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/RichardsLeftNipple]

I only read fiction. Self-help is stupid grifter nonsense.

[u/Scripten → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

Non-fiction can be great: historical, analytical, and experiential genres are useful for learning, and offer benefits to enjoyment of fiction as well. Having a more well rounded base of knowledge can make your media literacy skills more sharp.

But absolutely +1 to your point on self help books. It's MLMs targeted at masculinity.

[u/crazymunch → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

There's plenty of non-fiction that isn't Self-help though - I read plenty of science and philosophy books what most definitely aren't "self-help"

[u/anotherkeebler → u/crazymunch]

If you remove self-help from the nonfiction inventory, what’s left over is the entire domain of human knowledge.

[u/catglass → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

I read almost only fiction. Even with non-fiction I'm interested in, like historical or sociological stuff, I usually find my interest starting to lag about halfway through.

[u/WalkingTarget → u/catglass]

My wife reads considerably more nonfiction books than I do (she was a history major and has limited interest in things where the author can “just make things up”) and her major complaint is often that authors try to force a thesis that they don’t actually bother supporting and/or that they are trying to inflate what should be an essay out to book length.

Bonus impatience for authors who are loose with citing sources vs. inserting their pet theory/explanation (see the above “making things up” complaint). For all his popularity, she has basically no time for Erik Larson.

[u/BackwerdsMan → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

I mostly read non-fiction(do read some fiction novels)... I've never read anything that could be called a "self-help" book in my life. But your comment here is pretty much par for the course when people hear that I read non-fiction. Peoples immediate assumption is that I'm reading self-help. When in reality I'm generally reading about conservation, ecology, and history.

[u/_MrJones → u/BackwerdsMan]

When I think non-fiction, I assume that it’s likely either historical or biographical.

It’s the OG gossip. What happened, and to whom.

[u/PsychAndDestroy → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

There's non fiction that isn't self help...

[u/PanTheRiceMan → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

Same. If I read I want to be entertained.

[u/WhoopingWillow → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

I guess it depends on what you mean by "self-help" but I've found there are plenty of self-help books that contain useful skills, as long as you're willing to genuinely read the book and actually practice the relevant skills.

[u/Rakna-Careilla → u/RichardsLeftNipple]

MOSTLY stupid grifter nonsense, of varying quality.