Comments on: Girl books, boy books

By: Carbonel

Carbonel — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:03:03 +0000

I just read books because the covers are snappy, of course! Seriously, the only time the sex of the author comes up is when I do my Summer Reading Booktalks. Unlike all the other talks, which usually support the school curriculum to some degree, Summer Reading is all about The Fun (So I get to do books like Chindogu and Toilets of the World and Her Majesty's Dod. Thank you for that one Ms. Larbalestier!) And every year I have to go back and strike through three or four of the girl books with girl authors to add in a few boy books or boy authors because I've got nothing like parity (and you have to have at least 60/40). I don't plan it! I'm just going for YA books that are peachy keen fun to read. And if I read and liked romance and grrrl angst more, that would make sense, but I gravitate toward science fiction, fantasy and adventure. And it's still mostlly All Girl Action All the Time. I think it's a conspiracy...

By: Who like boys to be girls, Who do boys like they’re girls… « alisa alering

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:57:51 +0000

[...] August 27, 2008 JL was talking about the weird gender ghetto of women’s books, and how some people only read books by girls, and some people only read books by boys. Not that I’m going to say there’s anything wrong with that, but if you only ever read [...]

By: Beth

Beth — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:39:52 +0000

I never paid attention to gender either but looking back at my last few months of reading, there are more female authors. I wonder what percentage of authors who write fiction are male?

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:38:54 +0000

Well, I’m a guy, and I don’t choose a book based on the author’s sex. Actually, I usually don’t even process the author’s name, nationality, etc, until I see their bio in the back of the book. Most of the authors on my bookshelf are women, but I have a few guys there as well. I think it’s stupid to not read any book based on the author. Gender, race, age, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, appearance, hygiene, and nose size should not be valid reasons to skip a book.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:58:31 +0000

As a child I was more concerned about who the main character was — I didn’t want to read books only about boys. That wasn’t too hard when I was choosing my own books, but in school in the 70’s/early 80’s the books they assigned us seemed to always have boys/men as the main characters. Maybe things have become more openminded now as far as school. But I still rarely read books that don’t have a significant female character. And I’m a little suspicious of male writers who write from a woman’s point of view. Which is probably wrong, but, luckily we aren’t graded on our book choices (anymore).

By: ambeen

ambeen — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:44:29 +0000

I think I read books written by women more often than men. It’s not intentional and I didn’t really even think about it until now. I suppose they just resonate with me more. I choose books based on their subject matter, not who has written them. I stick with the authors I like, though, which so far means mostly female authors.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 17:41:18 +0000

Flannery O’Connor’s weight isn’t listed in wikipedia, but she does not appear to be a heavyweight in the picture.

By: Amy

Amy — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:15:07 +0000

Apparently I’m not the only one still recovering from hearing Flannery O’Connor referred to as a “lightweight” – whoah.

I read a mix of male and female, but probably slightly more female than male authors.

By: cbjames

cbjames — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:24:28 +0000

For several years Green Apple Books, one of the better bookstores in the San Francisco Bay Area, had two fiction sections: fiction by women and fiction by men.

The first time I went into the store I had to keep leaping back and forth between book cases because my mental list of books to buy was not sorted out by gender.

They no longer sort fiction by gender at Green Apple.

By: jodi

jodi — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:24:13 +0000

this conversation made me think back to reading the first harry potter book, and finding out that j.k. was a woman. i wondered then why she chose to use initials? it occured to me that perhaps she or her publishers felt the books would sell better if boys didn’t think harry was created by a woman. it annoyed me, but seemed to make sense at the time – which annoys me now even more!

my childhood favorites were l’engle and (aha! initials again) l.m. montgomery and c.s. lewis … 2 to 1! which is the same percentage i see on my bookshelves twenty years later. my boyfriend’s shelves are stacked with male authors…unintentionally, but stacked nonetheless.

i am wondering/hoping that the potter explosion changed anything for that generation of readers, in terms of being likely or more open to read female authors, than other generations?

By: Dawn

Dawn — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:28:20 +0000

I agree with Dragonfly…the author being male or female never actually occurs to me as I pick up a book, really. I would probably have to say that the majority of the books I read are written by women, but I love Orson Scott Card and John Green!! I’d say my bookshelf is probably 70/30- women to men authors.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:15:41 +0000

I think I probably read more books by women than by men. But I dunno, it’s not like I do it on purpose. I love Scott Westerfeld, John Green, and even Dan Brown, who’s plenty commercial–oh, commercial! I must avert my eyes. But for some reason I pick up more books which happen to be written by women.

By: cathy

cathy — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:41:02 +0000

I don’t think gender of the author has ever been what specifically made me decide to read or not read a book. I would guess that my current reading is split around 50/50 between books written by men and books written by women. If I had to guess, probably the mystery and fantasy novels tilt somewhat more towards women and the SF somewhat more towards men, but mileage varies from month to month. For instance, at the beginning of the year I was reading through a significant portion of Bill Pronzini’s “Nameless” backlist, but last month I was reading Donna Andrews and Janet Evanovich’s new books, as well as some Robert E. Howard.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:29:27 +0000

My reading is about 50/50, I’d have to guess. I really don’t care about the gender of the author or the protagonist. Over the last year or so, my reading has been more female authors than male. No reason for it. Just happened to be the books that were recommended and hooked me.

By: Maree

Maree — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:07:54 +0000

I read books by both guys and gals. Whateva book looks good I’ll guzzle
I probs read 50/50.

