Why don't men read?
Spoilers they do.
My husband and a group of his straight male friends are in a book club. They meet up about once a month, usually at one of their houses. They each take turns choosing a book, read it, then meet up and talk about it. It’s all very wholesome.
Recently, we were at a friend’s house, and this came up. Our (male) friend seemed very taken aback that my husband is in a book club and thought it was weird. He wasn’t the first person to say something like that to us.
But why is that? Why (especially in the midst of a so-called male loneliness epidemic) would some find it weird that a group of men in their twenties meet up and talk about a book they have read? Is there something about the act of reading that isn’t considered masculine?
Literacy and Masculinity
Historically, men were more literate than women.
However, over the last 200 years, that has changed drastically. The idea that reading, particularly reading fiction, is a feminine activity actually dates back to the 19th century. Reading fiction was seen as frivolous and without purpose, and therefore was deemed not to be masculine.
Unfortunately, that idea is still very much alive today.
Let’s look at a quote from scholar and Substack bestseller Andrew Tate
“Reading books is a very cheap way to entertain. I wouldn’t call it entertainment because my brain is far too advanced. I’m too smart to read. I know you’re sitting there going smart people read. No, I need action. I need constant chaos in my life to feel content. I need to be driving a supercar and fucking fighting, fucking a bunch of hoes and champagne and going crazy. I can’t just sit there and go oh and the pirate on the boat. It’s for people who have slow brains”
I’d like to repeat. Substack. Bestseller.
Now, do I believe that Andrew Tate (and all the other ones like him) truly mean everything they say? No. At least I hope not. I think they say intentionally controversial things to get people talking about them (you win this round, Andrew). They exploit their young male audience by selling them useless get-rich-quick schemes (and just exploit women). They are (morally corrupt) businessmen at the end of the day. What I mean by that is all they care about is making money. They don’t care that they are contributing to higher levels of misogyny and violence against women, radicalising young men down an alt-right rabbit hole and generally making the world a worse place. They are rich!! And at the end of the day, everyone knows money is the root of all happiness!
I have my own opinions and biases against these types of people. Clearly. However, I truly cannot comprehend anyone disagreeing with me on this. Reading is important.
It is a fact that reading ability is linked to overall educational outcomes (I covered this more in my article Why Don’t Boys Read?). Young men and boys are being set up to fail because they are being discouraged from reading. Surely, even if you are the most right-wing, podcast bro watching, ideological opposite to me, you can agree that it is bad that boys are falling behind in education.
Interestingly, it has been found that higher levels of educational attainment are linked to decreased sexist attitudes. Who could have guessed?
Men don’t read fiction
Anyone who is aware of this world probably can’t wait to correct me. These guys do read! They just don’t read fiction. That is true. It’s not that reading isn’t deemed masculine, it’s that reading fiction isn’t.
In these ‘alpha male’ circles, they do seem to read. But it is almost always non-fiction (mainly finance or self-help) or religious texts like the bible (not unpacking that one). It seems that reading must always have a purpose. And ideally a profitable one.
That links in with the wider issue of ‘side hustle’ culture. We can’t have hobbies unless they are monetisable. It’s like there is no point in doing something unless it makes you money. With this and men being told by these podcast bros that they have to be providers, it’s no wonder they would prioritise reading books with percieved economic benefit.
So why is it important to read fiction?
Reading fiction improves empathy and emotional literacy. It improves our ability to see the world from other perspectives. This is a vital skill. Reading isn’t inherently moral. If you read a lot that doesn’t make you a good person and equally never reading doesn’t make you a bad person. But I think there is something in that desire to see the world from a different perspective. Reading allows us to do that in a more indepth way than watching films. Fiction especially allows us to do that.
What are men reading?
Everything I’ve read around this topic says that men and boys are more drawn to fantasy, science fiction, comics and non fiction. Whereas women and girls are more drawn to romance and literary fiction.
But I was curious about the reading habits of the men I know and to see if it aligned with what I’ve read. So I thought I’d do my own little study on the reading habits of men. This is mainly on my husband’s book club, some more of his friends who are not in the book club and one of my friend’s boyfriends. To be clear, they have not consented for me to analyse their data (so if you’re reading this boys, sorry idk what to tell you. Think of it like Spotify wrapped).
Limitations
Not all of the men have/regularly update their Goodreads, so there is missing data
I have omitted comics from this because I wasn’t going through all of those. Just know comics are VERY popular.
I have mainly gathered data from high and low-rated books. 4-star books I haven’t included.
Some have a tendency to ‘save their thoughts’ for book club and don’t rate the books. I found this unhelpful.
These men are massive nerds and, therefore, are maybe not a true representation of the general public
Let’s start with the book club.
