
Thomas Hardy
Frank Herbert
Tom Wolfe
Hermann Hesse
Philip Roth
Cormac McCarthy
C. S. Lewis

I'm just thinking through the favoured authors of DH, father and brother and I'm actually suprised to realise that they're all male. I would have said that was a lazy stereotype.
DH has read The Handmaid's Tale but I think it was something he thought it was important to do rather than done for pleasure.
You've also helped me realise that I have stopped reading fiction by male authors since the revelations about Neil Gaiman being a sadistic abuser came out. I had (what I believed was) a deep emotional connection to some of his writing and it did make me stop and wonder what was going on there - how could I be deceived by a male writer into believing he can have the level of empathy I think you need to write a convincing character. So, avoiding for now.

I don’t chose to not read fiction by men, but most of the books I do read are by female authors even though I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, which is historically a male-dominated field. Last year I read 47 books, and 37 of these were by female authors.

This is partly a conscious choice (I’m currently working my way through all the books written by women that won the Hugo/ Nebula awards), partly because my favourite authors are women, and partly because my preferred SFF genres (‘softer’ SF, fantasy, some urban fantasy) are dominated by female writers. I’m not keen on the ‘Hard SF’ type books and over-long fantasy books and series (Brandon Sanderson comes to mind), and these tend to be written by men.

I belong to a book club that mainly reads literary fiction, and those books tend to be around 60:40 men:women authors.

If I’m not reading SFF or a book club book, I’ll usually read something quite light like a contemporary romance, which again tend to be written by women.

I’ve read constantly from being young, from Enid Blyton onwards, enjoy many types of fiction, big fan of Terry Pritchett, always enjoyed the likes of Arthur C Clarke, John Wyndham, read quite a few classics, Grapes of Wrath is a real favourite like factual books too,don’t actually think men read any less than women

My husband has just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray, and now is enjoying A Little Life 😄

DP did an English literature degree. Before he met me his favourite fiction writers were Aldous Huxley, P. G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Burgess. He'd never read Virginia Woolf or Jane Austen because, he said, he thought of them as 'female writers' and so steered clear! After a severe beating, however, he agreed to try. He liked them both and now considers Mrs Dalloway one of his favourite novels. Said he hadn't expected to like Austen at all. I've also converted him to Iris Murdoch. He failed to convert me to Aldous Huxley or Anthony Burgess, but he did get me into Evelyn Waugh.

We both worship at the feet of P. G. Wodehouse and even read him out loud to one another.

DH reads a lot. He loves Terry Pratchett and crime fiction.
My BIL reads a lot as well and loves science fiction.

DH is reading more now that he's semi-retired, but relies on me for recommendations. I like thrillers, crime and historical fiction, so tend to suggest books I think he will enjoy. He's becoming quite a discriminating reader, but can't see him ever reading anything very literary. He enjoys the films adapted from the genre however.

I'm here just to bask in the fact there are actually some men out there that read! Where do you find them!

My dad only read magazines linked to his hobby, nothing else, not even a newspaper!

Dh didn’t really read when I first met him, but I got him into it (with The Beach). He now reads quite a lot - he likes crime, thrillers and some sci-fi and horror - he wouldn’t read things like LOTR. He particularly likes Japanese translations.

Ds1 will not read. Ds2 mostly reads graphic novels and manga, but has just read Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and really enjoyed it, so I am currently sitting next to the complete works of Gaiman - got it all off the bookcase for him in excitement, hoping he’ll read something else. He’s tried Sandman, but didn’t really like it - dd loves it however.

It’s interesting to sit and consider it. Dd and I both read far more than any of them.

My husband and his friends read a lot of sci-fi, detective classics, tech thrillers and fiction and non fiction on war, especially about Vietnam. They all seem to like Bernard Cornwell.

I read Sisters under the Rising Sun by Heather Morris a few years ago and actually think a lot of men would benefit from reading it - "comfort stations" set up by the Japanese in the war and a true story.

I'm sorry, @tobee, I didn't keep track, because I didn't get around to posting it. It's from the NY Times, which means there's a paywall problem. And it's less an article about the gender-gap in reading fiction, more about an effort to get men to read novels.

But I think this was it:

Why Did the Novel-Reading Man Disappear?
Men are leaving fiction reading behind. Some people want to change that.
By Joseph Bernstein

These articles, which focus explicitly or implicitly on straight men, connect the fact that these men are reading fewer novels to a variety of social maladies, up to and including deleterious effects on American democracy itself. If more men were reading like Mr. Israel, the thinking goes, the country would be a healthier place: more sensitive, more self-aware, less destructive. As more American men fill their hours with the crude talk shows of the “manosphere,” online gambling and addictive multiplayer games, the humble novel — consumed alone, requiring thought and patience — can look like a panacea.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/style/fiction-books-men-reading.html

Yes, I thought it was common knowledge now that reading increases empathy - men are losing it at an alarming rate. It makes sense because they aren't flexing the muscles than enable you to imagine you are in someone else's shoes.

We did a bit on it at Uni for psychology and communication or something - seems to be a recent post: literacytrust.org.uk/blog/empathy-day-reading-for-pleasure-and-empathy/

Are men losing empathy ... or did they never have it much?

I run a book club and our monthly choices our mostly fiction ( each member takes turns to nominate and we vote on which one to read )

Some of my favourites ( from book club and personal choices ) include
Hamnett by Maggie O Farrell
Lessons by Ian MacEwan
The Testaments by Margaret Attwood
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart
Long Island Comprise by Taffy Brodesser Akner
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The narrow road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

Currently reading Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (borrowed from my daughter ).

I like a book with credible characters , a compelling narrative and thought provoking themes.

The men in my life have all read in some form, except ds - as far as I can tell, he really only does audio and video. He seems to know an enormous amount though and I haven’t given up hope that he will read at an older age.

DP reads a lot of nonfiction, mostly history, currently reading Mary Beard on Pompeii; also adores Terry Pratchett and anything about the Beatles. For him it’s about the genre not the sex. Books by women tend not to be the ones that are marketed to him - I think we underestimate the power of marketing.

My late DH read serious classics, loved the Russian canon and literary fiction like Colm Toibin. He definitely skewed towards male authors but would have denied it.

XH did read but again preferred video and disliked me disappearing into a book, which tbf was indeed because I didn’t want to spend time with him.

My dad read Dick Francis, Ben Macintyre and newspapers. In theory he read more widely than that but I didn’t see it.

I read a fair number of male authors and have a penchant for a big swinging dick of literature like Philip Roth but I’m very susceptible to marketing too. I’ve read 34 books this year and 15 are by women, which I would guess is lower than average.

My DH reads loads of fiction, mostly thrillers, crime and spy books. My dad never picked up a book in his life.