I've read and greatly enjoyed Colleen McCullough's series of novels about the fall of the Roman Republic. Brilliant work!
Posted on 06/01/2005 11:20:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Men have finally realised what they are missing, but they still aren't all that keen to do anything about it.
This is the conclusion of a study into sex differences in reading habits, which found that, while women read the works of both sexes, men stick to books written by men. And the boys can no longer use ignorance as an excuse.
'Men clearly now know that there are some great books by women - such as Andrea Levy's Small Island - they really ought to have read and ought to consider "great" (or at least good) writing,' the report said. 'They recognise the titles and they've read the reviews. They may even have bought, or been given the books, and start reading them. But they probably won't finish them.'
The research was carried out by academics Lisa Jardine and Annie Watkins of Queen Mary College, London, to mark the 10th year of the Orange Prize for Fiction, a literary honour whose women-only rule provoked righteous indignation when the competition was founded. They asked 100 academics, critics and writers and found virtually all now supported the prize.
But a gender gap remains in what people choose to read, at least among the cultural elite. Four out of five men said the last novel they read was by a man, whereas women were almost as likely to have read a book by a male author as a female. When asked what novel by a woman they had read most recently, a majority of men found it hard to recall or could not answer. Women, however, often gave several titles. The report said: 'Men who read fiction tend to read fiction by men, while women read fiction by both women and men.
'Consequently, fiction by women remains "special interest", while fiction by men still sets the standard for quality, narrative and style.'
In the survey, men were asked to name the 'most important' book by a woman written in the last two years. Brick Lane by Monica Ali and Carol Shields's Unless were frequently among the replies, but many men admitted defeat and confessed they had no idea. At least one who suggested Brick Lane admitted he had not read it.
The report added: 'Men's reading habits have altered very little since the Orange Prize burst onto the fiction scene in 1996.
Although no one would admit that the gender of the author had any influence on their choice of fictional reading-matter, men were still far less likely to have read a novel by a woman than by a man, whereas women read titles by either.
'Pressed for a preference, many men also found it much more difficult to "like" or "admire" a novel authored by a woman - for them "great" writing was male writing (oh - apart from Jane Austen, of course),' the report said.
'No wonder, then, that each year when the winner of the Orange Prize is announced a chorus of disappointment goes up from "mainstream" critics: how could such an undistinguished book have won?'
A decade ago the Orange Prize drew the scorn of many leading writers, including Kingsley Amis ('If I were a woman, I would not want to win this prize. One can hardly take the winner seriously'), and AS Byatt ('I am against anything which ghettoises women. That is my deepest feminist emotion").
The prize is now estab lished just behind the Man Booker and the Whitbread in the literary hierarchy and had huge support among survey respondents, although some still expressed ambivalence. Julie Burchill said: 'I see where it's coming from but totally understand the reasons why women don't want their novels to be entered for it.'
Jardine said: 'When pressed, men are likely to say things like: "I believe Monica Ali's Brick Lane is a really important book - I'm afraid I haven't read it." I find it most endearing that in 10 years what male readers of fiction have done is learn to pretend that they've read women's books.'
This year's £30,000 Orange Prize will be awarded on 7 June.
Its 'cause wimmenses write funny.
I've read and greatly enjoyed Colleen McCullough's series of novels about the fall of the Roman Republic. Brilliant work!
for later
Well duh! I hope the none of our tax dollars were involved in this "research" :-)
I have several hundred books – only about half a dozen are fiction. I have found few female history or science writers.
Another female author that isn't to bad. L. Dean James.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/L_Dean_James.htm
Mine too. I was wondering if she was still alive or not, the woman musta been about 100 or so! The first book by her I read was "Daybreak 2250 A.D." back in the 8th grade. (and 8th grade was 32 years ago!)
Worst thing I ever did to myself was read Stranger in a Strange Land, not the original publication either, but the new unedited one. Yes, thats right, there was a bunch of weirdness that was actually cut from the original, and is now reintegrated.
Scratch that, shes a he.
...In the survey, men were asked to name the 'most important' book by a woman written in the last two years......My Worthless Political Life by Patty Murray????
Myself, I don't read important novels whether written by a woman or a man. I do not care to waste my time on a book that will either depress me or tick me off.
Either puts me to sleep, or involves lesbian fantasy worlds about all female societies devoid of men.
Forget "feeding the Galactic All-Mother with love", give me interstellar war!
Then how do you know what's in them? Me myself, I've never read any books considered important that contained the ideas you outlined.
I see that Lois McMaster Bujold just won what I think is her third Nebula for best SF/F novel (PALLADIN OF SOULS). Clearly there are *some* men who are reading her works!I don't know about the recent fantasy-type ones, but that was definitely the case with the Vorkosigan series. I bought the last 3 or 4 of those day-of-hardcover-release. She's good at blending genres ...mixing in mystery and even romance, and is matchless at character development.
-Eric
The Guardian and Mr.Smith can bugger off. I'm an avid reader of detective and mystery fiction and there are several women in those genres whose work I read and enjoy enough to collect signed first editions...Julie Smith, Nevada Barr, Edna Buchanan, Alafair Burke, Karin Slaughter and Judith Van Gieson...just to name a few.
Gawd I hate reading this kind of tripe at 6am
Camille Paglia would agree with that, so would Christina Hoff Sommers and Dr. Laura Schlessinger...
http://www.bu.edu/arion/paglia_cults00.htm
I've done that myself! (Yes, I'm a woman.) That's one good reason for reading action/thrillers written by men.
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