Male or female authors?

[Professor Yaffle]

I was chatting to a friend recently about books and favouite authors etc and she noted that nearly all of my favourites are by male authors, and said she was surprised because generally people tend to prefer books by authors of the same gender as themselves.

I had never thought about this before, and hadn't even noticed that I mainly read books by male authors until she pointed it out. So I was wondering how true this generalisation is.

So please answer my poll question and feel free to elaborate in the thread.

ETA - I am interesting in fiction only.

[Francesca R]

I tend to read non-fiction and the subject matter in most cases is dominated by male authors. No idea what my preference would be if you can control for that.

I haven't catalogued all the novels I have but that's male-heavy too. (I often think that Alexander McCall-Smith could be a woman though)

So I have to answer "I am female and read mostly male authors"

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Francesca-Rizzi&tag=fiction

[Egg]

Interesting question.
My wife and I have found a general preference for same gender authors - for fiction that is.

[Piscivore]

I don't pay attention.

Thinking about it, I read a lot of Science Fiction, which is heavily male dominated, some Fantasy, which is I think roughly equal, and Young Adult fiction which seems to lean to more female authors.

I think the generalisation is bunk. I bet there's a presumption that most women only read "chick lit" in play there.

[Professor Yaffle]

I tend to read non-fiction and the subject matter in most cases is dominated by male authors. No idea what my preference would be if you can control for that.

I haven't catalogued all the novels I have but that's male-heavy too. (I often think that Alexander McCall-Smith could be a woman though)

So I have to answer "I am female and read mostly male authors"

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Francesca-Rizzi&tag=fiction

Ah yes, I hadn't thought to clarify that I was talking about fiction - thanks for the prompt.

[Professor Yaffle]

I don't pay attention.

Thinking about it, I read a lot of Science Fiction, which is heavily male dominated, some Fantasy, which is I think roughly equal, and Young Adult fiction which seems to lean to more female authors.

I think the generalisation is bunk. I bet there's a presumption that most women only read "chick lit" in play there.

I'm not sure where she got the generalisation from - I will ask her next time I see her. She is an English Literature graduate, but I have no idea if she heard it in one of her courses or not.

[Professor Yaffle]

A quick google on the subject found this:


Men have finally realised what they are missing, but they still aren't all that keen to do anything about it.
This is the conclusion of a study into sex differences in reading habits, which found that, while women read the works of both sexes, men stick to books written by men. And the boys can no longer use ignorance as an excuse.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/may/29/gender.books

[dasmiller]

I'm a male. The question had never occurred to me before, and I certainly read both genders. But I have a shelf of books that I wish I'd written, so I took a quick look at it, and *all* of them were written by males.

<sigh>

For what it's worth, I think that more than half of the music I listen to was performed and/or written by women. Does that redeem me at all?

[Piscivore]

A quick google on the subject found this:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/may/29/gender.books

Interesting. No bias from academics Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins, obviously. :)

The last novel I read was by a woman, "Gideon the Cutpurse" by Linda Buckley-Archer. I'll be reading the sequel if my daughter can get it from her school library.

I've never heard of "Monica Ali's Brick Lane", "Carol Shields's Unless", or "Andrea Levy's Small Island" so I'm not going to claim they are "important", even when "pressed". What does that mean, "really important book", anyway? A book's value is entirely subjective.

And if "pressed" to name a great female author, I have Margaret Atwood, Ursula LeGuinn, Joanna Russ, Anne McCaffrey, Mary Shelly, Eudora Welty, and Agatha Christie, just off the top of my head, all of who I've read and enjoyed immensely.

I'm thinking this has less to do with some inherent failing of the male reader and more to do with thier particular favourites not getting the accolades they feel they surely deserve.

[SalG13]

It is an interesting question. I have not consciously selected books written by male authors. Reflecting on my choice of both fiction and non-fiction books, it seems that I do pick books written almost exclusively by men. I can only assume that the science and science fiction genres are dominated by men (or that they know how to pick titles that appeal to me). That assumption is probably inaccurate (to an extent), but gender is the last thing I consider when making my reading lists.

[Professor Yaffle]

The Brick Lane etc suggestions were poll answers, not the researcher's suggestions for important novels. And I presume the research was done in the UK which is why the authors may be unfamiliar to you. Most people I know have heard of Brick Lane - either from the book or the film.

