It has become extremely difficult for me to find youth novels for guys. I was asked “why don’t you just read girl books”. Well
the answer is… I don’t think girl books are very good. But when I think about it, are girl books really inferior or are they just of a different style, and why does it seem like I can’t find any guy books?
Guy books tend to focus on action. Emotion is discussed, but to a minimum, no more than what’s needed to move the plot forward. Guy books also tend to deal with guy issues and interests. Guy books are, in general, more violent and faster paced. Guy books are to the point and even when it comes to “girly subjects” like love, guy books tend to make it masculine. Guy books also seem edgier.
Girl books obviously focus on emotion. Love and relationships tend to be a central theme. Girl books may include violence, but they focus on the emotional effects the violence cause. Girl books are generally subtle and are a lot deeper when it comes to emotions. Girl books often reach levels that guy books never touch on.
So really, it is opinion, not anything that can be judged, but that doesn’t answer the other question: why is there such a relatively small amount of guy books?
I believe that the reason there aren’t as many guy books as girl books is because guys don’t read as much, because we have short attention spans and want fast paced action books. We don’t find fast paced action books because all the books we come across are girl books, and there are much more girl books because girls read more… and the cycle continues.
So, I believe that one of my goals on this website is to find the good guy books out there and review them so that guys have a reason to read.
What do you think is better: guy books or girl books (please comment below)? And if you have read a guy book that you think is pretty good, feel free to comment.
Tune in next week for my review on Lord of the Flies.
I'm hearing you on the whole guy book/girl book dilemma. I'm sure that girl books are written just fine, for girls. There is just something about the topics and the structure that doesn't work for me. Don't get me wrong, there are crossover books but not a lot. It's hard to get that guys perspective on books because "we ain't talkin' 'bout readin'" or something like that. That's why I thought I would start reviewing books that I read as a way of providing whatever help I could to other guys in finding books out there that are entertaining for us. The blogs only 2 months old but I have 10 reviews.
Comments are closed.