Do you read books by authors of your own gender?

[Ea]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Changing the phrasing after the votes have already been cast only compounds the problems.

Poll questions are only referring to preference, not 'choice'.

[beppe]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Wow! I just looked at the last 47 books I read and none of them were by women. I did just start a Margaret Atwood book. . .

I don't think I choose books based on the gender of the writer but now I'm beginning to wonder.

I do tend to read SF, action/adventure, hard boiled, and fantasy. That must have something to do with it.

If you like SF you might like Ursula K. Le Guin.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

No, it isn't. To "choose books written by men", you have to choose to not to read books written by women even though there are books in your chosen genre written by women. Unless you are choosing books because they are written by men, the fact that they happen to be written by mostly men is incidental.

For instance, I read books by China Miéville even when I assumed that China Miéville was a woman (I'd never heard of anyone named "China", but it sounded more like a woman's name than a man's name.) The fact that China Miéville turned out to be a man was utterly irrelevant-- as it would have been if China Miéville had really been a woman.

I would say that "choose books written by men" can mean either "choose books because they are written by men", or it can mean "choose books that happen to be written by men". You didn't chose to read a book by China Miéville because it was written by a man, but you certainly did choose to read a book that happened to be written by a man. Many people have reported in this thread that, on checking their bookshelves they find that they have chosen books that are predominantly written by one gender or another - but few of them set out to read only male, or only female authors.

[carld]

Originally Posted by carld

I don't have a specific preference for male authors, but I do prefer male main characters. That does lead me to read more male than female authors as a consequence.

Now that I think about it, I've been reading the Sookie Stackhouse books as fast as I can get them. I counted through about 125 books I have in Calibre and, with some guessing, came up with about a 75/50 male/female author split.

[Barcey]

The sex of the author isn't a decision point for me but when I look through my library I do have more male authors then female authors. Of course I'm just going buy the names, I didn't do this scientifically and peek.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by TGS

I would say that "choose books written by men" can mean either "choose books because they are written by men", or it can mean "choose books that happen to be written by men".

But the poll questions were "prefer to read books by X." Could this conflict here possibly be over subtle differences between the structure of English and Danish? (I see you and Ea are both in Denmark.) In English, saying that "I prefer books written by men" is pretty unambiguous in meaning that "the reason I chose these books is because a man wrote them"-- it is a statement of deliberate choice.

The two sentences "I prefer mostly books written by men." and "Men write most of the books I prefer." do not mean the same thing in English, though I image in the structure of some languages (maybe Danish, maybe not) they might.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by Ea

A discussion here about men and women authors and male and female readership made me curious about whether people primarily read authors of their own gender.

So taking into account both the gender of the authors you read in general - as well as your favourite authors - is there a bias towards a gender, and is it the same as you own?

At first I thought, yes, I read more women authors than men, but when I looked at my book case and calibre library, and also trying to add my favourite authors to the equation, I think I end up with roughly half of each.

I am adding favourite authors to the question as it also says something about what we like. For example, one's favourite author may not necessarily have written a lot of books and hence won't feature largely with regards to amount.

Publishers must believe in gender bias, otherwise, why do so many women authors just use initials? It's kind of like looking through a phonebook, you just assume the entries with an initial and a last name are women!

[ellimak]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Women writers are legion. Women writers who aspire to "serious" literature are probably still way fewer than men in the same field. There are other factors of course (some subjects are considered more feminine or masculine than others, independently of perceived literary value), but basically, I think it's still very hard for most people to envision anything a woman does, apart from raising a family, as "serious" or "important" stuff. Things are changing, of course and happily, but deep down there is still more prejudice than we'd like to believe.

The women who write romance novels are the unsung heroines of the publishing industry. They keep the business afloat. Unfortunately, most of these women (often very talented writers) will never get the respect that they deserve. It isn't so much that the genre is limited -- there are scores of brilliantly written romance novels. Admittedly, even a century or two ago, romance novels were a bit of a joke (hence Northanger Abbey). At that time, it was definitely because romance novels were read by women and were therefore inherently frivolous.

Today though, I think it's the marketing that does romance novels in. When your book is sold in the supermarket next to OK! magazine and bubblegum, you necessarily lose respectability. Of course, from a business perspective, selling the books this way is a brilliant move. It just detracts from the authors.

[voodoo_pepperweb]

I went through my log of books read and found it was 40% women authors and 60% men. Not bad at all, considering I mainly read fantasy and science fiction.

[Xanthe]

I don't buy or read books specifically based upon the author's gender - that is immaterial to me.

But having said that, I'd say that the majority of my books are by women authors, mainly because they are the main writers of books that have a strong romance element, be they mystery/suspense, paranormal, fantasy, scifi or just general fiction/romance - which I enjoy.

The books in my collection that are by male writers tend to be non-fiction, scifi, fantasy and mystery.

BUT - that author who's at the top of my collection list (with 44 books, some multiples of the same book due to hardcover/paperback/audiobook versions) is David Weber. The next time a male author shows up, though, is at #15 (Eric Flint). In my collection, out of the top 35 authors shown, only 5 are men.

[nguirado]

I don't read books by women. Sometimes, I'm tempted- I almost picked up Pride and Prejudice before settling on Middlemarch-but I always end up with a guy book.

[jhempel24]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

How many female authors have you actually read?

You don't like romance and you don't like to read about screwing, OK, I can understand that. But assuming that just because a woman is writing, those two elements will be present... that's just not true.

I can give you some examples of books written by women where there is no or very little romance. Margaret Atwood comes to mind. As for the screwing, that's very easy. Anything written before the 20th century, and much of what was written in the first half of the 20th, whether written by men or women, has absolutely no screwing at all.

Can't talk about the action scenes though, as I am not that interested in them myself.



Well yes, the question annoyed me, but it doesn't mean that you were wrong to ask. What annoys me, really, is the assumptions people make about men and women (such as the one I replied to above). I'm sorry you felt attacked, and it's certainly not personal. The whole subject of men and women tends to switch me into an aggressive mode.

The genres I like to read are generally fantasy, and science fiction, and thriller/suspense.

I've tried to read several women authors, when it comes to action, the writing doesn't cut it, it's boring...and it doesn't have to be blood and guts, it just has to make sense, 90% of the time, it doesn't, when it comes to fantasy, it seems there has to be a buff sex object (not just a romantic interest, Jackqulyn Carey, Kelley Armstrong), the same goes for thriller/suspense (Sandra Brown, Kay Hooper, Sue Grafton) And anything written before the 20th century I don't read anyway, male or female, I find it very very boring. And in science-fiction, it's just not hard enough science for me, and there always seems to be a love interested forced in there. And it feels forced too.

And to assume what it will be based on my reading experience and 90% of the women authors I've read, yeah, I think I have EVERY right to make the assumption.

[recluse]

Most of the books I read are written by men. Mainly because of the whole romance/sex issue. I don't care about the characters lovelifes. I definately don't want to read about them. I skip sex scenes and romantic interludes.
I'm not sure what this says about me, and frankly I don't give a damn.

Bottom line: most women can't write horror and they can't write noir.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I've just discovered Margaret Atwood. Not a lot of romance THERE!

There is romance in 'The Blind Assassin' and 'Oryx and Crake' iirc.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Maggie May

About 90% of my eBooks are written by female authors, mainly American. There's no particular reason for this except the genre I like to read (murder, mystery, romance) is mainly written by women authors.

Or at least, written by people using female pseudonyms....