Female or Male authors - which do you prefer?

[Ahsilet]

I wanted to start a discussion about when it comes authors, would you rather read books by male or female authors?

 

I know some of you might post something like "as long as the book is good, it doesn't matter what sex the author is." Yeah, true, if the book is good it doesn't matter. Overall, looking at all the books you have read, what sex has produced the most books that you like and can relate to?

 

Sex shouldn't matter, but if someone was to ask me if I preferred male or female writers over the other sex, I would simply say male writers. Males have produced books that I have found to be more relatable or entertaining due to the fact that men have not limited themselves to things they write about like women have.

[DanC_84]

My reading experience is pretty limited to this point compared to others on here, but at this stage I would probably have to go with female writers.

[lexiepiper]

I don't specifically choose male or female, but looking at my favourite books and authors, it's very clearly females more than males.

[Weave]

I don't mind really but I do have more male authors on my shelf than females authors

[Suzanna Addison]

Well a lot of my favourite books seem to be written by men ... BUT I take into account that I like Harry Potter, another author I absolutely love is Cecilia Dart Thornton - and I am reading Jo Graham. The next lot of books I will be buying are going to be female authors.

For me its fifty.fifty I think.

Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote Secret Garden - one of top ten of all time fave reads.

E Nesbit wrote my third favourite book of all time - Railway Children

Jane Austen wrote Emma a book I adore and will re-read soon.

Daphne Du Maurier wrote Rebecca a book I've read five or six times since I first read it as a teenager.

 

Then I love Charles Dickens, John Le Carre, Sebastion Faulks, C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien.

It all depends on genre. I think women are better at writing love stories or stories with real emotional depth.

Men are better at writing crime and thrillers.

So, for me, yes, fifty/fifty, depending on genre and what mood you're in.

And just to say: When Pride and Prejudice first came out a man was waving it around in front of a group of people and said, with authority: "This book is too clever to be written by any other than a man!" Janes brother was there and he declared loud and proud: "My clever sister wrote that!"

That ends my argument.

[Inver]

Most of the authors on my shelves appear to be female, but the odd male author is there. But probably due to the genre I prefer to read this would make them predominantly female.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Inver

[Kell]

Most of the authors on my shelf are male: Terry PRatchett, Simon Scarrow, Christopher Brookmyre, Stuart Macbride, Ben Elton, and others. THere are a few female authors on there though, most notably Kelley Armstrong and Philippa Gregory.

[Ahsilet]

With female writers, many tend to stick with love, relationships, motherhood, or wifehood to be the center of the book. Since I'm not the lovey-dovey type and not big on motherhood or wifehood, I find myself not being able to stomach a lot of books by females. Yes, we are emotional creatures, but when you tend to write on these emotions the books start to all have the same formula.

 

I notice male writers can wite about whatever they want do to the fact that they aren't emtional or nurturing creatures. When you can separate your emotions from the point you're trying to get across, I find the story to be more relatable and it welcomes a range of people to be the audience. I notice female writers tend to exlcude certain people from the audience when it comes to their work.

 

And with this I am talking about fiction.

[Chrissy]

I am split down the middle here, looking at my shelves;

 

Carol O'Connell, Sara Paretsky, Karin Slaughter, Val McDermid, Dorothy L Sayers, Marge Piercy, Anne Rice, Kathy Reichs, Lisa Gardner, Patricia Cornwell, Manda Scott, Linda Fairstein, JK Rowling, Arunhati Roy, Angie Sage and Faye Kellerman.

 

James Clavell, Jeffrey Deaver, Nelson Demille, Peter Robinson, Boris Starling, Salman Rushdie, Paul Eddy, Jonathan Kellerman, James Patterson, Anthony Burgess, Douglas Adams, Jasper Fforde ,Terry Pratchett, Phillip Pullman, Julian Rathbome and David Lindsey.

 

For both genders I could just keep glancing at my shelves. I also disagree that women are better at the emotions and men are better at crime. My lists here make a nonsense of that theory.

[Books maniac]

For both genders I could just keep glancing at my shelves. I also disagree that women are better at the emotions and men are better at crime. My lists here make a nonsense of that theory.

I totaly agree with that, I don't think gender has any thing to do with your type of writing.

[Kylie]

I think I may have more male authors than female but that's not because I'm more partial to one over the other; it just works out that way.

[sadya]

I read books written by both males and females. But there are more male authors whose work I've read.

 

Females weren't taken seriously as writers for ages. Also tradition was such that they could only mostly limit their life and experience within home life. Only in the last century more females started to emerge as serious writers. Even today their work isn't always taken very seriously.

 

And I can't fit all writers in that mould, you know, female -> emotional, male -> rational.

 

A writer like Agatha Christie actually wrote detectives, let's not forget that.

 

Marcel Proust was very emotional and tried to understand peoples actions and reactions, relationships were important in his work.

[Talisman]

I rarely think about the authors gender - the only thing that matters to me is whether I like their style or not and whether the subject interests me. Having said this, most of my writing friends are female. I suspect that if I looked through my library I would find a split whereby I had more non fiction written by males and more fiction written by females. It really does depend on the genre.

[BookJumper]

At the moment my shelves are like my CD racks, dominated by men. In music, that's because I can't stand high-pitched voices, hence why the few female vocalists that do put in an appearance are the big-voiced girls like Bonnie Tyler. As for books...

