Comments on: So what don’t women read?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:54:00 +0000

The womens i'm working with 'read' about detective stories, tv magazines, supermarket magazines, famous people life in magazines, and stories about couple, or actuality, and family, i think that's all.

But it's only a part of the tendancy as students read about many things, and we have so many girls studying...

Harry Potter was succesfull in France, And Bernard Werber was quite read those last years (stories about Ants).

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:33:00 +0000

Actually there are a helluva lot of men who have written books with cats taking a big role -

Paul Gallico's Thomasina, Tad Williams (Tailchaser's Song),Bryce Courtney's Matthew Flinder's Cat, Cordwainer Smith, David Drake's Coerli creatures who were catlike, and so on.

Maybe cats and mysteries just don't mix?? (According to the original commentator)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:20:00 +0000

That's just it. Three words:

Men. Don't. Read.

Oh, of course there are some, but the average male doesn't read fiction.

Personally, I am becoming a bit tired of the must-have female protagonist. Frankly, I enjoy a book just as much whether a character is male or female. Underneath, we're about 90% the same. I enjoy reading about the other 10%.

Yes, I read techie SF. Loved the kzinti, but I specially loved the other alien (what was his name? Nessus?) who spent much time curled up in a ball. I also liked the science. It is totally possible to do both.

By: Jo

Jo — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 05:53:00 +0000

Elizabeth Moon goes in for female protagonists. Come to that, so does Glenda in her Mirage series. Asaro certainly uses a lot of heroines too – in fact I find many authors do these days. Female starship captains abound. Another is the Honor Harrington series, by David Weber. Honor is as female as they come, but she commands starships too.

By: Satima Flavell

Satima Flavell — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:58:00 +0000

Ah, I'll bet Catherine Asaro's stories are full of credible characters with interesting interpersonal relationships, as well as being techie. I think some writers can do both.

There was an interesting article in The Age newspaper this morning wherein writers, teachers,editors and publishers bemoaned the fact that to get boys to read at all we must give them lots of action and adventure. Sadly, action and adventure, even today, tend to glorify the male stereotype, which by implication, puts down females because they don't usually have the heroic roles (and boys apparently won't read about them if they do) so the stereotype is reinforced in the minds of children, both boys and girls.

By: Jo

Jo — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:57:00 +0000

I read techie books, if they are sci fi that is, Catherine Asaro, a woman, writes very scientific sci fi books.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:02:00 +0000

I always thought it was more my lack of scientific background (except in a very biological/environmentalist sense) and therefore no ability to understand it that turned me off techie SF. It’s an interesting thought that’s my female gender at work…

By: hrugaar

hrugaar — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:09:00 +0000

I wonder, did the Kzinti (being cat-like aliens) make Niven’s Known Space sf series more accessible to women readers? Just a thought… 😉

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:21:00 +0000

So techie SF remains basically male readership because of its technical nature? Must admit, I did find Eon by Greg Bear a hard slog…

By: Satima Flavell

Satima Flavell — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:51:00 +0000

I don’t read porn or gratuitous horror and a lot of blokes apparently do. Nor do I read techie stuff about cars, computers, cameras or machines of any kind, and again, a lot of blokes do. I sure some women read these things as well but if we did some field research I’d bet we wouldn’t find many. As Jung said, men are more interested in things, women in people.