Are there enough books published about the male experience?

[Alice]

Hello all!
I urge you to head on over to the Telegraph website and read this fantastic, thought-provoking article written by my Jamie Fewery..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinki...
I completely agree that there need to be more books published which describe the male experience - there are so many books on what it is like to be a woman, why don't they exist for men? Is it because no-one is writing them? Or because publishers aren't choosing to publish them? Or because they wouldn't have a large consumer market? What do YOU think?

[Gerd]

Honestly, I think there's enough books written about, by and for men as it is.
If those are not widely enough read or published at all then it might be because the male mind is no pleasant place to be. :)

Not having read Hornby ever, even his more appealing sounding books didn't ever appeal to me, isn't that a niche authors like John Green fall into?

[Natalie]

I tend to agree - there aren't many romance books with the male point of view, which has always struck me as odd. Daniel Wallace's Charlotte Street was a great contemporary romance novel, all from the male POV. For me and my tastes, I prefer to read both sides, and that's what I write about.

That being said, I think that outside of romance, there's plenty.

[Robert]

I beg to differ. The techno-thriller, science fiction and fantasy categories are dominated by stories by, for and about men. If you need an excellent sample of these books, check out the free online library at Baen Books. While almost half of their authors are women, the books by men tend to be very "manly" in tone and structure.

If you are looking exclusively for romances told by men for men about men, then yes, you have a point. However, other than a self help book on the subject written by a team from GQ, I doubt I would have read it even when I could have used it.

[James]

A very good point Alice. I hadn't realised how few novels I've read have been from the mans perspective with regards to love.

Sadly, Robert I don't tend to read much science fiction or fantasy which may be why I've not come across much.

I did however, enjoy Alexander McCall Smiths 44 Scotland Street as it did dig into the mans perspective well.

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks is another great read, highlighting with the main character being a man - we follow his journey through war stricken Europe.

Has anyone got any good recommendations for novels that are written from this male point of view?

[Gerd]

Natalie wrote: "I tend to agree - there aren't many romance books with the male point of view,..."

I don't know.
We do have Nicholas Sparks, who may alone be able to fill a bookshelf, and then there's Nicolas Barreau who seems pretty popular currently... I guess if I dig long enough I can think of more.


James wrote: "Has anyone got any good recommendations for novels that are written from this male point of view?"

I've read neither of those named.

But I do tend to think that Richard Matheson got the male psyche across quite well in his "The incredible shrinking man".

[Alex]

Going back to the original article, the author's thesis is that 15-20 years ago Hornby and others were writing specifically for a market of young men, and that no-one is now writing for that market. I'm not sure the market he is thinking of ever existed: who was buying these books 15-20 years ago? I think it most likely that the market was largely middle-aged men, wanting to reimagine their dull lives!

Young men, then and now, if they read at all are much more likely to be reading bang-bang action thrillers, and it would be a brave publisher or author who attempted to go against that!