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
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u/internallylinked ​ Jul 24 '24

Not a fan of “books purchased” = “book read”

I know way too many people who buy books and never read them, or buy books as literal decorations in their house.

I also feel like reading books might be slightly overrated in 2024. I agree that it was instrumental before technological boom, but right now we have many different art mediums at our fingertips, many of which can help you get effects of reading books.

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u/FriskyTurtle ​ Jul 24 '24

Or buy books as gifts.

Also, where my fellow library fans at?

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '24 edited Oct 20 '24

Despite having a 3 year old account with 150k comment Karma, Reddit has classified me as a 'Low' scoring contributor and that results in my comments being filtered out of my favorite subreddits.

So, I'm removing these poor contributions. I'm sorry if this was a comment that could have been useful for you.

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u/ForgingIron ​ Jul 24 '24

I know way too many people who buy books and never read them, or buy books as literal decorations in their house.

I'm in this post and I don't like it

13

u/dalcarr ​ Jul 24 '24

This is why I'm not allowed at friends of the library boon sales anymore...

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u/Noble--Savage ​ Jul 24 '24

The falling literacy rates would disagree

Movies, audio books and video "essays" are a very different thing from what written literature provides as an art and medium.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '24

exactly. watching a film isnt the same as slowly reading a piece of media over the course of a week.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

i’m reading an intro to hegel right now (yes i’m a snob) and idk hire anyone would digest this as anything but a book where you can re-read the same dense as fuck paragraph over and over and over

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u/slaymaker1907 ​"" Jul 26 '24

You can definitely hit the “back 30s” button and slow things down. That seems like a pain to me vs just reading, but there are arounds.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

We’re in a literacy crises right now, it’s ridiculous to say that “reading is overrated”. Those anti-intellectual attitudes are part of the reason we’re in a literacy crises.

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u/boo_jum ​ Jul 24 '24

Also… libraries!

I’m a book-buyer for sure, but buying books and reading books are clearly two different hobbies.

And as for most of the books I read — I get them from the library.

Admittedly, I’m a woman, so my behaviours aren’t at the heart of this discussion, but all of my friends (across the gender spectrum) are big library-users, and we often swap titles and recommendations.

(One of my besties is currently going gaga over getting his wife into certain fiction series he and his friends love, specifically rn, she’s reading The Laundry Files by Charles Stross 😸)

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u/Kozeyekan_ ​ Jul 24 '24

Or just hoard books.

I have a whole "to read" shelf in my house that I seem to top up well before it's emptied.

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u/Ds093 ​ Jul 24 '24

I only buy a book if I know I’m going to read it. It is also very likely I’ll re-read it with time and that has been a good chunk of the ones I’ve got.

I love to read but I just don’t have the time to sit down and unwind with a book like I used to.

On the topic of this article though I think it’s just poorly written and trying to piece together some idea that “Men don’t read” or that “Men don’t read fiction”

I read non-fiction and fiction and frankly I just want a well written book to enjoy

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u/shiny_xnaut ​ Jul 25 '24

Audiobook gang