Weekend Update: Why Do You Read What You Read?
Last week, my husband sent me an interesting link: Transgressive Women: How Bad Covers And Sexism Threaten All Of Literature. The article, in a nutshell, talked about how women writers are often given covers that aren't appropriate for the material within, that the covers would lead male readers (and female readers) to assume the pages inside are "chick-lit," of the most stereotypical sort: shopping, dating, etc. It's a fascinating article about how so many books by women are overlooked because people don't take the covers seriously, therefore handicapping those books before they ever have a chance to nab their target audience.
This got me thinking about genre. I shared the article on my Facebook page, and one of the responses made me wonder: how, exactly, does one shop for books?
You'd think it's a simple answer. But as I'm often reminded, women writers are overlooked, even by women. Sometimes, it's a fear of getting a romance or sex. Sometimes, it's the fear of getting pigeon-holed as a girl and doing proper girly things, which leads to the fear that if women are writing fantasy novels, they must be writing about girly things, like unicorns, and what do unicorns have to do with adventure? (See N.K. Jemisin's fabulous post here).
I could go on, and on, and on about why we shouldn't discriminate (consciously or unconsciously) when it comes to our reading. In fact, I've talked at length about the reason I tend to read more women writers over male writers (see my guest blog at Fantasy Cafe here).
But pontificating won't reveal behaviors. And since this investigation also coincides with my own personal quest to understand why Hugo voters read what they do, I've decided to pose a question instead:
How do you decide which books you will read?
It's such a simple question. But really, it's loaded. It's easy to say, "Well, I follow such-and-such review blogs, and when I see books get high ratings that I'm interested in, I read them." That's not a wrong answer.
It's easy to say, "Well, I really love reading urban fantasy novels, so when something new comes out, I'm all over it." That's not wrong either.
It's easy to say, "When I browse through the store, I gravitate towards super-pretty covers and if the book sounds interesting, I'll get it." Again, that's not wrong.
But I want more than this. Years ago, I made a conscious decision to read more women writers than male because I was a woman writing a science fiction novel, and the men writing in the genre (not all) were frustrating me as examples of what I should be doing. Instead, I decided to read what women in the genre were doing and to try and follow their example. I wanted Le Guin over Asimov. And that decision has bled through to other genres too, even after I finished writing my science fiction novel. Even after I stopped writing for a time.
And now, when I hear of debuts that interest me, and because I try to limit what I buy, I'm more apt to grab a book written by a woman than a man. Not always, and this behavior doesn't mean I think women are superior writers. Women can screw up just as easily as men. But the ideas that grab my attention are more often written by women than men, and women tend to approach those ideas in a manner than resonate with me better. Maybe it's a different take on characterization. Maybe there's less of a need to have kick-ass, might-as-well-be-watching-a-movie action. Whatever it is, that's why.
I know I'm making generalizations. Because I'm aware of that, I don't just ignore all the books that come out, written by men, that I'm interested in. I don't assume every book written by a guy will be nothing but muscle-head wish-fulfillment (although, some are). The opposite effect is people assuming that all books written by women are filled with love and sexy times.
Not so.
Now that I've sketched out, roughly, why I buy the books I buy, and read the books I read, and now that I've acknowledged the pitfalls of doing so, tell me: why do YOU read what you read? Do you find yourself making unconscious or even conscious generalizations? Do you shun books written by women? Or do you simply avoid certain tropes? Does your guidelines allow you to read a variety of books, or are you stuck in a single sub-genre?
Why do you read what you read?
The covers featured in this post, btw, are of books are non-YA books I'm wanting to read. And yes, they're written by women. Novels, short story collections, even poetry. What has your eye that you haven't had a chance to try?