Sex and Reading: A Look at Who's Reading Whom

Even if the statistical analysis is poor, the responses back it up. There isn't a single woman who were at one time or still is sceptical towards male authors, while the reverse happens, and it doesn't happen that rarely.

I love the Lunar Chronicles. Always excited to read the next book. I will say I did not think this was about gender. For a minute I thought Goodreads was going to have something about erotica fiction. Can tell where my mind goes.

Honestly though, I read a lot of women writers. Love female fiction and prefer it over male fiction. I also like when males write good leading ladies or women writing good leading lads.

Saurabh wrote: "You could have used the title as "Gender and Reading" instead of "Sex and Reading"
Or are you in hunt of eyeballs?"

I don't know. In my eighth-grade English grammar class, our teacher told us over and over that "words have gender, people have sex." Gender is the range of masculine/feminine, while sex is about whether you're a man or a woman. So technically, the title is right, I believe.
But yeah, people use gender generally...

Angie wrote: "Saurabh wrote: "You could have used the title as "Gender and Reading" instead of "Sex and Reading"
Or are you in hunt of eyeballs?"

I don't know. In my eighth-grade English grammar class, our tea..."

They were simply wanting to attract more attention to the charts,I don't understand why people are putting so much thought into it...

It is true that if a cover of a book is "girly" I tend to stay away. However, if the cover is overly violent in appearance I will stay away from that too. My favourite authors are men and women, equally. I steer clear of romance, mostly not fantasy and sci-fi. There are a few notable differences between women and men writers in the styles of writing, but I don't prefer one over the other. The differences make for interesting reading.

Lately I've been reading more men but that's because I'm reading classics and most classics were written by men, so...

Yasmin wrote: "It is true that if a cover of a book is "girly" I tend to stay away. However, if the cover is overly violent in appearance I will stay away from that too. My favourite authors are men and women,..."

agreed and well said

It's nice to see stats, but I choose books based on their level of interest for me. I'll read a wide variety of genres no matter who writes them. :)

I find it interesting how many people say they think they don't read female/male authors because they write about a certain topic or genre. Where is the data that supports that? Are you just buying into gendered generalizations? (probably.)

One of the Five Books by Men that Women are reading is Robert Galbraith's The Silkworm? Anyone else spotted the error?

I'm a vivid reader I don't mind the sex of the authors . I love reading . Period .

I'm reading mostly Historical Romance and most of the authors are women but I'm ok with reading material from either male or female.

interesting summary ^^ thank you dear GR ;)

Mark wrote: "One of the Five Books by Men that Women are reading is Robert Galbraith's The Silkworm? Anyone else spotted the error?"

This has been brought up at least 20 times in the thread, starting a few comments in. But the data is valid since many of the people buying the books may not know the author is JK Rowling, and think they are buying a book written by a man based on name and cover design.

I think the people who are saying they don't consider gender miss the point of the question. Very few people consciously choose writers of a specific sex or gender. That would be ridiculous. What is in question is the subconscious response, and of course the unconscious response to marketing. I certainly don't choose female writers intentionally, and my favorite writers are mostly misogynist men --Roth, Bellow, Updike, etc.-- but a review on books I have read in the past year skews significantly female. I suspect I am often buying what marketing professionals want me to buy. Cover design and blurbing matters.

Booklovinglady wrote: "Jacinta wrote: "How about some analysis on whether we prefer authors from our own country? For example I generally prefer to read a British or Australian author over an American author which may be..."

Yeah, I'm British and I do like reading British authors (possibly because it's a little more familiar), but some of my favourite authors are American.
There's a red line under my spelling of "favourite". Damn you, Autocorrect.

I don't really care about an author's gender. However, I read mostly YA books, and i find that most of those books are written by women (kind of interesting...)

☯☥Kɴɪᴇᴋᴀ ❝We read to know that we are not alone.❞☥☯ wrote: "Amber wrote: "☯☥Kɴɪᴇᴋᴀ ❝We read to know that we are not alone.❞☥☯ wrote: "Amber wrote: "I will read anything that catches my eye, regardless of the author's gender!