Anyway I never wanted this to degenerate into an argument about whether reading certainbooks makes you a better or worse person - I only quoted that article for the actual statistics in the poll.

[Francesca R]

Oh, Brick Lane ought to be in my list. I'll add it sometime.

[Piscivore]

The Brick Lane etc suggestions were poll answers, not the researcher's suggestions for important novels. And I presume the research was done in the UK which is why the authors may be unfamiliar to you. Most people I know have heard of Brick Lane - either from the book or the film.
Fair enough.

Anyway I never wanted this to degenerate into an argument about whether reading certainbooks makes you a better or worse person - I only quoted that article for the actual statistics in the poll.
I'm sorry I overreacted. The authors of the study seem to have a clear axe to grind and the article seemed condescending to me. As much as if I were to suggest that "women only read what Oprah tells them too", sort of thing.

Again, my apologies.

[Professor Yaffle]

Given that I don't read much sci fi, I wonder what it is about fiction written by men that I prefer? My friend did recommend some female authors to me that she thought I might like, based on books that we both enjoyed. I have read some, and while I enjoyed them well enough, they weren't enough for me to rush out and see what else the author had written, which is my usual response when I really like a book. Offhand, I can only think of 2 female authors that I have read several of their books: Zadie Smith and Lionel Shriver. With male authors, I have loads of them: Neil Gaiman, David Lodge, Iain Banks, Mark Haddon, Ian McEwan, James Kelman and many more.

[Piscivore]

Neil Gaiman...

Well, that one really doesn't count, because Neil is less a man than a god. :)

[Francesca R]

Dystopian stuff is one of the bigger themes in my fiction repertoire. That's mostly male-authored, though Margaret Atwood stands out for The Handmaid's Tale (which a forum member or two recommended to me)

[Professor Yaffle]

Well, that one really doesn't count, because Neil is less a man than a god. :)

Quite.

:D

[timhau]

The authors of the study seem to have a clear axe to grind and the article seemed condescending to me. As much as if I were to suggest that "women only read what Oprah tells them too", sort of thing.


I didn't read that piece, but your reply reminded me of an interview I saw in our University's student paper a while ago. There, a female literature professor ,scolding males for reading mostly books by male authors, whereas the more enlightened female readers read works by both genders. I couldn't help but think that if things were the other way around, male writers would be to blame for writing books that only interest men, while female authors produce works with universal, non-gender-specific appeal.

[cwalner]

I am a male and read about equal male and female.

I know somebody who will only read female authors, because she claims that there are plenty of good female authors, that reading male authors is not neccesary.

While I agree with her claim about plenty of good and great female authors (my favorites being Jacqueline Carrey, Mary Gentle, JK Rowling, and Ursula K LeGuinn) I also feel that my reading list would be greatly lessened by passing up amazing male authors (Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, George R.R. Martin)

As I tend towards Fantasy now more than my traditional taste for SF, It seems that current fantasy authors tend to be fairly balanced between the genders but the clasics tend to be more male (as with everything, women had to fight for acceptance and I fear many potentially great female authors never got published during the classic period).

SF, I would still characterize as mostly male dominated but the trends seem to be moving more towards balance in terms of numbers of published authors. I see this as a good thing

[cwalner]

Well, that one really doesn't count, because Neil is less a man than a god. :)

I also maintain that despite the evidence of him having a wife and daughter, he is actually a flaming queen.

Okay, maybe this is more my fantasy than something I truly believe, but c'mon, he is good looking, British, and an amazing writer. Just let me have my dreams. ;)

[joobz]

I've never put much thought into the gender of the authors I read. I tend to read mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy. As a result, I guess I've read mostly male authors. Although my favorite author in the genre is female, Robin Hobb.

By the same token, my least favorite author is also female, Anne Rice.

[Professor Yaffle]

Interesting that so far, we have nobody who reads mainly female authors (though we don't have too many female participants in the poll yet). I wonder if that is down to the type of people likely to read this forum, as IRL I know several women who read predominantly female authors.

[Blackadder]

Male -> Male

Mostly because they seem to write a lot more for some reason. There a few books by female authors I rank among my favourites, but they just don't write lots of books.

[Piscivore]

Male -> Male

Mostly because they seem to write a lot more for some reason. There a few books by female authors I rank among my favourites, but they just don't write lots of books.

