Do women read more?

I have often been asked this question and I have wondered about it. In terms of absolute numbers, more women do visit Silverfish Books compared to men. But when it comes to buying books, though, many of our male customers seem to think nothing about spending several hundred ringgits (up to 2k) on books during a single visit.

Now a survey by the National Endowment for the Arts in America confirms that women are the most avid readers. Typically women read nine books in a year, compared with only five for men, and that the women read more than men in all categories except for history and biography.

And, according to surveys conducted in the U.S. and Canada and the gender gap is widest when it comes to fiction. Men account for only 20 percent of the fiction market.

The report says that book groups consist almost entirely of women. This we can confirm based on the four book groups that we advice on books for their groups and who purchase their books through us and two others we know. '... and the spate of new literary blogs are also populated mainly by women ...': this I was not aware, because I don’t read blogs, but it could be true in Malaysia too.

Then there are many theories and much psycho-babble that try to explain the gender gap.

'Cognitive psychologists have found that women are more empathetic than men, and possess a greater emotional range -- traits that make fiction more appealing to them.' Ahem.

Louann Brizendine, author of The Female Brain says: 'At a young age, girls can sit still for much longer periods of time than boys ...' Oh-kaaaaay ...

But this one takes the cake: '...mirror neurons ... behind the eyebrows ... are activated both when we initiate actions and when we watch those same actions in others. Mirror neurons explain why we recoil when seeing others in pain, or salivate when we see other people eating a gourmet meal. Neuroscientists believe that mirror neurons hold the biological key to empathy.

'The research is still in its early stages, but some studies have found that women have more sensitive mirror neurons than men. That might explain why women are drawn to works of fiction, which by definition require the reader to empathize with characters.'

Huh!? That's wierd man!

Okay, let's get back to planet earth. The research also showed that according to Scholastic, 'More boys than girls have read the Harry Potter series and that the books have made more of an impact on boys' reading habits. 61 percent of the boys agreed with the statement 'I didn't read books for fun before reading Harry Potter,' compared with 41 percent of girls.'

Could it be possible, let's take a wild swing here, could it just be possible that the reason men stay away from books is because most books in the current market are primarily not written for them? Chick-lit and 'bodice ripping' romances dominate the fiction market while self-help and cookbooks dominate the non-fiction. So, are women easier to exploit? Or, are men simply not worth the trouble?

(How many times have I heard this: '... my wife will divorce me if she sees all these books I am buying. She says I have too many books.' True, I have heard some women express similar sentiments about their spouses too, but fewer. Much fewer.)

I will tell you a nice Malaysian literary story as a parting shot (and this happened not too long ago): a customer came into the shop and said that she was looking for 50 books to give her husband for his 50th birthday -- could we help her choose some, please? She had asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said books, so she decided to give him 50. Now, is that wonderful or what? Yes, such people do exist in the world.

(Sigh. How I envy him!)

Full story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14175229