I suppose I prefer reading a male-gender book, but many of the books that I have read recently were more geared towards women and had female protagonists. It isn’t a deal breaker.
Male or female protagonist doesn’t bother me, but I do notice that I prefer books written by male authors. This has mostly to do with the fact that many of the female authors I’ve read don’t write very good male characters and, as a male, it annoys me.
I’m female and do not have a preference for a male or female protagonist. As long as the writer opens the main character up to me and makes him or her believable, I’m in.
When I was a child, though, I would only read books with female protagonists.
I have no particular preference. Occasionally I’ll find myself wondering if the author had a more difficult time developing a character of the opposite sex, especially in a series, but I don’t really think about it.
I don’t have a preference, though come to think of it I don’t go for really “feminine” books like romance or chick lit, nor do I enjoy testosterone-laden guy books with lots of violence and gore. I am middlewoman!
I have a mild preference for books with a female protagonist, but I can certainly enjoy either.
I seem to mostly read female protagonist stories. At least when I read sci-fi or fantasy the lead is usually female. Same with any YA book. For non-genre fictions I’ll read anything. When Harry Potter first came out I was at an age where I refused to read it for two years or so because it was about a boy.
When I write, it is almost always from a male POV. I actually think this is because I like male names better than female names.
I’ve also noticed that I like my TV shows to have male leads. I always like the men more. I’m not quite sure why this is.
Move over on that couch, o middlewoman!
It seems that most books that appealed to me when I was a youngun had a male lead, and since I’m delving into modern-urban fantasy right now, most of the books that are appealing have a female lead (except the Dresden Files).
I basically read from two genres: Fantasy and mystery. Epic fantasy (my favorite) still seems to be dominated by male leads. Mystery series seem to be dominated by female leads right now.
Female, no preference. My list of favorites is almost exactly 50/50.
I do however have a hard time with writers who choose to write about a protagonist with the opposite gender - men who write female protagonists and women who write male protagonists. Somehow it almost always rings false to me. The only writer who I feel is able to do this well is Terry Pratchett; his female protagonists are some of the best out there, IMO.
Female, no preference as to gender. But a strong preference for strong, capable protagonists, a great dislike of whiners. So that means I often avoid the kind of chick lit that whines about men. But there are whiney male protags in fiction – the Thomas Covenant series by Donaldson is the classic example of the man who whined too much.
I like getting into the heads of the characters, though, so I’m happy to read works where a majority of the book is about the thoughts and feelings of the characters, if it is well-written and not self-indulgent, and in the context of a good plot.
When I was a child, I preferred books with male leads, because the books aimed at girls way back when had disgustingly “girly” girls, and I liked action and adventure. Nancy Drew was annoying, I think because she had a boyfriend but didn’t do anything interesting with him – even at 8 years old I was hoping for a some sort of a sex scene, some warmth and heat between them. So, since that wasn’t going to happen, I wanted to read about males I could admire and fantasize about. I also preferred books and tv shows with adult characters, and identified with the adults, not the kids.