What *I* don't understand, is why people wouldn't read books by a female author?

I once read that female authors initialize their names because no one would read a book by a woman usually. I literally went "lol wut".

It's not even restricted to American pop culture, since even JK Rowling did it, but why is it thought that people wouldn't read any book or novel by a female author?

I mean... you can't even tell if it's a female or not unless you're part of the culture the book is from and even then there are gender neutral names like Alex or Sam or whatever.

K.A. Applegate is a female author, and I love the Animorphs series. Agatha Christie is another female author, and she didn't even need to initialize her name, she's regarded as the best of the best. JK Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter series, which I was at one point a huge fan of years ago is also a female author.

I don't... I'm not from the Western world, and I want to know if anyone else is apparently familiar with this so called stigma surrounding female authors, because it came as a complete shock to me and I want to know how exactly gender factors in at all when it comes to reading and writing books.

Appreciate the input, thanks.

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

I thought it was mainly done with kids series where immature boys might be put off by a female author. I don't remember caring that much when I was little though.

I'd be surprised if it was something that still happened. It strikes me as a tradition that dates back to some oldey-woldey-timey-wimey thing when equality wasn't a big issue.

JRR Tolkein, CS Lewis, etc. Mark Twain aka Samuel Clemens. etc etc etc.

I havent seen any issue with people having issues reading books by women. At least not from my own personal experiences.

Well maybe it has only ever been done for a kids' series, as JK Rowling's Wikipedia page shows, but the same thing is stated for Nora Roberts, who was writing as JD Robb for her In Death series back in the early 90's. She keeps the pen name now because it's cool, but it was reported that in the beginning she had a pseudonym for that very reason I mentioned.

Anyway, if people haven't heard about it here, then I suppose like me they don't consider it a thing after all? I was just wondering if it is or is not a widely regarded phenomenon.

Plus I admit that asking this on a video game forum website instead of a book website isn't the best course of action since not as many would read books as much as play video games, however the catch 22 is I don't really know of such a thing as a book website, a "bookspot" or "bookfaqs" so to speak.

Anyway thanks for the input guys appreciate it :) .

Well maybe it has only ever been done for a kids' series, as JK Rowling's Wikipedia page shows, but the same thing is stated for Nora Roberts, who was writing as JD Robb for her In Death series back in the early 90's. She keeps the pen name now because it's cool, but it was reported that in the beginning she had a pseudonym for that very reason I mentioned.

Anyway, if people haven't heard about it here, then I suppose like me they don't consider it a thing after all? I was just wondering if it is or is not a widely regarded phenomenon.

Plus I admit that asking this on a video game forum website instead of a book website isn't the best course of action since not as many would read books as much as play video games, however the catch 22 is I don't really know of such a thing as a book website, a "bookspot" or "bookfaqs" so to speak.

Anyway thanks for the input guys appreciate it :) .

culture_den

So you are just going to ignore the fact that there are tons more male authors that have initialized their name than women?

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

GummiRaccoon

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

-Sun_Tzu-

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"][QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

sonicare

You may not know George Elliot, but Billy Elliot is an absoutely delightful book and film.

[QUOTE="culture_den"]

Well maybe it has only ever been done for a kids' series, as JK Rowling's Wikipedia page shows, but the same thing is stated for Nora Roberts, who was writing as JD Robb for her In Death series back in the early 90's. She keeps the pen name now because it's cool, but it was reported that in the beginning she had a pseudonym for that very reason I mentioned.

Anyway, if people haven't heard about it here, then I suppose like me they don't consider it a thing after all? I was just wondering if it is or is not a widely regarded phenomenon.

Plus I admit that asking this on a video game forum website instead of a book website isn't the best course of action since not as many would read books as much as play video games, however the catch 22 is I don't really know of such a thing as a book website, a "bookspot" or "bookfaqs" so to speak.

Anyway thanks for the input guys appreciate it :) .

