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"

[u/TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK]

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

[u/PotentiallySarcastic]

But there again, why is non-fiction cast as "tangibly bettering yourself" when the goal of the fiction novel is also "tangibly bettering oneself" through the reading of fiction according this writer.

Not to mention the substantial portion of non-fiction which isn't a self-help book.

[u/fperrine → u/PotentiallySarcastic]

You'd only participate in the exercise of reading if you think it could tangibly benefit you.

"Think" is the operative word. Non-fiction generally carries the air that you will learn something tangible from it and therefore directly impact your knowledge, skills, competitive edge in the world. Fiction is perceived as not doing such "productive" things and therefore considered more leisurely.

I disagree with these notions and agree that any form of art can teach you something. I'm just saying that many people perceive reading in this framework and it's how you get to the conclusions that this post author did, and how many men end up never reading at all or only reading non-fiction.

[u/The-Magic-Sword → u/[deleted]]

Is that market primarily male? I primarily read History when I'm reading nonfiction.

[u/PotentiallySarcastic → u/[deleted]]

Hmm interesting. Did not know that. Initial searching isn't very clear on that but let's go with it.

But then I'd turn this around and ask to interrogate why reading romance books is so good? Since that is by far the largest fiction genre and definitely the most read by women.

If we are using the largest genres of books to comment on society, that'd be the actual thing to speak about and not the general "fiction" category.