Well, leaving aside the very real issue of a history of discrimination in publishing, that's sort of what I'm thinking- that the ratio of published male authors to female is going to greatly favour the males- especially as you go back in time. In that case, the women showing a tendency to reading equal numbers of male and female authors might not show the inherent egalitarianism as the study's authors seem to imply, but an actual bias on the part of the women- either in favour of female authors, or for very recent fiction.

[Darat]

Mainly male, but not through conscious choice and some of my favourite authors are female. I can't imagine selecting books based on the gender of the author.

[bigred]

:confused:

Where's the "I am male and have no idea of the gender breakout of authors I read because I couldn't care less" option :cool:

I guess it's mostly male, but it's incidental ie not like I purposely "aim" for male authors in the least.

[Morrigan]

Well, that one really doesn't count, because Neil is less a man than a god. :)

Neil Gaiman can die in a fire.

[Professor Yaffle]

:confused:

Where's the "I am male and have no idea of the gender breakout of authors I read because I couldn't care less" option :cool:

I guess it's mostly male, but it's incidental ie not like I purposely "aim" for male authors in the least.

If you read the OP you will know that this thread has nothing to do with whether people purposively read one gender rather than another. I stated myself that I hadn't even realised that most of my favourites were male until it was pointed out to me.

Apart from the poll to see if there was indeed a gender difference here, I was more interested in whether there are characteristics of male and female writing that appeal to people differently. I have no idea what those characteristics might be - I have no idea whether there is some aspect of much of female literature that turns me off, or whether it is just chance that I like more male stuff.

[Professor Yaffle]

Neil Gaiman can die in a fire.

I am sure he can, but I would rather he didn't.

[Doctor Evil]

I am a male, and most (but not all) of the books I have recently read were written by male authors. Can one deduce anything from this? I doubt it. I have an impression that the majority of fiction currently on sale in bookstores was written by male authors. Considering that, I do not have enough information for a meaningful comparison.

[Francesca R]

I can't imagine selecting books based on the gender of the author.
Outside of fiction, I do pay particular interest in work by female economists, because they are rarer (particularly at writing books if a bit less so with papers) and because it's a favourite subject of mine.

If I was still keeping up with science I think it would be the same there.

[TobiasTheViking]

Don't care one way or the other, but it is mostly male. Not by choice though... *shrug*

[gtc]

My tastes in fiction lean heavily towards crime, sci-fi and alt history. The books I have read recently seem to have mostly been written by men but there are some excellant books written by women in each genre (though I haven't come across that many alt history novels written by women).

I know somebody who will only read female authors, because she claims that there are plenty of good female authors, that reading male authors is not neccesary.

That is an odd argument. We could say the same about white authors or authors with an 's' in their name.

[cwalner]

I am currently reading the WebMage series by Kelly McCullough. I had assumed the author is female by the name (much more common here as female name than as male). Due to this thread, I double checked and turns out Kelly is male.

Amazingly, this in no way altered my opinon of the series, and am still eagerly awaiting the next book in the series due out later this year.

I agree that the results of the poll indicating a mail bias in authors is more a reflection that it is still easier for men to get published, especially in SF, which many posters have indicated a preferance for.

[gumboot]

I don't really pay much attention. I mainly read fantasy, and looking back, most of the writers I like the most seem to be female. In other realms of writing most of the writers I like seem to be male.

[AliasN]

In terms of fiction, I think it's about even. My favourite writers are P.G. Wodehouse and Jane Austen. I don't read a lot of fiction any more, though, so it's hard to tell. In my youth I think it was mostly women writers, Judy Blume & Beverly Cleary. Although my favourite book, The Princess Bride, was written by a man. In my teens and early twenties I read a lot of Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut. (And being Canadian I always had Margaret Atwood shoved down my throat. Ugh.)

I wish I could say that gender never entered my mind, but being a female I've always been conscious of the lack of women in the arts, I think I even took a course or two about that in University.

So it crosses my mind in that I'm glad to see more female writers available, but I don't choose whether to read a book based on the gender of the author (to my knowledge, anyway).

[Miss_Kitt]

Where is the "I'm female, and I don't even know the gender of many authors" option?

Looking at my bookshelf, my non-fiction is predominantly male, but that's because it's largely science and economics (and John McPhee, who is his own genre), and there are many fewer women who have published books in those fields historically; it would not surprise me if that is still true.

