That's optimistic, if anything. Jeremy Clarkson has published two dozen books for ghastly men to keep in their bathrooms and have their wretched opinions validated while shitting.
This isn’t an answer either but the most important thing that helped me start reading books again was to buy an alarm clock and leave my phone charging in another room overnight.
more comics in schools!
this is usually my answer to all possible problems, but even in middle grade comics the same gender split is starting to happen
I also genuinely think this is probably a problem best solved by local communities, and also by men themselves. Men only fiction book clubs will probably help young people before they go too far down into the manosphere.
I try but I am also being worked to death by a system that hates me for existing and trying to keep a roof over my head and food on my plate, and more than motivation it's also hard to just find the time.
Reading isn't gatekept from me by any sense of stigma, discussing geeky shit isn't either, I'm almost 40 and I don't care what anyone thinks of my anything, it seems to me kept from anyone performing "essential" tasks through time and exhaustion. When I get home from work, I just want to sleep.
One way I made time for reading was to stick the Kindle app in the spot where Twitter was on my phone. Then when I went to pick up my phone o had tricked myself into picking up a book
Unironically I should start a book club and get people in the door with this (I've never read any Sanderson!), I can sneak Le Guin or something in afterward hehehe
it’s catnip for cis boys. i had to read it so that i could be part of their world, like a beleaguered parent desperately trying to understand homestuck
Finally finishing grapes of wrath, 30 years after it was assigned to me was possibly my highlight. Read The Four Winds right before it and Whose Names are Unkown right after.
Well I've got like 12 in various states of progress in audible and dozens more I haven't started at all. That said, I am planning to reread Gibson's Sprawl novels next year to follow along with a podcast.
The intersectional block here is that this applies to cis men's communities, but Trans & Queer Men are often excluded in those spaces, and even in LGBTQ+ spaces Trans and Queer Men face bias from their communities
honestly it doesn't have to me men only. we also need to get men to have women as friends. one of the bigger red flags in a man according to a male friend of mine, is no female friends
For anybody interested, a lot of volunteer tutor/afterschool programs just need warm bodies to read with children/teens. Literally all you need to do is be a friendly person who helps a kid get through a book
in-game achievements, but for books. chapter milestones. not a lot of interactivity to work with, but you could prompt the reader to fill in a certain notable passage from the book in a rote sort of way ("write what alyosha said to dmitri in the back garden in chapter 17") maybe. no pop quizzes tho
maybe like subjective multiple choice reflection check-ins. ("what do you think father zossima was trying to make alyosha understand here? A, B, or C? and then they're all valid interpretations)
those could be BSed if the reader doesn't care, but maybe there's less risk given readers get invested
I feel like we need a blockbuster bestseller for straight dudes that doesn't have abominable politics to kick off a reading revival but I don't even know how you would go about writing such a thing these days
we need a Chuck Tingle for men or something. What do men like... cars and sports? Uh. The Time I drove my Ferrari into the Superbowl. A million copy seller
They’re busy playing video games. Honestly I think the reading comprehension of people like this goes up when the literary quality of the games they play goes up so that’s probably decent place to start.
Even something like MGS has a lot more to think about than say COD and that’s good for people.
It’s extra sad because books have never been more accessible - available in print, e-book, audiobook and all available via library. Just need to convince people to replace their Rogan time with an audiobook!
I’m always surprised at how many people I meet who still don’t realize that you can check out ebooks from the library, download them to any or all of your devices for convenience & they even return themselves when the loan’s up. And it costs nothing. It’s quite literally never been easier.
That’s a huge struggle for me. I listen to quite a few podcasts (not Rogan though, ugh) and it’s tough to see I’m getting behind on them and the few shows I still watch. I need more time damnit.
I remember reading a thing a few months back where the main/only thing adult men read now are non-fiction books about optimizing their productivity which certainly makes sense of the world we're in now
My friend group of guys reads a lot, mostly fantasy. But my dad reads nothing. The last thing he read was probably an Arnold Palmer memoir or something. I guess if dudes aren't reading fantasy or sports books, they're reading self-help or nothing at all.
I definitely grew up in a generation we're reading was definitely waning, but at least I feel we had TV, anime, and video games and stuff to supplement that creativity and discuss with each other and was fairly accessible.
I have no idea what really supplements that now. F2P games and YouTube?
joining a scifi book club is the best thing I have done for myself in recent years. the men in the club are all good dudes. I fear you are right about the number of men who do not read...