GummiRaccoon

So you are just going to ignore the fact that there are tons more male authors that have initialized their name than women?

maybe in like the 1600s that was the case but i don't know of anyone that wouldn't read a book just because a female wrote it.

maybe in like the 1600s that was the case but i don't know of anyone that wouldn't read a book just because a female wrote it.

needled24-7

Yeah, I don't know anyone that does this either, I read books written by both genders, Doesn't really bother me any if a book is written by male or female just as long as the book is good.

I tend not to read books that have female main characters.

really? I care about the book, not the author's gender :?rilpas

What kind of bullsh!t argument is that :?

T.S Elliot

J.R.R Tolkien etc

Although with the new wave of awful schoolgirl/lonely housewife abominations of literature appearing - Twilight, Shades of Grey etc etc.

I can see why people steer clear of female authors.

I tend not to read books that have female main characters.

airshocker

Because women can't write a book, but they think they can?

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="culture_den"]

Well maybe it has only ever been done for a kids' series, as JK Rowling's Wikipedia page shows, but the same thing is stated for Nora Roberts, who was writing as JD Robb for her In Death series back in the early 90's. She keeps the pen name now because it's cool, but it was reported that in the beginning she had a pseudonym for that very reason I mentioned.

Anyway, if people haven't heard about it here, then I suppose like me they don't consider it a thing after all? I was just wondering if it is or is not a widely regarded phenomenon.

Plus I admit that asking this on a video game forum website instead of a book website isn't the best course of action since not as many would read books as much as play video games, however the catch 22 is I don't really know of such a thing as a book website, a "bookspot" or "bookfaqs" so to speak.

Anyway thanks for the input guys appreciate it :) .

ghoklebutter

So you are just going to ignore the fact that there are tons more male authors that have initialized their name than women?

That feel when we are in modern times.

Ummm harry potter?? END THREAD! END THREAD NOW, THANK YOU!

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

-Sun_Tzu-

I read Harry Potter.

[QUOTE="-Sun_Tzu-"][QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

GreenPatchSky

I don't know of that today, but years and years ago, I'm talking like 19th century, females would use male pen names because woman writers were not taken seriously. Today, I guess it still takes place a little bit. If I remember correctly, JK Rowling was told by her publisher that her books would not be as popular among boys if it was written by a woman, so she used her initials.

Yeah, it's actually on her Wikipedia page as well.

Only insecure, misogynist, possibly neckbearded, manbabies would ignore a female author just because they're female.

Sylvia Plath >>>>>

Books are about a personal connection between the reader and writer. Men typically don't like to read things from a female perspective. To be honest, I too would be less inclined to read a book written by a woman. Why? Compare popular books written by men to the popular books written by women. The answer is rather self-evident. P.S. I don't spend my free time reading books unless I have a good reason to.KHAndAnime

Only insecure, misogynist, possibly neckbearded, manbabies would ignore a female author just because they're female.

Sylvia Plath >>>>>

Aljosa23

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

GummiRaccoon

^^

This.

I don't care about the author's gender, if it's a good book, I'll read it.

Gawd, gender topics are getting old.

Don't care about gender views, but the use of pen names is awesome, if im gonna write a book better make up a pretty darn good name...

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

-Sun_Tzu-

^This. People on this forum can be so silly.

really? I care about the book, not the author's gender :?rilpas

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein under a nom de plumewavey_gravey

Ehh, it was initially publish anonymously, but considering that the first edition had a preface written by her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelly, and a dedication to her father, William Godwin, they wern't exactly going through great effort to keep her identity secret. From the second edition (just a few years later) and onward it was published under her real name however.

The Twilight series begs to challenge your whole theory ...JasonDarksavior

I have no problem reading books by women. I just recently finishedUnbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by LauraHillenbrand and have readBlind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage bySherry Sontag andMasters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces by Linda Robinson (I know/am aquainted with a Green Beret who was featured in said book).

Books by women are what you make of it. Many famous books have been written by women.

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

J.D. Salinger

H.P. Lovecraft

E.E. Cummings

R.L Stine

F. Scott Fitzgerald

H.G. Wells

Robert Jordan is a psuedonym

Writers all change their names to make people want to read their books, not just women

topsemag55

^^

This.

I don't care about the author's gender, if it's a good book, I'll read it.

Gawd, gender topics are getting old.