 

There are quite a few female writers I adore, from the classics (Austen, Mary Shelley & Co.) to my favourite author from childhood (prolific Italian author Bianca Pitzorno), and I most certainly will not think twice about the sex of the author while perusing a book. That said, some of the fields in which women writers are currently predominant (chick-lit and historical romance) hold no interest for me; so it's just a mathemathical consequence of being drawn to the male-dominated sections of Waterstone's that I mostly have men on my shelves.

 

On the other hand, I'm newly rediscovering the pleasures of children's literature and straight fantasy (again, female-led fields), so maybe the shelves shall soon be balanced?

[Nollaig]

I don't think about gender either, and I haven't taken a proper tally but I'd say my books are probably about half and half.

[Dimitra]

With female writers, many tend to stick with love, relationships, motherhood, or wifehood to be the center of the book. Since I'm not the lovey-dovey type and not big on motherhood or wifehood, I find myself not being able to stomach a lot of books by females. Yes, we are emotional creatures, but when you tend to write on these emotions the books start to all have the same formula.

 

I notice male writers can wite about whatever they want do to the fact that they aren't emtional or nurturing creatures. When you can separate your emotions from the point you're trying to get across, I find the story to be more relatable and it welcomes a range of people to be the audience. I notice female writers tend to exlcude certain people from the audience when it comes to their work.

 

Personally, I believe that it's completely wrong to make such generalized categories, like men and women, and put people in them. I don't think that because some of the most famous novels from women are romances, that means that women write only about the themes you referred. What about Harry Potter or To Kill A Mockingbird? These are books written by women. What about the books of Virginia Woolf? I haven't read any, but as far as I know, she didn't wrote romances.

Also, I disagree about emotionality, it's another generalized conclusion, like the impression that men can't be emotional. Personally, I'm quite emotional, but from what I've seen, there are females in this forum that are not so moved by books about love. And there are male writers that have written about love, like E.M. Forster or Ian McEwan.

[Janet]

Like BookJumper, my CDs are predominantly by male artists, but for reading I'd say it's a definite 50/50 split for fiction.

 

I can't remember who said they don't read female authors because they don't like reading family sagas but I don't either but have found plenty of female authors who write about other things!

 

For non-fiction, it's about a 90/10 split in favour of male authors!

[Rosalind]

I read books by both male and female writers. If a book is good it's not cause the author is male or female. Even when I write this and think about it most of my books are by female authors. Maybe that's because I mostly read chick-lit.

 

And even saying you love reading a male or female books most doesn't mean a thing maybe it's a man under a woman's alias writing or vice versa. You never really know even not when you go to a book signing cause it could be someone posing as the author.

[Kreader]

It used to be mainly male authors but over the last few years female authors seem to dominate my choices. I'm not into romance books unless there's something else going on besides romance.

[Maureen]

With female writers, many tend to stick with love, relationships, motherhood, or wifehood to be the center of the book. Since I'm not the lovey-dovey type and not big on motherhood or wifehood, I find myself not being able to stomach a lot of books by females. Yes, we are emotional creatures, but when you tend to write on these emotions the books start to all have the same formula.

 

I notice male writers can wite about whatever they want do to the fact that they aren't emtional or nurturing creatures. When you can separate your emotions from the point you're trying to get across, I find the story to be more relatable and it welcomes a range of people to be the audience. I notice female writers tend to exlcude certain people from the audience when it comes to their work.

 

And with this I am talking about fiction.

 

Really? Well I read both male and female. The female authors I love the most are Tess Gerritsen, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter - to name a few. Cannot say that these are as you are describing female authors to write.

[Pablo]

I'm a little embarrased by this, but I've never actually read a book written by a female author. There, I've said it, and I feel better already.

 

In my mind there is a real stigma attached to female authors and their chosen genre's. I'm going to regret saying this, but all I associate with female writers is romance fiction.

 

I know this is a narrow viewpoint (something I'm not known for) but it's the only one I have on the subject, until someone shows me otherwise.

 

Any takers?

[Scarlette]

My bookshelf seems fairly balanced regarding the gender of authors. I tend to prefer books that tells a story from a male perspective, though. Or perhaps I just enjoy a masculine writing style. I seem to have very few books written in a feminine style.

[RCee]

I lean towards male authors for my meat and potatoes reading, like my action thrillers that I just need to fill up on every now and then. You know, the fast paced, something exciting and filling. If I m looking for something to stretch me or something literary, I am happy to read either male or female.

[Chrissy]

I'm a little embarrased by this, but I've never actually read a book written by a female author.

 

until someone shows me otherwise.

 

Any takers?

Take your pick out of the list I gave earlier. Some of the most gripping and at times graphic crime depictions I have ever read have been by female authors.

 

I like good writers, their gender is irrelevant, and I think it is a shame you assumed that women only wrote some variation of chick-lit / romance.

 

What made you so certain that women were incapable of wider spheres of writing? Or has your sole experience of women been those that love fluffy bunnies, heroic men and the ones that could never changed a tyre?

Edited June 23, 2009 by Chrissy

[SaraPepparkaka]

I like to read good authors. Whether the author is male or female is not something I think about. I like to read books where the relationship between people is important, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a ROMANTIC relationship.

 

That being said, most of my books are by female authors. Something like 60%.

 

An important point has been made: how do we know for sure if the author is male or female if it's a pen name?