This is very true. I read a lot and there’s like four male friends I know I can talk about books with an a near infinite number of female friends. I cannot imagine not reading.
men need a secret little guilty pleasure genre like "chick lit" or romance that they can hide from their partners and gossip about at the salon. or whatever men do. it can be about war sports.
[disclaimer: I think guilty pleasures are fake and I'm specifically talking about societal ideas about these genres, not making a value judgement. I'm reading a book about werewolf orgies rn]
I was visiting my aunt and uncle earlier this year and my uncle begged off at one point to go read an old Stephen King paperback he's just bought, while I ... listened to a Warhammer audiobook and played picross.
My wife's impression is that I consume more media than she does. While she reads and watches TikTok, I'm constantly on Bsky, Reddit, and various forums, and usually have podcasts on at work. I wind down at night watching Youtube.
Apart from research for my blog, I do find it hard to pick a book up.
I’m cool with non-fiction, but haven’t really touched fiction since college. I find there to be too much exposition, and not as much focus on characters, so I tend to prefer getting fiction from media.
College genuinely burned me out from reading and I think I only got back into the habit in 2023 when I discovered bell hooks' "The Will to Change". I couldn't stop reading that book!
I noticed that 'book culture' and the fans therein of all sorts seems distinctly weighted towards women. I never hear men crying about a distinct tragic twist in a story that moved them. Everyone I grew up around who cared about books were all women.
I remember how a generation of boys were told that critical analysis was bad, but then that it was okay to read Jordan Peterson, and so they had no defenses against "but what if Disney movies...say something about SOCIETY"
Started reading romance (yeah, that kind) with my girlfriend. This is my most read year ever, and I get why the ladies are nose deep in their book now. 💀
The only times I really read long form books is to my kid(reading through discworld now) or a book written by friend/family. I just don't really find reading books engaging. I'll read magazines or articles though, or graphic novels. Most of the time I'll read a couple chapters and lose interest.
reading has largely been replaced by podcasts. And those podcasts typically tell them to read Jordan Peterson, or whatever pseudo-intellectual hacks go on Rogan. So, not only are man not reading that much now, the reading that is being done is being replaced by brain-rotting bullshit.
Always an upsetting thing to learn. admittedly my reading has slowed a lot since becoming a dad but a lot of that is a result of less public transit due to COVID and time I would’ve spent reading being for reading to my boys!
I have a YouTube channel about fantasy and sci-fi books, and have a few friends who do the same. We frequently will plan to read stuff at the same time to talk about it, kind of like a book club.
A lot of booktubers run clubs for people to join via Patreon (with free options).
I took a hiatus from reading books after finishing grad school, but I've since returned. After being immersed in digital media for so long, it took real effort to fully focus on print media with no distractions or skipping around paragraphs. I do think the ubiquity of digital media is part of this
The Horus Heresy novel series is about dudes being bros (super soldiers) vs. other dudes that stopped being bros (demonic super soldiers) and the implications of what makes a bro (loyalty and honor) and whether those are worth anything in the face of extinction (they are)
I feel like preventing men from having the time/energy/motivation/support for reading is a calculated effort by society to make them more malleable for far right and extremist propaganda...
this may sound bad but… does at least some fanfiction count? Because I can breeze through a massive fanfic in one sitting but just… can’t as much with physical books anymore
Do you have any studies that show your cause for concern?Most studies I've come across show either minimal change, or that the gap has narrowed over the past 10-15 years, including out of those that are daily readers, men now spend more time reading than women per day.
Yeah it’s similar to how the time between Spider-Man reboots has gotten shorter and shorter. Culture as a whole has just shrunk its sphere of influence.
I think about this alllll the time. The cultural appetite for new anything seems so tiny. Even a generally pretty good show like The Penguin trades on its IP connection to get a foothold with wide audiences.
I have a lot of "guy who reads a book a week, almost all literary fiction or cultural theory" opinions about this but a big factor is that masculinity as a social model doesn't concern itself with internal life very much, which worthwhile fiction is very concerned about.
I don’t read nearly as much as I used to. I don’t have the time during the day so I usually do it late and before bed. Now I fall asleep so fast I can’t finish anything. Still read though
there are the guys who don't read and then there are the guys who are currently two thirds of the way through a 1300 page fantasy book that released over the weekend
Okay this post has stumped me. I'm a man who used to be a huge reader, but the more creative I became the less I read. Engaging in journalism/becoming a journalist as a whole completely killed my book reading. Now I find other mediums more relaxing... Maybe I hate my own imagination?
