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Sex and Reading: A Look at Who's Reading Whom
What do men and women want when it comes to books? Are they reading their own gender? And what do they think of books written by the opposite sex?
This year the #readwomen movement inspired us to take a closer look at where readers fall along gender lines. There's a lot of well-documented press about the fact that women's books tend to have "girly" covers instead of gender-neutral ones, and the VIDA count shows us that traditional book reviewers are predominantly male and books being reviewed in "top tier" publications are mostly by men.
Together with the stats team, engineers, and designers, we looked at a sample size of 40,000 active members on the site, 20,000 men and 20,000 women, to determine what they were reading and what they were liking.
So, enjoy this infographic! Let the debate begin. And as the year draws to a close, what's your 2014 reading list breakdown look like? Mostly men? Mostly women? About even? Take a look. You may be surprised.
Coming soon: For our next infographic, we'll take a genre-specific look at reading books—along gender lines. First up, literary fiction!
This year the #readwomen movement inspired us to take a closer look at where readers fall along gender lines. There's a lot of well-documented press about the fact that women's books tend to have "girly" covers instead of gender-neutral ones, and the VIDA count shows us that traditional book reviewers are predominantly male and books being reviewed in "top tier" publications are mostly by men.
Together with the stats team, engineers, and designers, we looked at a sample size of 40,000 active members on the site, 20,000 men and 20,000 women, to determine what they were reading and what they were liking.
So, enjoy this infographic! Let the debate begin. And as the year draws to a close, what's your 2014 reading list breakdown look like? Mostly men? Mostly women? About even? Take a look. You may be surprised.
Coming soon: For our next infographic, we'll take a genre-specific look at reading books—along gender lines. First up, literary fiction!
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Comments Showing 451-500 of 565 (565 new)
Currently, the books I like to read are predominantly written by women. Those tend to be urban fantasies and urban fairy tales with a lot of romance mixed into the storyline. Although occasionally I'll read one of Rick Riordan's books just because I love mythology and they are so well written.
The authors gender does not influence my choices, at all. In fact I consider it sexism to choose on that basis. Either way.When I go back and count up, I have seen a tendency toward male authors though.
I like a variety of genres. But dislike what I consider "mush", aka romance novels, intensely.
As far as I'm concerned, the gender of the author has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not I pick up a book. Half the time they just put their initials on the cover anyway, so their gender doesn't even enter my mind!Going back and counting, I have a slight tendency towards male authors, but I think this is essentially due to genre choice (i.e. I don't like chick lit).
Why all the commentary about how "i don't choose based on gender!"? They didn't say anything about people picking books by an authors gender. It's just information about how it plays out.
Merc wrote: "Why all the commentary about how "i don't choose based on gender!"? They didn't say anything about people picking books by an authors gender. It's just information about how it plays out."A combination of the first two lines of the heading/opening post, perhaps. And 4th paragraph. :). That and Natural Progression.
seing the first name of some authors, there are times when I don't even know (sometimes I pick books at random)and well, I still don't care as long as the book is great.
Of the 72 books I've read so far this year(not counting picture books), 50 are female authors and 22 are male authors.
Val wrote: "I find it very difficult to read while having sex(and don't say none of you were thinking that when you saw the heading."
LOL!
I don't choose a book based on the sex of the author. That being said when I discover a new author regardless of sex I like to continue reading books by that author. I honestly pick books based on genre more than anything else.
As long as the storyline is advertising I don't mind who wrote it!
To be honest, the gender of the author of the book I'm reading has never bothered me. In fact, I guess this is the first time I'm even thinking about that criteria. I love books by both men and women equally.P.S. I love all the statistics in this blog post...
I just had a look at my 2014 list and no joke, it's almost split 50/50 between male and female authors! I had to check on a couple because I actually didn't know whether authors S.J.Watson & R.S.Pateman were male or female.
interesting Statistics never realised it as we dont consciously select by gender but I think its true. May be the authour target gender based audience.
To be honest, I enjoy books from authors of both genders, although I do notice a difference in my pleasure. Books from women seem to be very emotional, written with much love and understanding of their characters, but usually with slower pace and the "feels" seem more important than the plot or the story. Books from men seem to be more action packed, with more plot, bigger in scope.But there are only my impressions and they might be wrong.
I don't consciously pick books based on gender but I do think it is important to look at what books you are picking up consciously. Let me leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghvo9...
I mostly focus on the gender and race of the characters.
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I'm far more interested in diversity when it comes to my reading choices. I've been seeking out and reading more novels featuring lead characters that aren't typically cis-gendered, male and Caucasian, written by mostly PoC authors. They are, no surprise, mostly female authors.
Alexander wrote: "To be honest, I enjoy books from authors of both genders, although I do notice a difference in my pleasure. Books from women seem to be very emotional, written with much love and understanding of t..."I kinda agree with you...books by females are more emotional and about the feelings whereas books by men deal more with action and plot. Though of course there are quite a few exceptions to this. For eg, John Green, Khaled Hosseini (male authors writing touching books) and Sidney Sheldon, Agatha Christie (female thriller authors).
For me the sex of the author is irrelevant, a good book is a good book. If I've read one book by a particular author and enjoyed it I'm more likely to pick up another of their books. If it's a series, and the first few are already out (I'm frequently late to the party) I tend to "Binge Read" a series until I'm caught up, so I might end up reading a lot of books by men in one go and very many by women and visa versa. I don't really look at the author and think "I won't read that because it was written by a guy".
Seriously? I think the books I read by a woman were the resident evil series. Oh, and Sheryl Sandberg's book. And Tina fey's book too. I only started reading books "for real" like one year ago, so I still have a lot, a lot of books to read. But what makes me read a book is not the author, but rather the subject. But then again, I read a lot of non-fiction.