Here is a list of all the books they have read so far:
As we can see, the most popular books within the group were Project Hail Mary, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Hound of the Baskervilles. The least popular appear to be Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Butter, and Salem’s Lot. The boys do seem to read a lot more male authors than female authors, but they have read two whole books by women. My book club have never read a book by a man, so I don’t think I can really comment on this. They do seem to read a range of genres but science fiction seems to be the most popular.
Now for all my test subjects.
I wanted to look at genre and author gender. Genre to see if what I’ve read about men’s reading habits is reflected in their reading habits and author gender just for my own curiosity.
I was also interested in seeing which genres were more likely to be rated high and which were more likely to be rated low. I decided that high-rated is five stars, and low-rated is three stars or less. (The boys are very nice and rarely rate anything below three stars).
As we can see, fantasy is by far the most popular genre (you can thank Brandon Sanderson for that). Science fiction and mystery are also pretty high up there. The non-fiction books read were all history, technology or finance-based. The boys do not seem to be fans of romance or historical fiction. This really does follow what everyone else seems to be saying about what genres men and boys prefer.
I did expect that they would be reading male authors more than female authors. What I found interesting is that the breakdown of authors I read is almost identical, just flipped.
We are naturally drawn to authors similar to ourselves and I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. I know I think that male authors can struggle to write female characters that feel real (the subreddit men writing women exists for a reason) and that always puts me off a book. I imagine there might be a similar feeling with women writing male characters. I know when I read romance books and I get to the chapters from the male perspective I always think that no man thinks like this. I do think male characters can be written just as one dimensionally.
Publishing
A popular reason given for why men don’t read as much is because the publishing industry doesn’t cater to them.
For centuries books were written for men by men. But now women are the ones more likely to buy and read books. The publishing industry is also now female dominated. A 2023 study found that seventy one percent of publishing’s workforce are cisgender women and twenty one percent are cisgender men. Women also make up sixty three percent of the executive and board-level staff.
The publishing industry caters to male readers less than to female readers. That is true. But it is because the publishing industry is interested in money, and women are the ones buying the books. That won’t change until more men are reading. Create the demand. Then they’ll create the supply.
Men are reading
As established, my husband is in a book club, and most of his friends do read. My dad has his collection of James Patterson books. We always get my father-in-law a book for Christmas. My grandad goes to the library every week. Men do read. At least the men in my life do.
I have actually struggled to find exact statistics for adult men and reading. There is a literacy gap between boys and girls that inevitably persists into adulthood. It does seem that men are reading less than women but I’d argue that the idea that ‘men don’t read’ does tend to be overblown a bit. They read less sure but it’s not like they don’t read at all.
If you’re a man who tends to stick to non-fiction maybe try a fiction book and see what you think. If you don’t think you’d have the time maybe try audiobooks. That’s what a lot of the men I know do. Reading can just be for fun. It doesn’t have to be for any other reason. It especially doesn’t have to be for financial gain.
Men are not inert vessels for potential economic capital that needs to be squeezed out.
You’re never going to foster a love of reading if you’re never reading purely for enjoyment.
The idea that reading fiction is somehow feminine is absolute nonsense. As established reading fiction improves our ability to see the world from other perspectives. That is a skill we all need, especially with the state of the world just now. Being empathetic and kind to others is not masculine or feminine. It’s just what we all should be.
I think we can all benefit from being more varied with our reading choices. There is no point saying fiction is so important for developing empathy if we’re always reading from the same perspectives and same voices. Reading a million romantasy books with the same copy and paste ‘not like other girls’ protagonist is not much better than only reading from finance and self help section. We all need to be reading diversely.
Book Recommendations
I thought I’d compile a list of the books most popular with the men I know and then some suggestions of books that are maybe not what they would choose but I think they’d enjoy.
Popular with the Men
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This is everywhere right now and for good reason. I loved this book and everyone I know loved it. Also it’s a 10/10 film.
Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Cosy mystery, lovable characters. Very popular. Never fail to see this one by the pool on holiday. I love it, my husband loves it. Fourth book is the best. Not a 10/10 film.
Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. They all seem to love this one. No clue what it’s about. Science fiction I think?
Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. I hear this is good. These boys are obsessed with that man. The upside of getting into Brandon Sanderson books is you will never run out of reading material.
Something Different
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. One of the guys did actually have this 5 stars. It is brilliant. I loved it. Please read it.
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell. This one is also a very popular film this year. I do really recommend reading it though it’s just so wonderfully well written. I cried as much at the book as I did at the film.
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan. I LOVE Claire Keegan. This is a really short book (like it’s 50 pages). But Claire Keegan is amazing at writing incredible books in such short page counts. This one follows a man thinking about the woman he could have spent his life with if he had been different. I really think men need to read this.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. This one is about to be a film! It is a lovely book about an old lady who befriends an octopus.
Biographies
I also saw some people saying that reading biographies offer a similar insight into others lives like fiction does. Here are some autobiographies I really enjoyed. All of their audiobooks are also narrated by the author which is really cool.
I’m Glad my Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Strong Female Character by Fern Brady
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
