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Women Do Read More Books Than Men, But Men …


by Jerome Weeks 23 Mar 2009 9:48 AM

… are more apt to lie about the books they’ve read. A British study of the reading habits of 2,000 people found that women read more books. Surprise. Novelist Ian McEwan concluded much the same thing just by trying to hand out novels one day in a London park and finding not a single taker […]

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… are more apt to lie about the books they’ve read. A British study of the reading habits of 2,000 people found that women read more books. Surprise. Novelist Ian McEwan concluded much the same thing just by trying to hand out novels one day in a London park and finding not a single taker among the males he approached:  ” “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.” (The hopeful takeaway in that remark: But not until then.)

Yet the study also found other differences and similarities:

Men are also more likely to have shelves full of books that have never been opened.

The only similarities between the sexes came among those who have two books on the bedside table at once and who start one book on the middle of reading another, switching easily. Twelve per cent of women were in this category – exactly the same number as men.

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  • jocie

    I dont know whether that research is enough proof for me… I probably have the same amount of male and female friends who love to read as muh as me. I think the main difference between the sexes is not HOW MUCH we read, but WHAT. whereas my reading list contains large amounts of Austen and Bronte et al, my husbands list include Salonica and Stephen King. We have been trying something where we choose books for one another and iv been enjoying it immensly! I found a website called the book army which has been really helpful in finding recomendations and books we might both enjoy