Kneka: "To be honest, I've neve..."

Didn't start reading until AFTER I'd seen the first movie... .

When I am reading fiction, I do not care what gender one chooses to describe himself/herself. When it comes to non-fiction, I am interested in knowing the background of the author. Also, I read a lot of non fiction on gender, sexuality and womanhood so my choices in non fiction are often those written by women.

Actually... The Silkworm is not written by a man. Robert Galbraith is JK Rowling's pseudonym. Not that I pick books based on the gender of the author; I could care less if a male or female wrote the book. Now I am guilty of judging books by their covers... BUT that's another story. :)

Emily wrote: "Actually... The Silkworm is not written by a man. Robert Galbraith is JK Rowling's pseudonym. Not that I pick books based on the gender of the author; I could care less if a male or female wrote th..."

That's what I said in my last general update.

For me, it's about the story, not the author. I seldom remember an author's name unless I truly loved the story, and I don't remember ever deciding to read a book because it was written by a woman or man.

I don't judge books by the cover or by the author's name or gender - if the story sounds interesting or if it's about a topic that appeals to me, I read it.

I must the exception to the rule. Of the 84 books I've read this year, 50 were by men and 34 by women. I must be more attracted to "manly" covers.

Bonnie wrote: "I think the people who are saying they don't consider gender miss the point of the question. Very few people consciously choose writers of a specific sex or gender. That would be ridiculous. What i..."

Yes, somehow I doubt all the folks who say they don't notice or care are reading equal numbers of men and women... ;)

I do choose many more books by women than men these days though, because I'm tired of male authors creating flat female characters or women whose entire existence is built around men.

Bonnie wrote: "I think the people who are saying they don't consider gender miss the point of the question. Very few people consciously choose writers of a specific sex or gender. That would be ridiculous. What i..."

Exactly!

I don't care what gender the author is. If the synopsis is good I read it. I just for some random reason read more of female authors. I think it because more YA books are written by women over men. I don't know but, cool idea. Although, it doesn't really judge the opinion of which gender author we prefer. This really just show which gender author is read the most.

The gender of the author is interesting, but as we have seen it can also be deceiving (e.g.Robert Galbraith). What I would like to know is do genders read books with the same gender as the main character/protaganist. I work in the chilren/YA area of a library and am amazed at how girls will read books with either genders as main characters, but boys more often then not (not always and not all boys) won't read books with female main characters, especially in action/adventure heroine roles. Even the "Guys Read" program (established to encourage boys particularly reluctant readers to read) emphasizes male main characters and male authors. This is where the gender issue needs to be addressed if we want to engcourage equality in writing, reveiwing and publishing.

I hosnestly don't care at all about the author of a book when I am finding something to read. I know it's bad, but I almost always judge a book by it's cover, after that comes the synopsis. If they both seem cool I'll read the book. It's only after I finished(or if somone asks what I am reading) will I look at the author. I don't think it is the gender of the author that matters, only the quality of their writing.

Thin infographic could definitely be more informative.

I tend to stray away from female author books

I never pay attention to the gender of the author, but I do admire an author who can do an amazing job of writing from the point of view of the opposing sex (for example the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley).

Lynda wrote: "Intrigued by your question, I just reviewed the books I'd read this year:

Written by men = 67%
Written by women = 33%

Not a conscious decision, but interesting nevertheless!"

haha I just did the same, and I got the opposite of you!

Nice infographic !
It's the work of the author that makes me hooked in reading regardless of the gender.

Most of these statistics are not very significant, as far as numbers go. Personally, the gender of the author is completely irrelevant. I am just as happy reading books by men with a female protagonist as I am reading books by women with a male protagonist, or reading a book where the author's protagonist is their gender. I see no difference in genders and writing style.

Numbers are vague and irrelevant, because it is simply a small sampling, not even close to reality.

Interesting, I don't really notice if the author is women or men. I usually pay attention to the main character. If i like what i read only then do i notice who actually wrote it. I usually pick books base on the synopsis and the first paragraph. If they grab my attention ....i'm reading it

Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby calcify those boundaries."

