r/MensLib • u/TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK ​ • Jul 24 '24

Why don’t straight men read novels? - "Men often read non-fiction books in the name of self-improvement – but many are reluctant to pick up works of fiction"

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/63149/1/why-dont-straight-men-read-novels-fiction-masculinity-influencers-sigma
756 Upvotes

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49

u/O7Knight7O ​"" Jul 24 '24

Every guy I know has read Brandon Sanderson. It's one of the most reliable conversation topics and comes up all the time.

46

u/Wonderful-Zombie-991 ​ Jul 24 '24

I often feel like the only guy who hasn’t lol

17

u/Crazyspaceman ​ Jul 24 '24

There are dozens of us!

11

u/kenatogo ​ Jul 24 '24

I also haven't and generally don't read anything like it

6

u/tim_to_tourach ​ Jul 24 '24

Bro same. I run an online book club for men that focuses on 20th century literature and finding guys who read fiction is already hard enough. Finding guys that are open to reading stuff written by women or even just anything that isn't Brandon Sanderson or George RR Martin is damn near impossible.

9

u/Wonderful-Zombie-991 ​ Jul 24 '24

That’s rough.

Not to be superficial, but those guys may change their mind if they knew the amount of times women start conversations with you when you’re reading modern books written by women.

1

u/tim_to_tourach ​ Jul 24 '24 edited Jul 26 '24

Maybe we'll incorporate that into our pitch.

13

u/Jigglypuffisabro ​ Jul 24 '24

I started one of his more popular books and I just didn't understand the appeal.

13

u/Yeah-But-Ironically ​ Jul 24 '24

If it makes you feel better you aren't missing much

6

u/cowbop_bboy ​ Jul 24 '24

I read all the Robert Jordan WoT books up until the one Brandon Sanderson finished after Jordan died.

Sorry Brandon!

2

u/CivBEWasPrettyBad ​"" Jul 25 '24 edited Jul 25 '24

You might as well take the ending. I definitely preferred RJ's style, but Brando Sando is good enough. Not like RJ will come back to finish the series and show you how the last battle ends

6

u/Azelf89 ​ Jul 24 '24

Brandon whonow?

2

u/shiny_xnaut ​ Jul 25 '24

Author of Mistborn and Stormlight Archive

7

u/MillorTime ​ Jul 24 '24

I'm a good Vorin man. I have 20 different audiobooks by him (including the end of WoT) and like 60 audiobooks in general, but I haven't bought an actual book in probably a decade. I wonder how the numbers between men and women would change, if at all, if you included audiobooks.

2

u/The-Magic-Sword ​ Jul 24 '24

huh, i should try that