It is quite true that men aren’t reading too many novels these days.  But as to why, it becomes a chicken and egg problem.  This is to say that novels are obviously marketed towards women, when you consider their themes and even the book covers.  However, some will say that this is merely responding to a market in which men don’t read novels.  Fair enough.  

I’m just nostalgic for a time when there were great American novels with a bit of testosterone, written by people who, yes, happened to be male and God forbid eve white, like Hemingway to John Updike.  These fellows simply would not be published nowadays.  They wouldn’t make it past the gatekeepers of the politically correct, feminist publishing industry.  That’s one problem. 

There are other issues at play.  An article came out in Dazed which elucidated the problem: “Why Don’t Straight Men Read Novels.”   Some of the points in the article are valid, while others require a bit of deconstruction.  

The thesis is that men are looking for self-improvement, they want to “get something out of it” if they read something, and hence can’t see the point in reading novels.  Quoted in Dazed, Professor Alistair Brown explains: 

A “cult of productivity is still imposed more on men than women.”

I will concede that men of our era do have this attitude, and so they gravitate towards nonfiction, some of which purports to have a self-improvement angle.  But it should be remembered that men make up the majority of history book purchases, probably middle-aged to senior White men.  This is why history books are much more interesting than history as it is taught in high school, which centers around victim groups. Men want to read about battles and great generals.  

But we can’t exactly say that men aren’t readers per se:    

“in 2023, men accounted for 55 per cent of non-fiction book sales, Nielsen BookData tells Dazed.”

However, women must be eating up a lot of fiction as they buy far more books than men: 

“in 2023, women made up 80 per cent of the book-buying market in the UK, US, and Canada, and accounted for 65 per cent of all fiction purchases in the UK according to Nielson BookData.” 

I read novels.  Indeed, I read Pride and Prejudice twice, so I cannot be confused with an Andrew Tate acolyte.  I’m not part of the “problem,” although I will say that I myself find it difficult to read most the new offerings in fiction that you would find and Barnes and Noble.  It’s clearly not marketed with me in mind.  

And if we are to be honest, the prose of a woman is distinct from that of a man, and that is why men can be turned off by female authors because the female perspective can be dominant in the tone and overbearing. For example, if the voice of the book is similar to the way an average 20 something white woman talks, that’s not a novel that I can tolerate reading.  Not to mention there are very tired tropes of feminism, negative attitudes towards men, and political bias/ propaganda.  This doesn’t necessarily represent females’ perspectives, but this is what is served in modern novels… chick-lit.  

Again, I love Jane Austin and Emily Dickinson, but we don’t have too many female writers of this caliber publishing nowadays.  

The Dazed article blames male influencers who are focused on masculinity, such as Andrew Tate and Dr. Andrew Hubermann.  It’s hard to imagine their audience picking up a novel.  Granted, men are found lacking nowadays in terms of culture, and most are downright philistines.  But the woke publishing industry and its feminist, boss-girl aesthetic is not going to win any converts either. 

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