Men don't like to read books, written by women. True or False?

Question

I've noticed a pattern..
Am I wrong? How and why?

Net_at_night: You have shown to me and the rest of Yahoo Answers, your ignorance. Now go hide!

2FeThigh: JK Rowling did not write her fullname which is "Joanne Keating Rowling", because she though the abbrevation was cute, but because she didn't want people to know she was a women, as she knew that people who would automatically, pre-judge it.

In regards to the strange question I got, no I am not South African. The nick is well....long story.

Answer 1

Great question you have gotten a lot of great responses. Some defensive and maybe not 100% honest perhaps though. I read mostly books by men but not because they are by men.

Some of the classics like Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" kicked a lot of male writer's butts. I think typically men think that a woman puts too much romance in her books but that is not true of all female writers of course. But the fear steers some men away just the same. For me, a good book is a good book. As far as female written books, "A Wrinkle in Time", "Frankenstein", and "The Key to Zion" were excellent. I'd read other books by theses authors in a heart beat but from my personal perception I'd probably stay away from any Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts books in fear that they are sappy or romance novels.

I think actually women rule the preteen and young teen market as I remember Judy Bloom and Beverly Cleary type books being read by both genders but currently men have a greater hold on reaching the male older market. I don't think its necessarily a conscious effort to avoid female writers though and I wouldn't be surprised if this changed in the next several years.

Answer 2

Because the widespread education of women was not common until the nineteenth century, the arena of British and American literature was once largely male dominated: the role of women was most often to inspire rather than to create. Since then, however, the literary contributions of women have become increasingly important. More and more women have become storytellers, poets and prophets, the authors of dreams and ideas--the voices to whom we listen.
We have compiled a selection of women authors for you. If they are not already old friends, we hope that they may become new ones. We also hope you will add your favorites to our list!

Louisa May Alcott

Maya Angelou

Jane Austen

Elizabeth Bishop

Emily Bronte

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Willa Cather

Emily Dickinson

Edna St.Vincent Millay

Karoline von Günderrode

Carson McCullers

Marge Piercy

Sylvia Plath

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Virginia Woolf

Of course this is only an example of non Modern writers, Today we have Harry Potter, not only read by Both sexes, but people of all ages, written by a woman...

Perhaps women tend to choose themes that appeal more to other woman, or perhaps some men intentionaly do avoid female authors,,, In the last 2 centuries women would often use a mans identity to try and boost acceptance and sales of books.
A list of the top ten selling books of all time shows only one female author taking 10th place.

Answer 3

It would be more accurate to say that men don't like to read books written FOR women. Since the pattern today is that women's books are written primarily by women, that explains what you see. But the overarching reason is that literature has become balkanized and target-marketed.

I think this is what Net_at_nite was getting at, though he didn't express it very well. The romance and "chick-lit" categories dominate women's fiction - authors like Danielle Steele and books like The Devil Wears Prada are aimed specifically at female readers. Men don't find much of interest in books aimed at women, and thus the disconnect. But outside such specifically targeted genres, I don't think it matters much. In mystery, for example, Agatha Christie has always attracted as many male readers as female, and in SF/Fantasy, Ursula LeGuin does the same. These are just two examples.

And of course there's always Ayn Rand. :)

The cut works the other way too. You don't find a lot of females who like Tom Clancy. The action/adventure and military genres are dominated by male writers and readers. But again, it's because of the tightly focused genre, not the sex of the authors.

Regarding J. K. Rowling not using her full name - after the first book, you can't say that mattered any more. Everyone knew she was a woman by then, and yet males continue to read her books.

Answer 4

Like must true/false statements about human nature, this one can be both true and false. There are men, and then there are men.

I once had a student in a college English class--a recent veteran of Vietnam, a rock musician on the side, and a noted (and proud) womanizer. His favorite book as an adolescent boy had been The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. He told me it was the best boy's book he ever read, and it had turned him into a reader. He had even become an English major in college. When I told him that S. E. Hinton was Susan Hinton, he simply could not believe me. No seventeen-year-old girl could have written that good a book about boys' experiences, he insisted.

If it had shown up on a booklist in his school with the author's name, Susie Hinton, he certainly would not have read it. Publishers knew that, so they sometimes had women publish under pseudonyms or using only their initials. It wasn't the nature of the book; it was an adolescent macho predilection.

That said, it is certainly true that there are some books that most men like better than most women and vice versa. But like most generalizations about human beings, both of these are products of stereotypical thinking: "men don't like to read" and "when they do read, they like to read only books written by men."

Answer 5

False. Women authors write just as goob books as men. JK Rowling, Agatha Christe are a couple of the more well known

Answer 6

Well the Harry Potter books (written by a woman) are huge amongst men. Some of the greatest classics authors are female - Jane Austen, George Elliot (used a mans name as she feared what you say!)
If men don't like to read books by most of the comtemporary female authors it's probably because there is so much inane chick-lit around - bad Bridget Jones clones with idiot heroines... I don't want to read them either!

Answer 7

TRUE TRUE TRUE. I read sci fi / fantasy, but only male authors. I've wondered why too. I think it's because I immerse myself into the characters of the story, especially the main character, preferably a male. It's a form of escapism. And who better to write about a male, than a male? My favorites are Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, John Marco, George R. R. Martin, and David Eddings.
I thought David Eddings' work was good until his wife joined him in writing. (David and Leigh Eddings.)

This is why I think women authors choose pseudonyms that sound like male names, especially when writing sci fi/fant because many of the readers of that genre are men who only read male authors. Or, female authors use abbreviations of their name, like the author of Harry Potter.

Answer 8

That is so wrong... the men you're talking about are called misogynists... my favourite books are Harry Potter, written by JK Rowling, a woman. Of course, most men hate the kind of books "Men are from Mars, let's kill them" but, in fact, it doesn't matter who wrote the books if they are good. We're in XXI century, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman.

Answer 9

False

Answer 10

I would have to agree with you, I rarely read books by female authors simply because the stories don't appeal to me. It's probably as simple as that, female author write for a female audience and male writers write for a male audience, not many women read Tom Clancy novels.When it comes to non fiction, the sex of the author makes no difference, I have many nonfiction books by female authors.