By: Elodie

Elodie — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 10:51:48 +0000

That is so strange, that people would pay attention to gender when choosing reading material o.o I hate to admit this to an author XD but when I browse for books the author’s name is the last thing on my mind, unless I am actively looking for a book by an author I have already read. I’ll be honest in that I judge books by their covers XD But never by their authors. I don’t even mind gender discrimination in my books. As long as the story can hook me, I can forget my views, my grudges, everything for the story. I have read soem of the Xanth series by Piers Anthony for example which is very very anti-feminist (or um, male-ist, wtf is the word for that. chauvinist?) and in an article or such that would piss me off so much, but his story is good enough for me to not care. I’ve also read Tamora Pierce (who for a long time was my favorite author ever ever ever) and didn’t particularly LOVE the girl-power message–but the stories are so great, it didn’t bother me at all. Does that make sense?

You know what I find great though? One of my favorite stories about (mostly) a girl, the lirael/sabriel series, is by a man, while one of my favorite series about a boy (harry potter.. hehe, I got into it a few years before it got popular so I consider it my right to call it one of my favs >.>) is written by a woman.

By: Garth Nix

Garth Nix — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:28:53 +0000

I’m not only a Georgette Heyer fan, but also a fan of more women writers than I could possibly mention in a blog comment. A random glance at one of my many bookshelves includes Rosemary Sutcliff, Angela Carter, Ursula Le Guin, Dorothy Sayers, Andre Norton, Jane Austen, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Dunnett, Barbara Tuchman, Vonda MacIntyre, Patricia McKillip . . . I’d guess that my reading is roughly 50/50 by the gender of the author.

I’ve always thought deciding not to read a book on the basis of the gender of the author is just as foolish and self-limiting as deciding not to read a book on the basis of its genre or category.

You never know how good a book can be until you read some of it.

By: eek

eek — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:17:23 +0000

I think social constructs and pressures might play a role, even subconsciously, in what men and women write and in what men and women read.

To answer the question first, I read a mix of books by men and women and I wouldn’t even begin to know how to quantify the percentages. My regular book group only allows books by female authors, though, and I think that is more a political statement (a la generations of turning the collective nose down at women authors) than about content. I also tend to read mostly YA, which seems a good mix, but still women author heavy.

I do think that some books seem to have a very traditionally male perspective and others a very traditionally female perspective, and not voice, but by subject matter, seem to address content that more traditionally is more generally attractive to men or women.

But, I think for the most part, we are all still a little bit victims of the same “boys should like boy things and girls should like girl things” teachings that many of us grew up with. Even today, we see all the hullabaloo about needing books for boys and reading lists for boys and it’s hard to get boys interested in reading, etc. I think that is a cultural fallacy that we all propagate over and over. And thereby ensure it is a reality. J.K. Rowling and others cautioned to use initials so boys will read the book, even though based on content alone, boys should be attracted to the book…

So, I am sure there are certainly books that have more appeal to men or to women, but I do think so many of our and other people’s choices are still at least subconsciously about making the manly or feminine choice.

We could probably have all kinds of scientific studies and social experiments, and maybe it would all come down to a good book is a good book, but from marketing to titles to covers, a lot comes down to attracting a target audience, and so often that still gives a nod to sex and gender.

Emily

By: Serafina Zane

Serafina Zane — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:52:19 +0000

I honestly can’t say I even notice whether books I read are by men or women. Or if I do, it’s kind of an afterthought. Certainly doesn’t affect my choices.
At a guess, I’d probably say I read more by women then by men, but that might also be just who writes more in genres I read.

By: beth

beth — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:34:34 +0000

I have more female authors on my shelves than male–but it’s because I prefer female protags, and those tend to be written by females.

By: Leahr

Leahr — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:26:25 +0000

I read both, definitely. But I think the real issue is not the actual gender of the author, but the way the book is marketed. If the cover has a girl on it, like HTDYF or Maureen Johnson style covers, boys look at it and think ‘girl book’ before they even know who the author is.
The difference after that is that a girl will read both types and a boy won’t. For example, I’ll read Anthony Horowitz but my brother refuses to read Gail Carson Levine. I don’t entirely know why this is, but it makes me sad.

By: Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 23:11:34 +0000

A glance at the shelves shows a pretty even split for me. You can put me down as another male author who will happily claim several female authors among his favorites. Robin McKinley, Martha Wells, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman among them. And, just to be fair, I’ll list Tim Powers, Terry Pratchett and Roger Zelazney for some of my Y chromosome faves.

By: cat

cat — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:46:59 +0000

For me the story is the thing. It just depends on my mood and what I want to read. I cannot believe someone said that Flannery O’Connor was a lightweight. I still remember her short story that I wrote a paper on…the heavy symbolism (which I liked) is still with me after all these years (which is a good thing). I found your blog through your husband’s blog and I like to check it regularly because you are so informative and write about some many interesting issues. From your blog I have found so many others which I have enjoyed but yours is one of the few that I read consistently. You have opened me up to other writers that I have missed and I appreciate that. Thanks. Glad you came out of the secret bunker to blog and hope your writing goes well.

By: Chris S.

Chris S. — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:29:42 +0000

Weighing in from the retail side of things, I always find it odd to hear that so many men only read books by men. So sad. So short-sighted. So unfortunate for male authors — because women buy 75% of all books. And they write at least 50% of them.

This doesn’t leave a gender snob much room.

By: Ann S.

Ann S. — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:07:57 +0000

Oooh. This is an excellent, interesting thought that’s never occured to me. I had a look at my July reading list (18 books, because I was on holiday for 2 weeks) and the split was 6 books by girls, 12 by boys (although interestingly, two of those boys books were by JA Konrath, who writes a female protag mystery series in the vein of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and his publisher made him go by his initials to make people think he’s a woman).

I’d have guessed I weighted more heavily to female authors.