Why Women Read More Fiction Than Men

The same recent AP/Ispsos poll that found that the typical American read only four books last year, also reported that men accounted for only 20 percent of the fiction market.

In an essay called Why Women Read More Fiction Than Men, Eric Weiner, a National Correspondent for NPR, examines what's know as the "fiction gap" and offers up some interesting, if speculative theories as to why it exists.

Why Women Read More Fiction Than Men

NPR.org, September 5, 2007 · A couple of years ago, British author Ian McEwan conducted an admittedly unscientific experiment. He and his son waded into the lunch-time crowds at a London park and began handing out free books. Within a few minutes, they had given away 30 novels.

Nearly all of the takers were women, who were "eager and grateful" for the freebies while the men "frowned in suspicion, or distaste." The inevitable conclusion, wrote McEwan in The Guardian newspaper: "When women stop reading, the novel will be dead."Link to article.