Reading preferences – men and women are different

I rather dropped the ball on reporting the 2024 reader survey results. Other things – tasks related to a major water leak, finishing a book for my grandsons, helping two women from Iran, friends experiencing health challenges – took priority.

Today, I’m looking at the always fascinating topic of male/female attitudes and preferences when it comes to reading. As mentioned in an earlier post, I apologize for not including an option to identify as other than female/male.

First up, you will notice that more women than men read in excess of 30 books a year, This might be related to the fact that women cited reading to pass the time more frequently than men.

What about non-fiction reading? While there is the usual bias to historical non-fiction because of my connections to that community, note the differences in memoir, science/technology, biography, and politics/world affairs.

As you can see in the chart below, women read more romance and women’s fiction than men (duh!!) while men read more fantasy, military/war, and more science fiction than women.

What about reasons to read? Both women and men cite entertainment as a top reason, women also noted to escape the everyday world, to appreciate other places and people in the world, and to understand the circumstances of others as significant factors behind their reading. In contrast, the men who responded are not so strongly differentiated in their reasons for reading.

Furthermore, women are more likely to read to develop personal insights or to gain an insight into the human condition than are men.

In terms of book acquisition, the survey indicates that women use the library much more than men, while men acquire books more frequently online than women.

Historical fiction time period preferences also vary by gender. In both cases, the top 2 are 19th century and 20th century. However, women indicated a preference for 13th to 16th, dual timeline stories, and choosing from a wide variety of time periods. Responses from men highlighted stories from ancient time periods and from the 6th to 12th century.

When choosing a book, covers matter more to women while authors matter more to men. In looking for recommendations, women use Goodreads and Facebook more than men. In talking about books, men are much less likely to belong to bookclubs than women.

And finally, on the topic of the pandemic, men were less affected than women in terms of their reading.

The yellow bar: ‘The pandemic did not affect my reading’. The light blue bar: ‘I read different books than in the past’.

There are two earlier posts on the 2024 reader survey results. You can find them here and here. I plan to return with one more post examining the write-in comments of participants.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page. 

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from AmazonNookKoboGoogle Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.

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