For non-fiction, I don't know the answer. I read much less non-fiction than I used to, due to having No Time As A MomTM, but I always get the newest Terry Pratchett and Alexander McCall Smith books, even if I don't get to read them until two months later. However, in my pre-parental life, I read a lot of historical fiction (the stuff that's supposed to accurate, not the bodice-rippers) and that field is predominantly women (even some of the books published under men's names). But, I also read a lot of 'hard tech' science fiction--back when that still existed--and that was predominantly male written. Though CJ Cherryh and Ursula LeGuin write compelling culture-conflict sci-fi...

Hmmm. I don't know how to answer the question. I do think, though, that based upon sales figures, few men read the Danielle Steele / Eileen Goudge / Mary Patricia Somebody "women's fiction" books that make bestseller lists; hence, there is likely a bias. I don't think I've ever seen a man reading a "Harlequin Romance" or a naked-chested Hero on the cover "the Lady and the Thug" -type sex-and-clothing book, either, and the drugstore bookrack is full of them.

I would guess that there are more men who don't read fiction at all than women; and the majority of non-fiction is still male-written. Also, women who work part-time or are care-givers fulltime need to have 'easy reads' that they can enjoy even if they can only give them attention ten minutes at a pop, say while waiting for ballet class to finish (which may explain the Harlequin market).

All of which adds up to, It wouldn't surprise me if the assertion were true of the general public; and I don't think it's based upon any desire by men to not read women authors. I just think more women write the lines of fiction that are primarily read by women.

Just my thoughts, Miss Kitt

[ImaginalDisc]

I was chatting to a friend recently about books and favouite authors etc and she noted that nearly all of my favourites are by male authors, and said she was surprised because generally people tend to prefer books by authors of the same gender as themselves.

I had never thought about this before, and hadn't even noticed that I mainly read books by male authors until she pointed it out. So I was wondering how true this generalisation is.

So please answer my poll question and feel free to elaborate in the thread.

ETA - I am interesting in fiction only.

I too am surprised.

I thoughtn you were a guy.

Kidding aside, Lois McMaster Bujold and Tannith Lee are easily two of my favorite authors, but there so many more male specualtive fiction athors that even so, most of my bookshelf has male names on the spines.

[Locknar]

As several others have said, I honestly don't pay attention.

[fls]

Fortunately, I tend to pile up my finished books in the same spot, so it was easy for me to check. I seem to read roughly equal amounts when it comes to fiction.

Linda

[Richard Masters]

Most of the non-fiction I read appears to be written by male authors. I usually don't find out until I have some reason to look up the author, especially those with unusual names...

Most of the fiction I read is also by male authors, although I especially enjoy some classics like Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I'll read anything written by her. I intend to read Like Water for Chocolate, not because of the author's gender, but because it's considered classic in Mexico.

I have a long list of classics I want to read, including Wuthering Heights. If it makes me think, if it's timeless, I'll read it.

sidenote: For some old books, I suspect a few male author names are actually pseudonyms for female authors. For others like the Bible, I think the Old Testament was written exclusively by male writers.

ETA: Regarding the poll, I think that my reading actually resembles a ratio representative of what is out there, so I don't really favor one gender over the other, even though I read more books by male authors.

[Foolmewunz]

I'm so politically correct that I only read books by authors with no first names, just initials - and no "About the Author" frontispiece.

Seriously - I'm in the group that had to think about it. And I have to say that over a lifetime, I've probably read more women, but that's because I'm a big whodunnit fan and have read every word ever written by Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Sayers, P.D. James, Elizabeth George, Josephine Tey, and Martha Grimes*. A couple of those are so prolific that the number of books read in that genre, and the speed at which you can consume them (well, except for George - she deserves a slow read) means I've got a disproportionate weighting towards females, I reckon.

In number of volumes, at any rate. In my other reading consumption, I'd say that from a glance at my bookshelf, it's probably more men, and full-length Pynchon, Mailer, etc... tend to run 700 to 1000 pages, so on the whole I balance it at roughly 50/50.


*Probably a few others that I can't think of at the moment, too.

[Darat]

Don't care one way or the other, but it is mostly male. Not by choice though... *shrug*

Of course it's not a choice - it's just who you are.

[Ivor the Engineer]

As I read very little fiction I though it might have been about 50-50, but then I remembered the Mr. Men and Roald Darl.:)

To my knowledge I do not have any non-fiction books authored by women.

