Read it or Weep

Books for Readers…Readers for Books…Equality for All! June 6, 2008

Women readers really have it all. There’s Chick Lit, Women’s Fiction, Romance. Plenty of books out there are geared toward women readers—just take a look at book covers, never mind those widely used genre descriptors. What happens if you are a man looking for a book that tells a sexy story or one that takes a look at the male experience? Do you brave the romance shelves on your own? Ask the wife to pick something up for you? Avoid conflict entirely by placing holds remotely on the Internet and then using our drive up to retrieve your holds?

Or, like me, what if you are a woman who appreciates male-driven stories? How do you find these titles? I tend to find such titles accidentally, by browsing and by reading book reviews. That’s how I found authors like Nick Hornby, Mike Gayle, Tim Sandlin, Tom Perrotta and my latest favorite Jonathan Tropper (Whose novel  How to Talk to a Widower just knocked my socks off when I read it!) These guys really know how to deliver the male version of chick lit—funny, sexy reads with well-drawn characters and a compelling story line. These are guys who are writing beach reads for The Man.

If you are not a librarian though, how would you know? Those that market novels have captured the attention of women by taking ownership of labels like “chick lit,” a label that I know some writers and readers find offensive. Maybe they need to do the same for men. Shouldn’t there be reading equality for all? The celebrity gossip website that I like to visit uses the word “bromance” to describe strong male friendships—they apply “bromance” to male friends who seem be together all the time.

Will “bromance” be the next “chick lit?” Would you read a “bromance?”

~Carol