I've noticed several stories recently about the decline of book reading, particularly among men. If I remember correctly, 80 percent of novels are purchased by women.
Here's a Brit lady speculating on the overall decline. I think she nails it:
We’re so used to consuming the world in snippets, in fact – tweets, posts, DMs, clips, episodes – that centering the mind on reading for more than a few minutes, even when you’ve made the conscious decision to do so, can be tough.
Then there's this guy, Shay Leighton of the Tough Guy Book Club, on men not reading:
How the hell is reading, you know, picking up a book and learning new shit, become something that’s considered the opposite to toughness. I can assure you there is nothing tough about knowing less than the next guy. That’s why ignorance is considered a weakness.
An author on Twitter named Sean CW Korsgaard (@SCWKorsgaard) speculates regarding men that:
This is another often ignored factor in why book sales are declining among men: Cover art. Publishing started swapping out flashy, splashy covers for generic ones, to cut costs, and because focus groups claimed it made books appeal more to female readers.
Guys are visual, right? They're on their phones looking at Instagram, watching YouTube, etc.
I decided to do a quick poll among my buddies and took maybe just the last 20 or so whom I've texted with. I asked them: What's the last book you read and approximately how many do you read in a year?
Age-wise they run from 20 to 65, blue collar, white collar, gay and straight, all white. I was surprised that they were a way more literate bunch than I would've guessed, but still only read maybe 2-6 books per year on average. Some are in double digits, but not many.
The books include:
"The War on Cops" by Heather MacDonald
Elon Musk biography
"The Fall" by Albert Camus
"Gulag Archipelago" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
"Destiny and Power" by Jon Meacham
"The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism" by Tim Alberta
"The Joy of Hate" by Greg Gutfeld
"Toxic Prey"" by John Sandford
"The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom" by Don Miguel Ruiz
"Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life" by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia
"The Smiling Country" by Elmer Kelton
"St Antony of the Desert" by St Athanasius
"Healthy Me, Healthy Us" by Dr. Les & Leslie Parrott
"Fight" by Craig Groeschel
"66 Years Under the Shadows of Custer" by Henry and Don Weibert
"The Situation Room" by George Stephanopoulus
"Long Horns Bring Culture" by August Schatz
"Hidden Order" by Brad Thor
"Make Me" by Lee Child
"Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10" by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson
"Killing the Legends" by Bill O'Reilly
What I notice about the list is there are no romance novels or what I'd even consider beach reads, except maybe Thor and Child; they are 95 percent male authors; some self-help and religion; some history; a lot of guns. There are a couple political books, but not the politico bios, not even the one "written" by our governor, despite 95 percent of the respondees being South Dakotans.
All in all, I like the list and am reminded to include more non-fiction in my reading. Though I think it's too late for much self-help dither.
So how do we increase male readership? Ideas?
Guys I know seem to do more YouTube videos and podcasts than other media, except for maybe Facebook, so we need the Joe Rogans of the world to push novels like Oprah did. We need more presence on Facebook. We need guys to talk about the books they read, make recommendations, lest the perception grows that real men don't eat quiche or read books.
I'll try and do my part. You do yours. Those little acorns will become oak trees, which we can then chop down and turn into books.
No comments:
Post a Comment