[Jaxe]

A quick google on the subject found this:


When looking at 'gender' studies one has to be careful cause the area is mined with woo. Although i must say they provide alot of material for playing 'spot the fallacy'.

[Damien Evans]

Since very few females do war history, I read mostly men.

[bruto]

Just looking around at what I've read in the past few years, I'd guess that the numbers are about equal, perhaps a little heavier on the female side, but I'd never really paid a lot of attention. In the last few years I've been reading more non fiction than fiction anyway. I think my wife, on the other hand, does lean pretty heavily toward female authors, partly due to her taste in fiction and partly due to the high output of some of her favorite authors.

[CriticalSock]

My tastes in fiction lean heavily towards crime, sci-fi and alt history. The books I have read recently seem to have mostly been written by men but there are some excellant books written by women in each genre (though I haven't come across that many alt history novels written by women).



That is an odd argument. We could say the same about white authors or authors with an 's' in their name.

Have you tried reading "Ash: A Secret History" by Mary Gentle? That's Alt. history and I'm pretty sure that Mary Gentle is a woman. Yep, she must be, Wiki says so! :)

I'm a man and I read a roughly even amount of male and female authors. I even wrote a gushy "You're so great" letter to CJ Cherryh in my younger years! Tove Jansen, especially her grown up books (although the Moomintroll stories are Awesome!) gets constantly re-read. And Dorothy Parker is one of my all time favourites as well.

Having said that though, the books by my bed currently are "Hornblower and the Atropos" - CS Forrester - Bloke, "Lucifers Hammer" - Larry Niven - Bloke and "The Tavern Knight" - Raphael Sabatini - Bloke!

[Denver]

I read mostly old horror fiction these days. And that is dominated by male authors. If there were more Mary Shelleys in the list I'd be happy to read them. I don't chose books based on the sex of the author.

[Skeptic Guy]

I haven't really kept track, but upon thinking about it, it would appear that I read mostly male and for some of the reasons already outlined. I'm a big SF and non-fiction reader and they look to be dominated by male writers.

[tomwaits]

Seems a lot of people have stated a lot of genres that are male-dominated. Are there any genres that are female-dominated?

[Professor Yaffle]

Seems a lot of people have stated a lot of genres that are male-dominated. Are there any genres that are female-dominated?

Romantic fiction?

[Francesca R]

Also Children's Fiction.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/daisy-meadows/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3AEmma%20Chichester%20Clark&field-author=Emma%20Chichester%20Clark&page=1

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/

http://www.walker.co.uk/contributors/Lucy-Cousins-1720.aspx

http://magicpencil.britishcouncil.org/artists/child/

[Piscivore]

Spiritual fiction, too, if I'm not mistaken. And "Chick-lit", for lack of a better term.

[Silentknight]

I've read a lot of young adult books lately, though there have been a few exceptions. Let me see if I can remember all the recent ones. A brief run down:

Stephenie Meyer - Please shoot me.
Trenton Lee Stewart - An intriguing and intelligent adventure.
David Wroblewski - Very heartwarming, very tragic (all Oprah aside).
Laurell K. Hamilton - Doesn't count because I wanted to take the scissors off the cover of her latest book and shove them into my eyes before I could finish.
Chrisopher Paolini - There's a head-shaped dent in my wall.
JK Rowling - I'm re-reading them all.
John Adjvide Lindqvist - Very graphic and well-executed, loved the ending.
Dennis Danvers - I have a thing for werewolf stories.
Gillian Bradshaw - See above.
Michael Shermer - For a school report. Pretty good.
Stephen King - Learned a lot from his work, even if they don't all do it for me.

[Magenta]

I was chatting to a friend recently about books and favouite authors etc and she noted that nearly all of my favourites are by male authors, and said she was surprised because generally people tend to prefer books by authors of the same gender as themselves.

I had never thought about this before, and hadn't even noticed that I mainly read books by male authors until she pointed it out. So I was wondering how true this generalisation is.

So please answer my poll question and feel free to elaborate in the thread.

ETA - I am interesting in fiction only.


I'm female and, without actually doing an audit of my bookshelves, would say that I read roughly equal numbers of male and female fiction writers - the 4 novels I've read so far this year are by 2 female and 2 male authors. (I read more non-fiction these days though.)

I don't select books based on the gender of the author, but rather on whether it's a story that's likely to interest me (hopefully written in a style that won't make me throw the book across the room). Also, I try to read across different genres and cultures (though I only read in English).