Do women read more than men?

[majesticfairlady]

I had this debate with a male friend the other day who thinks that women read more than men. What does everyone else think?

[Top Cat]

Yes. It's a slight generalisation, but I tend to have far more involved, detailed conversations about books with female friends than I do with male friends. But maybe that's because I prefer fiction to non-fiction. A lot of the blokes I known tend to be interested in music or sport biographies, which leave me cold. Women always seem to be reading the best books on the train... Most of the BGO's members seem to be female, too.

[Grammath]

My experiences are much the same as TC's, although no-one I know reads a lot of non-fiction unless they are studying. The composition of the face to face book group I belong to is overwhelmingly female.

I think chaps tend to accumulate music in large amounts rather than books - unfortunately, I have a problem with both....

[Trudy]

I can only think of one man that i've known that really liked reading but even he was not passionate about it! He is the only person that i've spend wet days reading with though. Is it because reading asks you to invest time energy and emotion - i find watching tv much more passive, and in fact rarely bother, but i think men like the fact they can gaze at it without necessarily becoming involved - or am I just too cynical? :eek:

[BrumB]

I wish the men would speak up for themselves on this post. It seems to me that, among my friends, the number of people who read are fairly equally balanced - there are plenty of women who don't read at all and prefer tv. There are differences though and I blieve women read more quickly because we tend to have to fit it in with other things. On the other hand I do wonder if we remember as much as men do about the books we've read. Or is it all too subjective?

[Top Cat]

There are differences though and I blieve women read more quickly because we tend to have to fit it in with other things.

Women DEFINITELY read more quickly in my experience. If my other half and I are reading simultaneously, for every one page I read she'll be reading about three (or even more, once I get distracted and start worrying about it).

[Starry]

I don't know many men that read a lot either. My Dad has started reading more since he retired. Mostly sports biographies :D The only fiction he's read is Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series - and he didn't laugh once!! He claims he doesn't like fiction, but he is happy to sit down and watch Coronation Street, which is a lot of old tosh in my opinion :rolleyes:

I enjoy reading non-fiction though, mostly history and biographies (5 out of 21 books read this year have been non-fiction) so I'm not sure we can divide the genders like that :) How about genres - do you think men read more espionage-type novels and thrillers than women and women read more chick lit and sagas than men?

[majesticfairlady]

That is interesting, personaly I am not a great romance reader, but really enjoy reading thrillers. I think though on the whole crime and thriller books are aimed towards men.

[belinda]

Not sure about this one. I live and work in London and a lot of the people I work with have quite long commutes so a fair amount of reading goes on. As a result we have an exchange system. There are a fair few books that are equally popular, Chritopher Brookmyer, Robertson Davies and Alexander Mccall Smith.

Think what has surprised us most is one of the sweetest, most helpful and inofensive people in the office has the most lurid taste in slasher, suspense thrillers. Two of us had to work abroad for a month so had to take lots of reading material with us. Her selection gave the two of us nightmares......

[melydia]

In my experience it has always tended to be the women who read more. My mother and grandmothers and aunts all read more than their husbands. My fiancee will occasionally pick up a book but is generally happier with TV, magazines, and manga. I've only known one male librarian in my life and the vast majority of English/literature teachers I've known have been female.

That is not to say I haven't met men who are voracious readers, of course (or women who do not like to read, for that matter). It's just that the majority of them, for whatever reason, would rather do other things. Several of the ones who do read also restrict themselves in terms of genre or other attributes. One only reads SF/fantasy, for instance; another reads only bestsellers.

I don't know why this is. It could very well be peculiar to my circle of acquaintances. It's not like the women I've known have had more leisure time (and thus more time to read) than the men. *shrug* I can't even put a finger on why I like to read more than, say, watch television. Maybe I just enjoy the brain stretch.

[Grammath]

My Dad has started reading more since he retired. Mostly sports biographies :D The only fiction he's read is Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series - and he didn't laugh once!!

How about genres - do you think men read more espionage-type novels and thrillers than women and women read more chick lit and sagas than men?

Your Dad must have had his sense of humour gland removed - that's not natural!!

I think its true to a degree that some books have greater appeal to one gender than another. I know no male Jane Austen fans, for example, and remember a tutorial on "Huck Finn" at uni that split along gender lines - chaps loved it, ladies loathed it.