I was short on books again, a recurring theme in my life, and one of the women I work with gave me a nice stack of paperbacks. I started reading the backs to see which one I’d start on and I noticed that each of these books features a female protagonist. Not that this is a problem, but I did dawn on me that I must prefer books with a male lead instead because I was slightly disappointed.
Does your gender give you preferance to the gender of fiction books that you’re reading?
Huh. I can’t say that it’s a conscious preference. . .but I find that I am also often more drawn to books that have a male protagonist. Of course, that might be my own subconscious feeling that too many people turn SciFi into Romance in order to attact female readers (of which I’m one, btw).
I don’t read a lot of fiction, but I don’t really notice this at all. Come to think of it, though, I have read a lot of books with female protagonists, probably more than your average boy (basically all of Margaret Atwood, Pride and Prejudice, The Stone Angel, A Wrinkle in Time, etc.)
I am a female, and prefer to read books from the male POV. I also prefer to write books from the male POV. A part of this has to do with my gender, because guys are hot, and I like to think about guys being hot. And nothing is more hot than being inside the mind of a guy!
However, I do have very little tolerance for female protags in books beyond just not finding women attractive to think about. The majority of women in novels seem very weak-willed to me. If anyone wants to recommend any books with badass females for protagonists, I’d be mighty interested.
Olives, if you’re willing to try some SF, I’d suggest the Honor Harrington books, beginning with On Basilisk Station. The link goes to a web copy of the book put up by the publisher, and containst the whole volume, so you can try it for free.
If you can enjoy fantasy, try Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold. Female lead, in her thirties or forties.
I like books from either male or female protagonist view points. Both can be interesting, and fun. What I don’t like are protagonists whom I want to reach into the pages just to slap silly. Unfortunately there are plenty of books written where the protagonists are just that annoying.
(Granted, I read a good deal of romance fiction, so I may be seeing more of the effects of Ground Level Liquid Stupid than many people.)
I’m female.
The only time I’ve ever noticed it was in a high school English class where every book we read had a male protagonist (and over half were male coming-of-age stories). The women banded together to complain so I think in the end we got to read a few short stories about females, written by males.
That being said, I don’t think the gender of a protagonist is at the front of my mind when I choose a book. I do really appreciate strong, intersting female protagonists when I come across them (Chris Guthrie from A Scot’s Quair comes to mind), but I think they’re rarer than interesting male protagonists.
I have a moderate predisposition towards female protagonists, mostly because as a guy I already have plenty of male experience and don’t need more vicariously. A female viewpoint is more interesting to me.
You can also go here and download most of David Weber’s novels ( along with other people’s ), almost all of which have strong women in them or as leads. Mostly military sci-fi, with the Bahzell series ( male lead however ) being fantasy. The CDs this data is from are available free with various Baen hardbounds, and yes, you are allowed to copy them as much as you like.
Besides Weber’s Harrington books, his Path of the Fury is mostly from the viewpoint of a female super soldier named Alicia DeVries.
Very good, but the second in a series; the first has a male lead.
A fantasy series I’d recommend with a strong female lead is the Spellsong Cycle by L.E. Modesitt Jr. A female singer from Earth is transported into a world where singing is magic, and qualifies as an immensely powerful sorceress. She gets involved with politics, intrigue and warfare, in no small part because she’s a moderate feminist, which by local standards makes her a wild eyed loony. A wild eyed loony who can level cities and fry armies . . .
My favourite author, Terry Pratchett, does both male and female POV stories equally well, and I like both. As far as SciFi goes, I find I tend to read a lot of authors like Le Guin and Cherryh who sometimes play around with gender in unusual ways but in any case are like Pratchett in writing both male and female characters equally well. Iain Banks, too.
So to answer the OP’s question - no, I have no preference.
Hey guys, thanks for the recs. I will be sure to check them out someday when my life and energy is not consumed by work…
If you like action books you might like Thomas Perry, he has a female protagonist that’s badass. She takes women who are on the run and teaches them how to fight and get away. They’re not the best books in the world, but I liked them. Good for a plane ride anyway.
The mind boggles. I buy books faster than I can read them. If only people would stop writing new ones, I might get caught up by the time I’m 80. But anyway…
No, I don’t think so. Unless we’re talking about something like Harlequin-type romance novels, or the chickiest or chick lit. But that’s more a matter of genre and/or quality.
(And, if we’re recommending books with female protagonists: The Thursday Next novels kick ass. Well, except for The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco. 
)
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Generally I don’t buy books, at least not new. I mostly use the library, which I haven’t signed up for since moving from my last town or Goodwill, the cheapest place on Earth to stack up on books. I’ve been a bit busy the last few months and let my collecting slip up, hence my current state of lacking.
And I’m not saying that I mind a female lead in a story, but as I mentioned in my OP I did find myself “sifting” through the new pile looking for the one with a male. I’d never really noticed that I had a preferance, but maybe it goes with the territory of the kind of stories I enjoy which are a bit more action orientated. I like detective books, cop books, military adventures, that kind of thing. It might just be that there aren’t many books written about hard boiled women.
When reading, it doesn’t matter to me whether the protagonist is male or female. When writing, I favor female protagonists. I think that’s because, as a male, I spend more time in my youth observing women than men.
I’d also recommend Tanya Huff’s Valor series (A Confederation of Valor contains the first two novels). It’s military sci-fi with a strong female protagonist - she’s a no-nonsense marine sergeant. These are pretty good action/adventure sci-fi, and very funny in spots.
(Don’t let the bad Amazon ratings fool you - the reviewers are complaining about being tricked into thinking this is a new book instead of an omnibus containing two previously published novels.)
I’m female, and I have a preference for female protagonists. I don’t know that it’s a strong preference–I certainly read books with male protagonists as well, but if I’m intrigued by the cover/title of a new book, I’m far more likely to follow through and try the book if there is a female protagonist.
I don’t really have a preference.
My books seem to have a good selection of both, though for young adult books I lean towards female protagonists more than the male (Robin McKinley, Anne McCaffrey, Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey). Actually, thinking on it there are a lot of female protagonists on my bookshelf, but not that much more than the male.
If I’m reading romance though, I prefer authors that jump between the male and female because just the female often makes me want to slap them (ie harlequin’s)… and almost all chick lit makes me want to slap them so I generally avoid it.
I’m male and prefer a male narrative, my rough guess is I’ve always liked books that show actions (however small) to give you windows on a personality and I’ve found that writers often just come out and say how women feel.
Male, generally prefer a male’s perspective. Among the writers who wrote both, the androcentric books are almost always more enjoyable. For example, Feist’s Riftwar and Serpentwar Sagas were better than the Empire Trilogy, GRRM’s most fun chapters are mostly through the eyes of men (and Arya, admittedly), and Oryx and Crake is Atwood’s best work IMHO.
The only exception that comes to mind is Rand. The Fountainhead came across as crap, but I loved Atlas Shrugged and We The Living.
I’m male, I have no preference in the gender of the lead character.
I typically pick books out based on authors I have become familiar with. Some of these authors tend to pick the same gender for the heros in the books they write.
Elizabeth Moon, for example, tends to use female leads in her sci-fi books.