This is part 1 of a series of upcoming posts
I recently signed up for a GoodReads account; I don’t love the social mediafication of an offline hobby, but it is a nice way to see what books my friends are reading. One of the immediately noticeable things is the stark gender divide to the types of books men—including me—and my female friends read.
There are plenty of articles available that have described this phenomenon [1][2][3], but I think they miss the complete picture. Sure, the statistics are probably correct: men read more non-fiction, self-help, science fiction than women; men generally read slightly less than women [3]. However, what I find more interesting is the motivic gap between the fiction read by men and women.
There is an old Guardian article that touches upon this, although it is hilariously misandrist [4]. Prof. Lisa Jardine of Queen Mary’s College says this about men’s reading habits:
“Between 20 and 40, many men we talked to openly showed an almost complete lack of interest in reading which drew them into personal introspection”.
She goes onto say that men are incapable of digesting long books, are put off by small print, and lack the intellectual capability to conduct any sort of critical thinking whatsoever. The only themes our primeval monkey brains can digest relate to fucking, hunting, and fighting other men. Our choices belay underlying Freudian sexual dysfunction, express our fixation on pubescent Bildungsromanistic themes, and showcase an overall lack of emotional maturity.
I disagree with all of this, but I genuinely understand how someone could come to these conclusions. Just take a look at the most popular books for men on Amazon for 2025, you see titles like The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II, The Psychology of Money, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, and Project Hail Mary.
None of these books carry any particularly deep emotional depth. Sure the WWII book contains feelings of fear and righteous indignation, but it doesn’t do much in instilling empathy in our daily lives. The two self-help books are explicitly about suppressing one’s inner feelings and embracing a stoic individualism to pursue material wealth. The last book by Andy Weir is focused on developing an unshakable resilience and overcoming internal limitations for the good of humanity. In other words, a direct appeal to the male fantasy of becoming best version of ourselves (i.e., the archetypical hero).
Alright, so these choices don’t provide the best refutation of Prof. Jardine's points, but the aforementioned books only represent the most popular among a general audience, specifically people who are purchasing their books from Amazon, not going to local bookstores or libraries. On the next post, I will discuss men’s preference in literature, which I believe sheds a greater light on the type of books that move male readers.