Would men rather read men? Yes – about 90 percent of the time

First there was the news that male writers enjoy disproportionate representation in the literary world, both as reviewers and as reviewed. Then we learned men appear to out-represent women even in children’s literature, traditionally the domain of women. Which is why 2014 was declared the Year of Reading Women.

Now, book review website Goodreads has decided to turn the camera on the reader himself or herself – with surprising results. An analysis of 40,000 of its members has revealed a sharp gender divide in reading preferences, according to Goodreads. It turns out the vast majority of readers prefer books by authors of their own sex.

Of the 50 books published in 2014 that were most read by men, 45 were by men and only 5 were by women. In other words, 90 percent of books read by male readers are by male authors.