I agree. The interesting part though is that most of the times such discussions are opened by... women! We encourage and perpetuate sexism and then we yell at men because they don't think of us as equals.

I already had the feeling that I read much more books by men than by women, mostly because I don't like genres that are more targeted to women (romance) (this is maybe changing in the last couple of years).
I recall reading someone else's blog where there were their reading stats for 2013, and they mentioned the author's genre, that I consciounsly made the thought "I want to try to read more books by women". Looking at my stats for this year, out of 47 books I only read 13 by women, so clearly it's not working.

Is there a way to quickly filter from our read shelf the number of books for author's genre?

Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby calcify those boundaries."

Because radical feminism (hating men for being men and disguising it as a quest for equality) has never been more mainstream. There will always be somebody, somewhere who can look at this and use it as a tool to demonstrate how terrible men are.

You're absolutely right, but this kind of thing is what people want now. Everyone loves the illusion of being oppressed.

Robert wrote: "Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby calcify those boundaries."

Because radical feminism (hating men..."

Is it really an illusion? Oppression is a big word, but we don't have equality.

I think these graphics are bad because they aren't slightly representative and they always have to use the dichotomy as if there are only two genders. But i don't think they're used to demonstrate that men are awful, how should that work?

Maybe i'm on exactly the right websites and newssites etc., because i don't see much auf radical feminism and especially not radical feminism that is mainstream...

Michaela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby calcify those boundaries."

Because radical femin..."

You've obviously never heard of Tumblr, the Guardian website comments section, or Cosmopolitan then.

Robert wrote: "Michaela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby calcify those boundaries."

Beca..."

Of the 105 blogs i'm following on tumblr, there is not one which is promoting radical feminism. There is actually a lot of stuff against the notion that radical feminism is becoming mainstream these days.

If a small group is yelling really loud, it will seem as if they are really big... Just like Gamergate.

Michaela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Michaela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby calcify those bou..."

That is kind of true, but extreme and simple ideas are very appealing to people, and most people are idiots. That's what's alarming.

It's much easier to make massive generalisations about how bad everything everywhere is for women and how all men love raping than actually live in the real world.

If the book is good, I'm open to anything, but I generally always prefer books written by women when I'm done, not out of prejudice, but I prefer their way of telling their stories, I can relate to them.

I usually don't pay attention to an author's gender when choosing a book, it just doesn't matter to me, nor do i feel either sex's writing interest me more. However, I love the infographic, it was really interesting!

Out of the 25 books I've read this year (I know, its sad), 17 books were written by female authors and 8 by men. I guess that makes sense since this year since I've read mostly YA, which has a predominantly female author base.

It doesnt matter, does it? but one can definitely point out the difference in narration between a typical male and female writer. Not that it matters. Its just my opinion.

Robert wrote: "Michaela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Michaela wrote: "Robert wrote: "Arnav wrote: "Why is EVERYTHING these days phrased in gender terms? These very analyses make people think in those terms and thereby ..."

I think people like having illusions about a fair world even more. There are a lot of studies about that, like degrading the victims so you don't have to think life is unfair for having them made victims. It is much fairer if they provoked it.

I'm from germany so i know only the statistics here, but i don't think they will be better elsewhere. At least 13% of women living in germany are victims of sexual assault in their life. From all the cases when victims go to the police, only 25% of rape cases go before court

I'm against all these "all men"-statements, but you can't deny that rape is an issue everywhere. And that most of the time it's male on female rape. That it's belittled in society (50 shades of grey, Hush hush, the storyteller, to name only three very popular books featuring sexual pressure/assault against women being called "love" or "consensual") and that this won't change without bringing it to attention again and again.

I would have loved some statistics about the gender of the hero in all those books, instead of the authors. I think that's the thing that's more important. I don't care what gender the author is, but i'm always sad how small the stack of books on my reading list is, that actually features women as main characters...

I loved this research, but I must confess that I never really paid attention to the gender of the author I'm reading ._. now I'll try to pay more attention XD