I’ve gotten my dad into audiobooks. Started him on spy books and like Clive Cussler adventure stuff but I’ve got him into some urban fantasy stuff and he loves it.
The rise in instant gratification in media for men where practical know-how is prioritized over emotional engagement is shown in the rise of self-optimisation media (Atomic Habits/Huberman podcasts) aligned with limited emotional narratives in favour of action from media sources like Marvel films.
What I don't get is that writers like Martha Wells tick all the boxes (short-novella length books, futuristic sci-fi, killer-assassin robots), but a quick glance at the reviews show most of reviews are from women - which highlights your point I guess.
At work, I talked about a book club I go to and the other guys were talking like a was the next Einstein. Or that I was only there to get laid 🙄. Shit's dire.
I read every night, though I know I am the exception. I have friends who are male who also read books, but not many of them. And I’m a Gen X. I’m not sure about younger generations at all.
Part of the problem is scolds chastising them for reading Infinite Jest or Chuck Pahlaunik. Men can't even watch the right movies lest they be branded a certain type of guy. I'm as liberal as they come, but secure enough to ignore the very real hostility men face in liberal spaces
A few years back I formed a habit of reading before bed and it’s seemed to work out pretty well for me. Depending on the book I usually stick to a “one chapter per night” cadence (sometimes more if the chapters are short). Purely pleasure reading, largely fiction but not always.
Dennis O'Neil ended every issue of The Question with a book recommendation for if readers of that issue liked the sort of thing that story was about, superficially or thematically. It's one of my favorite features a comic's ever had.
Or with literary fiction at least, obviously men and women are all reading x amount of self-help slop but anything where the point is just reading literature i feel like the audience is like 75% women at this point although I should probably actually check
I think there's currently a major strain among men of, like, get-smart-quick schemes rather than actual curiosity (podcasts, YouTube, science factoid pages, very superficial engagement with like Greek philosophy) that, aside from just chauvinism, reflects a higher % of men pivoting to self-educating
I need to read more, I read a ton as a kid. Movies/games/TV are just so much easier to get into when I'm tired after work, though. Last books I read were probably the Scholomance trilogy last Feb, though I've been reading manga more recently. Read Blue Period and Vagabond a couple months ago.
Took my forthcoming book about 1.5 years to get representation, and — having learned a lot about publishing since — I think that in part was because the perceived audience for it is largely men.
(It’s a narrative history of the Power Rangers franchise. So, not exactly a DOA pitch.)
my dad read a book for the first time in years about ten years ago, after I recommended it. I remember my mom being shocked. But it was just the one and I don’t think he’s read anything else since then. I think about this every so often
was thinking on this when my little brother came to visit last yr w his navy buddies. they came for our hometown festival and we met up in the library's bookstore. me and my sister were very engaged, but they all just kind of glazed over. one just bought a pocket bible and a spiderman 2 DVD
naturally they're all a v specific demographic so it's not very representative, but i was like damn... really?? not even the 50c manga is working on ya'll??
I want books with these themes to be marketed at men.
Specifically, a gender-agnostic protector, as a protagonist, that sees violence as a last resort; this is the kind of character I'd like to see my boy-children drawn to.
Fifteen years ago I could read a full-size novel in a day. Now I can't hardly focus enough to do it for thirty minutes at a stretch, and the vast majority of days I don't even pick up a book.
I encourage you both to try audiobooks. I was a classic bookworm, then went through about a decade where I couldn't find the time. I trained myself to listen to audiobooks -- it's totally a different skill. Libraries have an app, I now read about 130 books a year (some I DNF). 💚
begging men to realize they can read what they like and not to be afraid or embarrassed that what they like isn't "intellectual" or "important" or "on a best sellers list"
I follow someone on tumblr who says stuff like 'if you don't read books that challenge you, you might as well not read'. 😂
While I'm over here reading my shlocky litrpg trash unbothered
I think it's great to read challenging books but you really gotta develop a love of reading first! and sometimes a book that challenges your perceptions can also be like a 200 pg novella instead of a dense boring book!!
It's sadly like a muscle, being able to focus like that, and after so long out of practice I had to start from the Beverly Cleary Literary Universe just to get back in the groove.
I used to read a lot more, but now I spend more time creative writing (yay!) and streaming content (ugh). i just googled that movies/tv have traditionally been made more for men than women, so maybe that is where the imbalance comes from
I've been thinking about this. For being hailed as one of our foremost public intellectuals, when do you think the last time Jordan Peterson read a book was?