Thanks for making me think about this!
Igor wrote: "I never have sex while reading."I know right? My glasses keep falling off.
When I read a book I don't discriminate against neither sex. As long as the book interests me and is written well, I don't mind who writes it.
Interesting, but to be honest, the author's gender is the last thing I pay attention to when I choose a book to read. I actually never pay attention to that, I just enjoy the book, and you will find in my shelfs both female and male excelent authors
Books don't have sex. Sex have those who reads them.
Georgia wrote: "Books don't have sex. Sex have those who reads them."Yes they do, where do you think pamphlets come from?
I don't pay attention much to gender, but I read genres that are traditionally more male-centric (science fiction, high fantasy) so I would love to see a breakdown by those categories.And yes, would also like to point out that some of those differences may not be statistically significant.
Elesha wrote: "When I read a book I don't discriminate against neither sex. As long as the book interests me and is written well, I don't mind who writes it."I like what you said. would you like to connect with me on goodreads?If you would like to connect with me on goodreads, go to this website:
https://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?i=...
Georgia wrote: "Books don't have sex. Sex have those who reads them."What are you talking about?FYI
Megan wrote: "Georgia wrote: "Books don't have sex. Sex have those who reads them."What are you talking about?FYI"If you're asking me, and not Georgia, I'm talking about the gender and sex of the author. For example, Robert Galbraith is a man (gender) but he is female-bodied or biologically female (sex) (as is JK Rowling).
Rebecca wrote: "Megan wrote: "Georgia wrote: "Books don't have sex. Sex have those who reads them."What are you talking about?FYI"If you're asking me, and not Georgia, I'm talking about the gender and sex of the..."
Thank You.
I don't really pay attention to what gender is the author. I do regarding the genre of the book itself.
I honestly don't pay attention to the gender of the author. If it's a good book or series, I'll read it.
Likely mentioned, but I find it amusing, how people (women especially due to the infographic), feel a great need to quickly justify that, hey, they are reading books by male authors, liking books by male authors, claiming gender is irrelevant(but yet felt the need to add in a tidbit about male authors), as if reading books predominantly by female authors, carries some kind of negative connotation. Like there is some fear, that heaven forbid, may you mostly enjoy books written by a being with a vagina! Amazingly, you don't see the opposite happening. You don't see tons of people(men), who read books by mostly male authors only, in a hurry to stand up to justify that they oh so love books written by women, just in case they are viewed as a "negative reader" or some such thing. And according to the infographic, most men don't even bother trying to read books by women. (80/20)
Oh women authors, you've still got a longer path to go, before your books are genuinely viewed on the same parity as male authors.
I was thinking the same thing. Misleading title.
When I look at what my friends are reading, the men read predominantly male authors while the women read both.
The books I read in 2014 *are* skewed toward more women authors (83 females vs 50 males) but that's only because I've been reading a ton of homesteading/canning/etc books, and those are way more often to be written by a woman. When I break it down still further, listing only the books I gave five stars to, it is divided almost perfect male/female, and I would say almost all my favorite fiction authors are male.
What I WANT is an embarrassing statistic on the bimbos rating books 5 stars when they even been published yet. I would love if that entire portion of Goodreads (the ones I refer to as the lonely and the sexually* frustrated who only read books with soft core porn) were just discounted from these statistics entirely.
Rachel wrote: "What I WANT is an embarrassing statistic on the bimbos rating books 5 stars when they even been published yet. I would love if that entire portion of Goodreads (the ones I refer to as the lonely an..."Hey, they're books too, sort of.
Sara wrote: "I don't really pay attention to what gender is the author. I do regarding the genre of the book itself."
When I read a book I don't care what the gender of the author is, I read the book if it's iteresting, and worth a lot of AR Points.
I like this, but why the focus on books written in 2014? I don't choose books based on how new they are and none of my friends do, either. It would probably be a better metric to look at ALL books that people read this year.
Jack wrote: "Yes they do, where do you think pamphlets come from?"Haha!! that was enough to change my point of view! Genious :)
Rebecca wrote: "This is about gender, not sex. FYI."Sure :) but you've got to admit, Jacks answer was great :p
Georgia wrote: "Jack wrote: "Yes they do, where do you think pamphlets come from?"Haha!! that was enough to change my point of view! Genious :)"
LOL'!!!!!!!!
Georgia wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "This is about gender, not sex. FYI."Sure :) but you've got to admit, Jacks answer was great :p"
Oh I feel so stupid!!!!! I guess I had my mind in the gutter!!!!!!! I always have my mind in the gutter!!!!!!!LOL!!!!!!!
Megan wrote: "Georgia wrote: Rebecca wrote: [...]Girls, I got confused on who's saying what about whom and what 's been written. :)
And as for me, to contribute to this thread, I find myself enjoying every book that'has a point to tell and that amazes me, and makes me wish its series was available in my hands.
Nicole wrote: "Likely mentioned, but I find it amusing, how people (women especially due to the infographic), feel a great need to quickly justify that, hey, they are reading books by male authors, liking books b..."It might have something to do with romance/erotica being one of the only genres dominated by female authors while also being very looked down upon. I get the sense that at least some of the women who've said something to that effect were trying to distance themselves from that genre and not women authors in general, but it still sucks that they felt the need to do that if they enjoy those kind of books.
Georgia wrote: "Megan wrote: "Georgia wrote: Rebecca wrote: [...]Girls, I got confused on who's saying what about whom and what 's been written. :)
And as for me, to contribute to this thread, I find myself e..."
What do you mean
David wrote: "Nicole wrote: "Likely mentioned, but I find it amusing, how people (women especially due to the infographic), feel a great need to quickly justify that, hey, they are reading books by male authors,..."My sentiments too, David. And well put!
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