Without Women, The Novel Would Die (discuss)...also, do female novel readers tend to fancy male novel readers (discuss)?

[KateESal]

Without Women, The Novel Would Die (discuss) is the (slightly provocative) title of an article in today's Observer newspaper.

Any thoughts?

I certainly knew the Crime and Romance genres had a massively female bias to the readership. But, fiction generally...I must admit, that surprised me a bit (but only a bit).

My own impression of male reading habits is skewed by the three men with whom I've shared my life, at various times. Significant boyfriend (of 11 years), husband (12 years and counting) and my dad, all of whom are keen fiction readers (and not just Sci-Fi and fantasy, either). I also have a number of male friends who love to get lost in a novel.

But it seems, they're in the minority.

Do you feel like you're in a minority, Litopian lads?

Incidentally, the writer of the article mentions that her own husband's enjoyment of reading is no small part of her own attraction to him and I would say that's true for me, too.

Litopian lasses (with male partners), was that the case for you?

 

[CageSage]

The answer lies in the four-bed house to enable two for use of bookcases and collection of paper-based objects on shelves ... the largest rooms (also in living areas and anywhere a shelf can fit - like both sides of any hallway, over doorways ...).
One room is all non-fic, one bookcase in the second room is fiction (most of the fiction gets handed around the family/friends groups), otherwise all non-fic. However, if all the eBooks also had to live on a shelf - new house on the way, five bedrooms, three living areas, tall ceilings ... or a clean out *gasp* (never!).

 

[Robinne Weiss]

My life is full of men and women who read. But I'd wager that writers aren't the right people to base a population-wide generalisation on.

 

[CageSage]

Ask me how many readers I know in my range of family and their family and friends and associates - the number dwindles. I have no one in my immediate family who reads. Some of them married readers, but I can count them on one hand. Friends are cagey - they don't want you to know what they read in case it's going to mark them in some way -- I don't know why they feel like that!
Of the groups within the community of family and friends, I can probably count 3 readers (from about 60), not counting spouse. The estimation of 5% may not be indicative ... *crosses fingers *

 

[CageSage]

On going away and thinking on this (as writers are wont to do), the considered thought was that even though the non-readers have no interest in a book, as such, they still like to be entertained.
Further thought brought about the considered thought that maybe books and readers are the gatekeepers for the next format of entertainment. If it does well as a book, it gets changed up ...
More thought may be required, although I may have had this one before -- did it go anywhere? No idea, I was busy reading, writing, or editing ...

 

[Barbara]

One month ago.

Setting: place of work.

Me: 'Ah, at last. I finally finished writing my book.'
Colleague (male): 'Took a while, did it? How long is it?'
Me: 'Novel length.'
Colleague: 'No idea what that means. Is that a lot?'
Me: '94 thousand words.'
Colleague: 'Jeez. Has your husband read it?'
Me: 'No.'
Colleague: 'I'm not surprised. I wouldn't either. That'd take some serious dedication and love to plough through. … Hey, Boss, would you read 94K?'
Boss (also male): 'Oh, no way.'
Me walks away.

I'm consoling myself by believing they aren't average Jo.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Why men don't read has always puzzled me. It's as if reading a book is a demonstration of empathy and sensitivity that's tantamount to being gay! The same could be said of an appreciation of other art forms unless it's a Hollywood action movie overloaded with testosterone.

In ten years of using my local public library, I recall seeing just a handful of men...and they strayed no further than the crime novels. A reading group that meets weekly on a Thursday, to discuss a novel, has always been female and aged sixty plus, which says something about the age of readers too. Younger women visit the library, but to help their toddlers choose books, not for their own reading pleasure.

My choice of friends and romantic partners has been based on whether they read...and, to a certain extent, by what they read. If someone thought that Dan Brown or E.L. James was the best author around, you wouldn't see me for dust.

I tend to agree with film director John Waters:

 

[N J Sturgess]

I find I'm coming back to reading more of late. Honestly I used to read all the time until I probably went to uni - I was attempting to read the Simarillion when I was about nine!

Why I stopped? No idea, time and work and distractions probably.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I find I'm coming back to reading more of late. Honestly I used to read all the time until I probably went to uni - I was attempting to read the Simarillion when I was about nine!

Why I stopped? No idea, time and work and distractions probably.

Yeah, I think there's a time in everyone's life--usually between the ages of 18 and 25--when reading for pleasure becomes rare. For me, it was all I could do to keep up with the required reading/study for uni. It's a really social time of life, when doing things (often with friends) is more important than escaping into a book.

 

[KateESal]

Good point about age...I've had periods in my life when my novel-reading was sparse. Early twenties was a time when reading waned, I seem to remember. Probably partly because of post Eng. Lit. BA burn-out. And when I was a new mother, it was so overwhelming, my brain didn't have room for book-reading (at least, that's what it felt like). That all changed when I had child number two and got a e-reader. Long hours of breast-feeding were made much more interesting by reading all of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones (among other things), because being able to turn pages one-handed was a definite game-changer....

 

[RK Wallis]

I started my reading late, around 15, but my brother and I found Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series, he found it first and once he finished a book he'd hand it to me, but I read faster than him. I couldn't wait so started stealing the book he was reading (I'd put it back). At one point, he even hid it under his mattress to stop me. Didn't work.

From memory, my reading stopped while I studied law (that's my personality, work before pleasure), but as soon as that stopped, I started reading again (and writing). And then I paused for the kids (they were 3 under 3). The writing stopped for longer that time, but not the reading. But my husband and brother have always devoured books with me, same tastes too, it's only been in our 40s that changed. My brother has the young kids now and after my stroke, my husband does so much, he's knacked if he's not doing something and he doesn't complain when I wake him at 3am every night to put me to bed after I've been writing, even though he's up at 6.30am.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Good point about age...I've had periods in my life when my novel-reading was sparse. Early twenties was a time when reading waned, I seem to remember. Probably partly because of post Eng. Lit. BA burn-out. And when I was a new mother, it was so overwhelming, my brain didn't have room for book-reading (at least, that's what it felt like). That all changed when I had child number two and got a e-reader. Long hours of breast-feeding were made much more interesting by reading all of The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones (among other things), because being able to turn pages one-handed was a definite game-changer....

I would have loved to have an e-reader while breast feeding. As it was, I got really good at turning the pages of paperbacks one-handed. LOL! E-readers are great for cheese making, too--hours of stirring are much more interesting with a good book in the other hand.