Do women still read books? I used to devour them but a combination of fucking anxiety disorder and blasted attention span mean I barely got through 10 audiobooks in the last year.
I think yes, definitely. Books thought of to be written "for women" have also permeated mainstream pop culture in a way that doesn't really exist for young men.
But yeah we were taught in grad school that Black women specifically were out reading all of us (yet publishing for them is!....)
My wife, me and young male adults all read 30 to 40
/year. Much of the popular lit out there is female human interest driven. Us guys read some but are more diverse readers.
I sadly admit that I don't. I used to read a dozen plus books a year. Now I don't read any. I think a chunk of that is that I don't travel any more, so I spend a lot less time on planes and so on. But I also don't really feel like just sitting down and reading any more. I don't know why.
I spent about 3-4 years in this mode and it was really hard to break out, but honestly just making the commitment to do it even if you don't feel like it, just to get the ball rolling, can make a big difference. Kind of like going to the gym.
I’m a male reader and sometimes when I try to recommend books to my male friends, they look at me eyes agog, as if I suggested eating a live scorpion. I agree with your premise
I wish I couldn't read. If I don't have an audiobook at work, I start to take psychic damage. last week, I finished Nixonland, then I read Technofualism then the Andrea Dworkins anthology and now I'm listening to the Price of Time, about interest rates and to sleep I'm listening to Spinoza
my wife is exhausted. I'm addicted to fucking learning and all I want to do is talk about the things I learn and I feel for her because I really don't live in the present, my brain is unstuck in time
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this is usually my answer to all possible problems, but even in middle grade comics the same gender split is starting to happen
I'm pining for the worlds.
creating elaborate cross-reference systems for the easter eggs and literary allusions in gene wolfe novels, with the bros
Finally finishing grapes of wrath, 30 years after it was assigned to me was possibly my highlight. Read The Four Winds right before it and Whose Names are Unkown right after.
Just kidding. I’ve got 4 or 5, most of them on the back burner. Two main ones, one kindle, one audiobook.
I can't even sleep unless I read first, but I came up pre-internet ND nerd in the middle of nowhere, obviously not the general experience
Only good thing about commuting now is more audiobooks
those could be BSed if the reader doesn't care, but maybe there's less risk given readers get invested
Even something like MGS has a lot more to think about than say COD and that’s good for people.
I have no idea what really supplements that now. F2P games and YouTube?
50% Business and self improvement
45% Philbrick and Ambrose
5% Non naval fiction
Apart from research for my blog, I do find it hard to pick a book up.
That being said, I’m game for recommendations!
My weirdness probably is the exception that proves the rule.
Yes men need to read more.
Audiobooks are the answer.
A lot of booktubers run clubs for people to join via Patreon (with free options).
A lot of queer men are avid readers, but a lot of cis dude-bros fit the above stereotypes
Men will read it.
https://www.thinkimpact.com/reading-statistics/
https://myclasstracks.com/us-book-reading-statistics/
"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge." -GRRM
I punched me in the guts just as hard as DE.
Got back on the horse this year tho and reading again has in general made me a significantly happier and more positive person.
I should get back to that.
(22-25), I was reading 1-2 books per month...
Then as life got busier, reading books was just one of those things that got chopped first.
Now 10 years later, my partner has encouraged me to spend more time reading and it really has made me wonder why I ever stopped.
https://bsky.app/profile/torrleonard.bsky.social/post/3l5mqhmsins2a
(It’s a narrative history of the Power Rangers franchise. So, not exactly a DOA pitch.)
Not just more books, but books that emphasize and normalize community, diversity, and hopefulnes.
(I loved them all).
I want books with these themes to be marketed at men.
Specifically, a gender-agnostic protector, as a protagonist, that sees violence as a last resort; this is the kind of character I'd like to see my boy-children drawn to.
Fifteen years ago I could read a full-size novel in a day. Now I can't hardly focus enough to do it for thirty minutes at a stretch, and the vast majority of days I don't even pick up a book.
While I'm over here reading my shlocky litrpg trash unbothered
But yeah we were taught in grad school that Black women specifically were out reading all of us (yet publishing for them is!....)
My wife, me and young male adults all read 30 to 40
/year. Much of the popular lit out there is female human interest driven. Us guys read some but are more diverse readers.
taking an epsom salt bath? reading
donating blood? Reading
taking the train? oh i am reading
but if i find myself with free time at home? except when I got less than 100 pages left, its a struggle.
...partial credit...?
A) business
B) Self help
C) memoir by a multimillionaire or richer.
they avoid all other books like the plague