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

I noticed only after reading the blog that,I don't pay attention to author's gender while selecting a book to read. I look at the ratings, the reviews, popularity and my friends' opinion while selecting a book.

Who cares whether a man or a woman wrote the book as long as you enjoy it.

Ashley wrote: "Who cares whether a man or a woman wrote the book as long as you enjoy it."

It's increasingly unfashionable to think like this nowadays but I couldn't agree more with your statement.

It makes no difference to me if the author of the book is male or female. If the book seems interesting, I'll read it!

Maybe it's not so much than men prefer books by men (consciously or unconsciously) and women prefer books by women, so much as a matter of genres.

For example, I expect romance is generally written predominantly by and for women, and war epics by and for men. Thus, if you are one of the many women who likes romance (I'm not!), you'll tend to prefer female authors.

Cecily wrote: "Maybe it's not so much than men prefer books by men (consciously or unconsciously) and women prefer books by women, so much as a matter of genres.

For example, I expect romance is generally writte..."

I think this is what it truly boils down too. But then again, my genre of choice is fantasy, which I would presume has a lot of female authors, and it still seems that my male to female authors read, is probably around 15 male to every 1 female. Maybe its because I prefer, Grimdark and or Sword & Sorcery?

I never think about the sex of the author, but I do think about the sex of the main character, which is in most cases female.

I always find myself pulled into reading something if it's a story that interests me or strikes my curiosity; author gender really has nothing to do with influencing the choice of what I read. And I can say this growing up - I didn't have a very heavily gendered gravitation towards certain authors or toys or any of that measure. So it's limiting to try to say - for many - that men and women tend to read more of their gender when we each have different experiences, preferences, and factors that influence what we read.

Now if we look at the gender of the MC (as Maja noted in the comment above mine), I do find that I read a lot of books that are written in the perspective of women, but even then, looking what I've read in the past year, it's been about an even spread for that as well.

I don't know, the statistics are interesting to note, especially if it gets people to notice details about their own individual reading habits, but I wouldn't necessarily make a blanket assumption based on that, because that quickly lends to unfair stereotypes and assumptions, especially with respect to gender here.

I read books by anyone, but I think women are often more likely to write the kinds of stories I am interested in and more likely to make great female characters who are there for more than sex and decoration. I know some male authors do that fine too--but just playing the averages, I tend to check out female authors first.

I too base my rating and review on the content of the book, I never considered the author's gender before except for one book which was criticizing women (written by a man Totally ignorant to a woman's mind). Otherwise it really doesn't matter to me.

This is a very surprising and interesting article!!

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 was shocked at the title as well! O_O

BlaiddDrwg wrote: "When I'm finding a new book to read I never think about the author actually. There are loads of books when I don't even remember the author's name (oops). If I like the story - I like it, if not - ..."
That's me in a nutshell :)

Linda wrote: "When I buy books I don´t look at the gender!!"

Me too! I am surprised its even a discussion. The sex of the author is the absolute last thing I look at when buying a book. Bizarre :D

I won't read novels by men, just don't like them, but I will read nonfiction written by men.

Rose wrote: "I always find myself pulled into reading something if it's a story that interests me or strikes my curiosity; author gender really has nothing to do with influencing the choice of what I read. And..."

Well said!

Lamiss 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 was shocked at the title as well! O_O"
That's strange. Because sex is biological only and gender can mean how a person identify themselves. For example a lady in a man's body. If it would be "gender and reading" there would be much more variables.

I read more of women authors and more of recent books. So essentially whatever said here is true by me.

Silkworm is written by a female, it's not fairly placed. I can't say who I enjoy most, I read anyone that comes my way!

The infogrphic idea is a nice one.

I'm sure that nobody consciously makes the decision about reading a book depending on the author's gender. I personally never go about choosing like this but i'm pretty certain that i'd see a bias on my own bookshelf that i didn't realise was there! :)

I don't pay much attention to the author's gender. And it looks like mine come out this year pretty much even.

I don't pay any attention to the gender of the author. I'm just looking for a good book to read when I read crime fiction. When I'm reading history or biography I want an author who writes well and has an interesting way of writing.

