“If I had to count on male fiction readers, I'd go broke.”

erik_kosberg · #1 01-06-2002, 04:44 PM

http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/1010946.html

The Ipsos-NPD statistics in the story are from a less-than-scientific sampling, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that women read books (in particular, fiction) far more often that men.

What are the implications for us as readers and as writers?

ms_n · #2 01-06-2002, 04:57 PM

Am I reading this correctly? Has reading actually become a,
fad?

kurt_messick · #3 01-06-2002, 07:52 PM

I'm not sure.

I (being a male) read a lot, probably one out of ten books is fiction. Most are professionally-related in some way, or for academic interest.

My father, on the other hand, reads nothing but fiction. Spy novels, mystery novels, military stories, horror stories, etc.

realtraveller · #4 01-06-2002, 08:43 PM

So men read more history? I'd wager that is true only because so much on the history shelves are war books. If the category were broken down into types of histories, I'd further wager that women read more biographies. It's that "inner life" thing again.

rich2003dm · #5 01-06-2002, 09:41 PM

I read about a book a week (sometimes two). Nine out of ten are contemporary fiction...action, adventure, science fiction. I like history, but tend to read historical fiction.

I am a guy, although at my age, you'd never tell or really care.

Maybe I'm getting in touch with my feminine side through my reading choices?

(Last time I did that I looked up my dress.)

Rich

Grouch · #6 01-06-2002, 11:46 PM

Our household breaks all the stereotypes, too.
My wife hates to read.
I can't read enough. 9.9999 out of 10 books I read are fiction--literary fiction nearly always (I rarely read genre fiction). And I have no qualms about reading a book with the Oprah O emblazoned on the cover. Nor do I have qualms about reading Cosmopolitan on a bus.

~~Oops. Did I say that aloud?

As for what it means to me as a writer....
If novelists have become culturally invisible -- at least to today's men -- it's partly because the life of a novelist offers few rewards to the traditional male ego. It's not about power, glory and money.

Well darn! If it's not about P, G and M, then what the heck am I writing for?!

Dani257 · #7 01-07-2002, 12:27 AM

I'm female(in case you didn't know

) and my reading is mainly children's books and those are mainly fiction. When I do read adult books, I read biographies and history. The only male I know who reads as much as I do is my cousin. His reading consists mainly of psychology and philosophy books, but he does read some fiction. Science fiction, and Biblical fiction.

arianej · #8 01-07-2002, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by erik_kosberg
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/1010946.html

The Ipsos-NPD statistics in the story are from a less-than-scientific sampling, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that women read books (in particular, fiction) far more often that men.

What are the implications for us as readers and as writers?

Interesting question. I know my husband has two categories of books he reads: Computer/Programming Texts and Everything Else. The former definitely outweighs the latter.

When he does read something that isn't about programming, it still tends to be non-fiction. Something about politics, a bit of history, humor, etc. But it's rare he does that. I, on the other hand, read a bit of many genres, mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, historical fiction, history books, cookbooks, etc. It does seem like most of the books I see are for/about women...I don't see this trend changing much unless the habits you mention above change. A bit of a vicious circle, unfortunately.

Ariane

Trebor1415 · #9 01-09-2002, 03:22 AM

Interesting article. I was surprised to see that only 24% of people who responded reported reading more then 6 books a YEAR. Heck, there are times where I've read that many in a Week!

It appears that I have a lot of "Female" reading characteristics. I read a lot, a read a lot of fiction, and I try to share the books I enjoy with my friends. Fortunatley, I'm comfortable with my literary masculinity. All that military history I read must counterbalance all that "girly stuff."

Trebor

sylvanb · #10 01-11-2002, 10:24 AM

My DH reads about 10 times as much as I do, partly because he reads about five times as fast as I do, and partly because he works at home, keeps very odd hours, and is heavily into avoidance. His heap of books usually includes: science fiction; spy/suspense fiction; a whodunit; military history preferably involving submarines; something technical about lathes, machining, welding, repairing automobiles, or model buildin; and something involving boats. Once in a while I get him to read a literary novel, and he usually loves it. But it's mostly identifiably guy stuff.

I don't like to work at all, so most of my reading is superior fluff -- whodunits, literary romances, 19th century novels, like that. Once in a while I will get into a biography or history, if it has lots of "pictures and conversation." And garden books. Sucker for garden books.

Yeah, he's a guy, I'm a girl.

vonboob · #11 01-11-2002, 03:26 PM

Is sci-fi and fantasy considered fiction? If so, I am a good customer… Not including references and professional publications, I buy probably less then twenty "nice" books a year and possibly as many as twice that in paperback fantasy/sci-fi. Why do I make this distinction? Simple, "nice" books stay in the den, paperbacks in the bedroom (my wife's idea). :o

I have a bizarre habit of having at least four books in "den reading" at the same time. Most of those are nonfiction, literature classics and various related materials. Sometimes it happens to be a war history but I am mostly fascinated by ideas, logic and semantics…

It would be simpler if I gave an example.
My current "principal" read is SPLENDEURS ET MISERES DES COURTISANES by Honore de Balzac (Balssa). I often thumb through LES ILLUSIONS PERDUES, which I've read a while back, yet some things seem to seep through and I need to backtrack. To help me get the feel for the scene I keep close THE FLANEUR: A STROLL THROUGH THE PARADOXES OF PARIS by Edmund White, BALZAC: A BIOGRAPHY by Graham Robb and Friedrich Engels' THE GERMAN REVOLUTIONS. (???)

However, my pillow doesn't know those; it is reserved for something written by Goodkind, Vance, Eddings, Brooks, Anthony or other easy paperback that I usually can go through in a couple of evenings.

My wife reads one book at the time and 66% of it is something current and ambitious. There is no way to classify the rest. I guess she doesn’t fit the statistics either…