I Don't Read Books Written By Women...

[Amanda Markham]

Not me personally, but a colleague of mine. He's not alone. Lots of people choose books based on gender. You can read more about it here. I discovered that there are real, established differences in the ways in which men and women write - actual research.

So perhaps my colleague is on to something... For me though, I read just about anything (with a few notable exceptions).

But what about you? Do you read or not read books based upon author’s gender? What are your thoughts on the research (see link above) that men and women write differently?

[Clara]

I don't really have a "rule" about it, but I generally prefer books written by women. Every writer is an individual and writes in a unique way, but I've found that I can't follow a man's writing as well as I can a woman's. I always make an exception for John Grisham and a few others, but generally I prefer women authors for fiction. For non-fiction, it doesn't really make any difference for me.

[Mary Salvato]

Thats ridiculous. Probably something a man would say! How sexist.

[Sharon Rosen]

I love that you started this thread! I'm a little biased against women authors... I admit it. However, I try to give each book a fair chance, and, I know that without doing research about the author, a name is just a name.

When a book is written so well it pulls me in, and I forget I'm reading a book - I am unable to tell what gender the author is in real life. But... most often, I can not only guess the gender, but the author's age.

Writing styles can be very telling. I prefer not being able to tell, and getting swept away by the story, of course!

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

I think bias is inevitable. =) I know that there are books I will reject at first glance because of something about the writer, but may be persuaded to read if a friend pushes it on me. It's all part of a selection process, which we all have to have in the face of so many reading choices!

So when someone says that he automatically rejects books that are written by women, I don't see anything wrong with that. He's made his own selection process easier by eliminating maybe 50% of the books competing for his attention, and that's his right as a reader.

Yeah, he just might end up reading several women writers, for the reasons outlined earlier in the thread, but that's another issue.

[Roseann Broz]

I find this funny as prior to getting into my MLIS program I wanted to pursue a PhD in Literature and my thesis was going to be on women writers in Science Fiction. Personally, I don't know why someone would base there reading choices upon gender. I know there are many male authors who write what would be considered romances who go by women's names and there are many woman who have male pseudonyms (especially in SF). I think that what counts is what winds up on the page. If you cannot judge a book by its cover, how can you judge an author by his or her gender?

[Rheanna Schaffer]

I think this is sooo sad basing a book on gender. Hello some of the greatest authors were women. How could someone never pick up a Jane Austen book it baffles my mind. And how do you know your reading a mans work? Quite a number of times in the old days women used male pen names to get published. I'm sorry but this irritates me! A book is good when it's good and bad when it's bad end of story. Just because a woman wrote it does not mean that it will be soft and fluffy as your friend put it. Don't confuse me for some crazy feminist but I don't think it should matter enough said!

Rheanna @ http://tryreadingmymind.blogspot.com/

[Melanie]

Very interesting, as I was just talking with friends about this last week. I tend to typically read books by female authors. I think that maybe it is because I am a woman, and typically I crave authors who can write about experiences from a female perspective, which men often can't relate too.

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

What an interesting thought! Maybe they just find a way to be discreet about it. I mean, letting readers assume that someone is male or female is one thing, but deliberately misleading them is another.

I know that Leigh Greenwood didn't have a picture in his books until he officially "came out" as a male Romance novelist--and his bios were very carefully worded to avoid feminine pronouns.

[Caitlin Martin]

I read books.

[LM Preston]

I'm not to picky when it comes to the gender of a writer. I'm just picky with the characters. I work with men all the time and have tons of male friends. I can pick out a 'girlie' tone in books I read like a beacon of light in the night and vice versa. That's what I look for - character development. Sad thing is, I see those girlie moments in romance novels all the time. Usually, when I read romance novels written by men, it's missing the seduction of the female. So it goes both ways.

[Enbrethiliel]

+JMJ+

I'm curious about which male Romance authors you've read. Care to share? =)

[Athena McCormick]

I used to pick books based on the synopses, but after of few cases where the synopsis gave away a plot twist that didn't happen until half-way through the book, I started basing the books I read on the first few pages of the actual story (I read mostly fiction, if that wasn't obvious).

I can't imagine discriminating against an author because of his/her gender, but I will readily admit that most of my favourite authors are male (Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Robert A. Heinlein, etc.). I don't think that has to do with the gender-specific aspects of their styles so much as the cleverness of their prose and, more especially, the depiction of their characters. I vastly prefer character-driven fiction and many women authors have the unfortunate habit of forgetting to give their protagonists flaws (real flaws, I mean, not slightly irritating but ultimately lovable quirks). I notice people replying to this thread mention Jane Austen quite a bit, which helps me explain my case some, because she wrote my favourite book (P&P). It's definitely not my favourite because of flowery language, though her writing style is distinctly female; it's that her characters are real, flawed and human.