I honestly agree with this finding makes since

I rarely pay attention to the gender of the author in any given book I'm reading. I have noticed over time that certain genres seem to be populated by authors of one gender over another. For example, the majority of authors publishing horror and science fiction tend to be men, while romance and general fiction are mostly women (not a scientific study, just based on what I've seen come past my desk). As my favorite genres to read are science fiction, horror, and graphic novels, I see a lot more male authors than female.

Has anyone else noticed that authors of a particular gender are more prevalent in one genre over another?

I hardly ever read books by men. I'm not into 'plot heavy' stories and women mainly write characterisations, which I prefer.

Honestly, I don't look at the authors most of the time when picking a book. ^^;;; The exception is when I'm looking for books by a specific author that I like.

I kinda would like to run this kind of analysis on my own book shelf and see what comes up...

Saurabh wrote: "You could have used the title as "Gender and Reading" instead of "Sex and Reading"
Or are you in hunt of eyeballs?" Hahah I thought the same. I saw "Sex and Reading," and only clicked on it because...well.

Virginia wrote: "I hardly ever read books by men. I'm not into 'plot heavy' stories and women mainly write characterisations, which I prefer."

I feel the exact same way:)

Personally the author's gender doesn't matter to me but I really like these stats. It's cool to know.

Please excuse my language, but this is a complete bullshit.


No real readers care about the gender of the authors.

Zalinia wrote: "Please excuse my language, but this is a complete bullshit.


No real readers care about the gender of the authors."

No I do not forgive your language and it is your absolutist and fascist statement that is bullshit.

People are free to choose in whatever manner that best works for them including by sex (yes I mean sex and not gender) if they have discovered that male or female authors suit their requirements.

V.W. wrote: "Zalinia wrote: "Please excuse my language, but this is a complete bullshit.


No real readers care about the gender of the authors."

No I do not forgive your language and it is your absolutist an..."

If there choose based on sex, then it creates discrimination. The same with job recruitment.

I confess when I saw the title&preview, my first thought wasn't about gender.

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."

I like the idea of Goodreads publishing interesting findings, retrieved out of their unique vast amount of data.

Please go on with this!

For example the same could be done for ages, the interweaving of genre-preferences and much more.

You could find some inspiration (and similar stuff for all people who enjoy such things) here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataIsBeautiful

I recently looked in my cache of books read, reading, and to-read, and all except three were written by males.

This isn't because I prefer books by men, but because men tend to write what I like. Heavy sci-fi with lots of action . Dark horror minus the vamps and love story and cut-throat story arcs. Fast paced thrillers with catchy dialogue and intense action. And historical novels about figures in history that I admire - Ben Franklin, George Washington blah blah blah.

So if more women wrote what I liked, then I would have more of their books in my collection. I believe most men would would feel the same way.

I have ADD and if the first sentences in the paragraph on the first chapter doesn't hold my attention.. I cannot read it.

In all honesty a good book is a good book & nothing else matters to me. I have read good books in genre's I normally don't like to read. It has never mattered to me what sex the author was but I do admit I do read more by men than women. I think that has to do with the genre's I read more than a personal choice of the sex of the author. I will admit my top 3 authors are men but I have more that a few women in my top ten list. Margaret Weis, Mary Stewart, Anne Rice {fav living female writer}, Marion Zimmer Bradley, & the Grand Dame "Anne McCaffrey" with honorable mention to Elaine Cunningham & Andre Norton {this is a woman actually}. So to me it matters not the gender, age, nationality, culture, ethnicity or sexual or religious preference {as long as they are not trying to convert me with their text}.

Lola wrote: "It would be interesting to see be reading preferences broken down by genre as well. Do men read more non-fiction than women? What subgenres have the most overlap? How do covers matter in ebook vs. traditional books?"

