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I'm having a particularly busy week, and apologize for missing yesterday and last Friday... but I loved this article from the UK-based "In These Times" and thought you would, too. Are women readers of fiction and men not? What do you think?

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• #7 Comment from happinessdreams 
  8/30/06 5:11 PM | Permalink

  i am woman who loves everything...so, i don't know on this one.
  eli
• #6 Comment from bobandkate 
  8/30/06 3:54 PM | Permalink

  I am a woman who loves non-fiction - history, archaeology, ancient literature etc. But I also read fiction - although not the typical female novels - I read SF, Historical Fiction, Fantasy (sometimes).
  Kate.
  http://journals.aol.co.uk/bobandkate/AnAnalysisofLife/
• #5 Comment from carly0042 
  8/30/06 3:36 PM | Permalink

  You know I never really thought about it but for the most part this article is right. When I go to my local Borders Book store there are wayyyyyyy more women there than men standing in line buying and for that matter looking at the books.
• #4 Comment from redsneakz 
  8/30/06 11:56 AM | Permalink

  Fuzzy premise, fuzzy conclusion.  I read almost constantly, and I find myself drawn to fiction, rather than non-fiction.  I don't consider myself atypical of males; I consider myself atypical of Americans.  We're living in a largely aliterate or (as Neal Stephenson called it in "Snow Crash") a post-literate society, where we're getting our entertainment and knowledge via the oral tradition; naturally, the cable channels have replaced the visiting neighbor with the gossip about the family down the street, and radio has replaced the troubadours, and movies the traveling players - but the parallels are clear between this century and the eighteenth, in terms of literacy.
• #3 Comment from majbeck 
  8/30/06 11:30 AM | Permalink

  Very interesting article.  One thing that was not mentioned, is that men are expected to be more goal and career oriented than women.  It may be that men feel that the books they should read should be ones that improve their skills in their given career etc. Could it be that men feel guilty "wasting time" on fiction? Tha they see reading as a career builder?  Whereas, women, even career women, have no guilt in reading outside their field of expertise..as they are expected to wear so many more hats? ( career,mother, daughter, wife, ..)
  Just a theory.... and by the way, when is Mr McEwan going to be giving books away in my park :-)????????