Comments on: Girls don’t read fantasy.

By: Jay Bendt

Jay Bendt — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:40:22 +0000

I adore epic fantasy, and was introduced to it with Wheel of Time (as much as I love the movie adaptations of Lord of the Rings, I find it incredibly hard to read Tolkien, for some odd reason)… ever since I started reading WoT, and will read anything I can get my hands on. It is sad somebody would make such a statement without a bigger understanding of the fantasy audience at large.

By: Rowena Cory Daniells

Rowena Cory Daniells — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:40:34 +0000

Keep up the good fight, Glenda!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:28:06 +0000

I started out with books like Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree, and I was probably six or seven at the time? My primary reading genre IS fantasy – I don't really like to stray away from what I know and what I love. Occasionally, I'll dip into a bit of Stephen King or some Chuck Palahniuk. Yourself, Glenda, Robin Hobb and Isobelle Carmody to name a few females, Patrick Rothfuss (amazing) and Garth Nix on the male side.

I haven't read the Game of Thrones Series, yet. But I intend to.

It seems an ignorant summation to suggest that the primary market for fantasy novels is men.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:43:37 +0000

Come to think of it, my first fantasy read as an adult was because of a recommendation from a woman too — my sister.

By: Sean Wright

Sean Wright — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:54:17 +0000

My first adult book was Lord of the Rings recommended to me by my "female" cousin.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:05:00 +0000

I used to spend quite a bit of my time on that board. It's odd that this was even mentioned since many of the members are *gasp* female and therefore you would assume they've read some fantasy- especially since they're posting about it.

By: Helen V.

Helen V. — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:49:11 +0000

I certainly read fantasy – have pretty much read books by all the writers you and others have listed and many more. I read other genres too, of course, but speculative fiction is my first preference.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:53:03 +0000

I must say I was sooooo astonished by some of those comments. I thought the perceived (also rather wobbly) general perception was that women read fantasy and men read science fiction.

However, so many of the comments seem to agree with the statement without giving any thought to the idea. And without considering just how many great women fantasy writers of epic, large canvas worlds there are out there. My list was very perfunctory!

I suspect this buys into the perception — for which there is considerable evidence — that there are a great many men out there who won't read women writers.

They know not what they miss…

By: Grack21

Grack21 — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:03:21 +0000

Well, you can't ask Sara Douglas anymore. 🙁

Nice list though. Kerr has been doing gritty medieval fantasy before GoT was even a blip on the radar. (No offensive to thrones, I love it).

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:34:42 +0000

My wife reads fantasy, Tolkien, MZB, Roberson, Butcher.

It's a close run thing as to who is the bigger Tolkien fan, certainly I'm the more competitive

My mum read LoTR when it first came out & my wife got her into MZB

I have several female friends & colleagues who like Fantasy & SF

Silly, silly notion