The novel that means most to men is about indifference, alienation and lack of emotional responses. That which means most to women is about deeply held feelings, a struggle to overcome circumstances and passion, research by the University of London has found.
Maybe I am writing chick lit after all...
"On the whole, men between the ages of 20 and 50 do not read fiction. This should have some impact on the book trade. There was a moment when car manufacturers realised that it was women who bought the family car, and the whole industry changed. We need fiction publishers - many of whom are women - to go through the same kind of recognition," Prof Jardine said.
It's true, actually, I don't read much and I'm right in the middle of that age group. I read all the time, but it's mostly nonfiction, apart from a few mystery series to which I'm addicted. Echidone finds fault with the studies, and not without reason:
So let me summarize: Two studies are done with different sized groups of respondents, neither selected properly. The two studies have different questions for the subject to answer, and result in two different lists of books. Conclusion: men and women are different breeds of people! Perhaps. But it's much more likely that these are not well-done studies and that we can't draw many conclusions from them.
As an aside, I have read all the books on the men's list and also all the books on the women's list. None of those changed my life much. What did change my life was Agatha Christie's The Murder on the Orient Express. I was around eight years old when I read it and it blew my brain. To think that they were all guilty!
She's probably right. For the record, I've read more of the men's list than the women's, the men's list is also longer than the women's (we're obsessed by length).
1 comment:
You should see what one of the studies says about men preferring hardback books...
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