The last fiction book that I read for fun (as opposed for school) was “Brad’s Flying Saucer” when I was in elementary school. I read for fun everyday, but I read 100% non-fiction. Is this a guy thing or am I just strange?
Because of school assignments, I have read all the classic “manly” authors. I thought that they were quite good, but I just can’t start and finish them on my own. I have also tried to read some of the “pop” novels. I just can’t spend an afternoon reading the “Da Vinci Code” without stopping by the library first and getting non-fiction books on Da Vinci, Catholic inspired cults, albinoism, France, etc. I know a lot of people who read a lot, and it seems that most of the people who talk about fiction or who pull out the paperback on their lunch hour are women. From my observation, it appears that most guys just wait for the movie to come out!
I read almost 100% fiction (thrillers, detective, police procedural, scifi), while my wife reads 99% non-fiction, usually self-help or parenting books. She’s tried to read Harry Potter and LOTR, for instance, but hasn’t finished either series, although she has seen all the movies. So, I don’t think there’s anything gender specific about reading habits.
My fiction reading has gotten rarer and rarer as time has gone on. I used to be heavily into
fantasy and SF-until I kept seeing the same tired tropes over and over again-nothing it seems
is capable of seeming exciting and fresh to me anymore-last thing I got crazy about was the
graphical Sandman series-but that was 6 years ago…
I’m 99% fiction. And virtually none of it is Sci-fi or fantasy. There was a time when I read Ray Bradbury, but I haven’t read one of his books in decades.
Beat this: I have a good friend who writes fiction–good, interesting, entertaining fiction–and I’ve gotten a third of the way through her first of seven or eight novels. I just don’t read fiction anymore.
I read mostly fiction (everything from sci-fi to romance) along with the occasional biography or history book.
My husband reads both, but especially lately he tends to pick non-fiction books about history, science or sociology. Also books about politics (I’d rather have teeth pulled.)
I think people read what interests them, regardless of gender.
I’m a guy and I read plenty of both fiction and non-fiction. I can’t imagine not reading either. I have trouble imagining people who won’t read one or the other.
My wife, who is a girl, and my daughter (ditto), also read both fiction and non-fiction.
I’d think you could probably get some sense from the types of books that hit best seller lists what kind of books what kind of people are reading. It’d take some gender stereotyping, but that seems to be the point of this exercise in any case.
I work with a ton of people with degrees in English. (and no, we don’t work in the fastfood industry, thanks for asking) Both genders spend a lot of time discussing fiction, so… Personally, I read about 95% fiction, and only venture into non-fiction for biographies and how-to books. Unless I’m researching something I want to write about, that is.
Another male here who mostly reads non-fiction (like 80%). Of the fiction I read, the great majority of it is thrillers, spy novels, and the like. It’s been a while since I last picked up a non-genre, “literary” novel for fun.
What us one-typers need is a web site that runs us through a brief psychological exam of our likes and dislikes, and then recommends some books to read. Ought to be a piece of cake, no?
My reading is split almost evenly between fiction and non-fiction, although I can tear through a good fiction book faster than non-fiction. My wife on the other hand doesn’t read non-fiction and can’t understand what I see in it.