I was thinking this as well. Never read a complete ebook myself. I love the tactile struggle of holding a book as my fingers start to hurt after several hours of reading. {I tend to read while laying down, makes the blood run out of my fingers.}

I just read the books that are cool! Now it's not my fault most of the popular dystopia these days is written by women. Lauren Oliver, Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, Marie Lu, Cassandra Cass, Lauren DeStefano, and so on and so forth.
However, I am also a fan of Neal Shusterman and Rick Yancey. I'm sure most of the Goodreaders frequenting the dystopian genre will agree that in the YA dystopia genre, the majority authors at this point seem to be women. On the other hand, dystopia itself is a gender neutral genre, and (if I may be so bold as to say), arguably even a male-oriented one.

P.S. I'm a girl!

I don't personally care what the sex of the author is so long as I find the book interesting. I think that is true of most people. I am affected by who the target audience is, however. If the target audience is eight year old girls, I am not likely to read the book. The same is true of fantasy books clearly marketed to women of any number of demographics or books marketed to manly men (most war books I've seen). I generally am turned off by both as I feel excluded or otherwise uninterested. I simply don't care about vampires or the nitty gritties of war. I am far more likely to respond to general target marketing. If the book sounds interesting, I will pick it up and give it a shot. Otherwise I will pass for more promising prospects. I don't care what the author's sex is.

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

Because gender and sex are different concepts, and in this case, sex is correct.

"SEX is either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions."

"GENDER is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity."

I feel like I can connect more with the writing of female authors. But, that does not mean I limit myself. I will enjoy a book as long as it is good LOL.

Natasha wrote: "I recently looked in my cache of books read, reading, and to-read, and all except three were written by males.

This isn't because I prefer books by men, but because men tend to write what I like...."

When I reflected on my reading habits and realized that all but two of my 'favorite authors' on here are men, and probably 85% percent of the books I read are by men, I basically came to the same conclusion. At the same time, there are definitely FANTASTIC female fantasy authors out there who don't get as much publicity as the men in their genre, and I haven't made an effort to seek them out and I do feel bad about that because Patricia A. McKillip is my newest obsession, and I would have found her a lot sooner if I made an effort to balance out my gender reading habits.

I definitely recommend her if you're looking for some great female-penned epic fantasy. Alphabet of Thorn is a good book to start with, although 80% of her bibliography consists of standalone works (which I think is really refreshing), so you have a LOT of options.

Hopefully aspiring writers will not take such a study as a sign that they must write for a particular demographic; surely there are enough grindingly familiar mechanical efforts to do so out there already. A book born of passion and inspiration is entirely distinguishable from one born of an assembly line, formula mentality. The results of this study are mostly what would be expected. I personally don't consider the author's gender when reading; the book either compels me or doesn't.

David wrote: "Natasha wrote: "I recently looked in my cache of books read, reading, and to-read, and all except three were written by males.

This isn't because I prefer books by men, but because men tend to wr..."
Thanks, I'll check her out!

I don't care about who writes the book: men, women, transgenders, asexual, aliens, etc. As long as the book interests me, I will read it :)

Interesting subject. As a male author with a female protagonist I really enjoy writing her, her being the title character Amy Lynn. I have an equal number of male and female reviews so I can only surmise I have written a book both genders like. I didn't think about this while writing I just focused on her as a person who happens to be a girl/woman.

What's been bugging me lately is the way I see many women writing men.You either have the wealthy macho dark master of kink and multiple orgasms or the fantasy of marrying the gay boyfriend Neither of which is remotely relatable or interesting to most men.

I don't read very many new books, and even though I'm female, I read a lot of genres that are supposed to be "mannish"--most especially Westerns, but also sf, fantasy, and mystery. Since the writers of these (except for cozy mysteries) tend overwhelmingly to be male, male writers are what I read the most of.

Levi wrote: "The interpretation of "In the first year of publication men's books have a 50/50 audience, women's books have an 80/20 audience" is NOT "everyone likes their own gender more," it's "women read book..."

Sort of like, girls often play with boys' toys (and ride boys' bikes), but boys (generally speaking) won't be caught dead playing with a "girls' toy" or riding a girl's bike. Intriguing.

I like books written by both sexes depending on what I'm in the mood to read, but I suspect I've read more female authors this year. A good question to ask is who the main character is? Is the character male or female and do we prefer one gender over another for a lead character?