Male or Female Authors?

[Xiao Xianyu]

I noticed recently that I seem to read primarily books by male authors. That isn't to say I don't have a collection of books by female authors as well. But they're scattered. A book here, a book there. I own nearly every book written by Michael Crichton, and have stacks of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, HG Wells, and Christopher Stasheff. I also have growing collections by Robert Lynn Asprin and Dean Koontz. I do have a few books by Anne McCaffrey and Louisa May Alcott. But nowhere near as extensive. And I really can't think of another female writer I have more than one book by.

I was curious if anyone noticed something similar while browsing their book collections. Do you read more books by male authors or more books by female authors? Or maybe your favorites tend to be one or the other, even if you read books by both?  

[VenusRain]

I have more male authors on my bookshelf if we're going by authors alone (and we count CLAMP as a single entity), but Mercedes Lackey's fantasy novels dominate it; more than half of my books are by her.

If we go by the books that I do not personally own, male authors win again, although it's because at least two of the writers we keep around can't stop writing. (Oh hello thar Robert Jordan and Tad Williams, how are your slowly-expanding "trilogies" doing?)

...And with this I realize that my talents all lie in male-dominated industries. *facedesk*  

[Mortok]

I find I read more male authors than female lately, but when I was younger it was very much the other way around, mostly because I was big on Children's/Young Adult Fantasy and Murder Mysteries, which are mostly written by women, apparently.

Interestingly, while I really love strong female protagonists, I find my favourites are written by male authors. Particularly Sabriel and Lirael from Garth Nix's Old Kingdom trilogy, as well as the titular character of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.  

[SSBBrawlerBitF]

While I read more female authors' books, I prefer reading male authors. There are a couple of exceptions, though, to both sides.  

[Lexi0927]

I tend to read more female authors than male. but i read both  

[FoxyNightPrincess]

i read a lot more books by female authors than male authors. mostly because i love to read books with a good heroine in them and mostly they are done by female authors. but i do read some books by male authors. it really doesn't matter to me the sex of the author as long as the story is good. but most of my favourite authors are female with the exception of one that is male. when i pick a book first i look for the cover (i know don't judge a book by it's cover. but if the cover is appealing then i may be more prone to pick it up.) also a catchy title is nice, then i check the back cover for a synopsis of the book if i think it's alright i'll then read the first page of the book. if the story doesn't get me within the first few pages most likely i won't like it so much but if i'm bored i'll still give it a try. then i'll check the author and if i really like the book i'll read their bio and maybe check out more of their books. it just so happens that more of the books i pick out are by female authors.  

[damaged-reality]

Male authors, definitely. Nothing against woman writers, though. It's just that I usually read horror or post-apocalyptic novels, and most of these books are written by males.  

[Arabian Sad]

I would have to say male authors. I don't have a lot of variety in my reading choices; I usually go for horror or supernatural, and they are usually set in a modern or futuristic setting, so classics are kind of my enemy.

I'm very selective in authors as well; I only have two favorites who could write about anything and I would read it; R.L. Stine and D.J. MacHale.
I laugh at myself.  

[pythonesque]

↬Male! It's like that for music I listen to, too. I'm not sure why, either. I can only think of a few female authors I've really enjoyed reading - Rowling, Austen, Lowry, Hunter (I'm sure there's a few more). While the male list goes on quite a bit longer. But, I do enjoy female authors!

My favorite authors are Neil Gaiman and Chuck Palahniuk. ↫  

[-S-Dancing_Star-S-]

I have read more books by female authors than male authors, but I think there might be more female writers anyway, so that probably explains why- I think like male writers over female writers because female usually focus more on the emotions of the characters and the surroundings and male authors usually have a lot more action and plot twists- in short novels written by females are more predictable, I like surprises twisted Though female authors usually put their characters through more emotional stress... hmm...  

[Tanseki]

While I have a personal love for the emotional suffering characters tend to go through (this tends to happen a lot more in stories written by females) and I do enjoy the shocking plot twists and often blunt, stunning scenes (oddly more common in stories I've read by males) Overall, I tend to gravitate toward medical thrillers.

Medical thrillers tend to have the most balanced authorbase from what I've seen. Most of the books I've read by males, actually would be considered classics. The Scarlet Letter was probably one of the most emotional stories I've read. It was riddled with emotion, flaws of human nature, and just about everything I really love. It was written by a male...then I turn around and read Life Support which was written by a woman and jump for joy over the creepy harvesting of fetal pituitary stem cells to make the elderly more youthful. Then I set that down and read a book about Ebola virus....and the cycle continues.  

[DahliaHawthorne01]

Male, most definately. I seem to have a growing selection of Stephen King novels sprouting upon my shelves... Not that I don't have a big selection of Anne Rice either, I just seem to stay towards men and their books.  

[Raxle]

I really do not care if the book is written by a male or female. sweatdrop I love to read, and I tend to read the back of the book and if it's good, I'll buy it. ninja  

[fieri nova]

Seeing as half the stuff I read is manga and the other half is classics or school reading, I would say it's just slightly skewed towards male writers. It's not like I even look at authors though, so I find it doesn't affect which books I want. I want books that are interesting; it doesn't matter who wrote them unless I've heard horrible things about their writing.