One of our friends, Nick Harrison of Harvest House, asks on his Facebook wall:
“What can we all do to boost men’s fiction? What authors do the men you know read? What are their complaints about the state of men’s fiction (if they have any complaints)? I’d especially like to hear from male readers, but all who can offer some insight are welcome to respond.”
So what do you think? Don’t confine your answer to Christian books. What fiction do you or the men you know read? Answers from the original post include Dale Cramer, Athol Dickson, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, David Baldacci, Vince Flynn, John Hart, John Lescroart, and Lee Child. I mentioned names you’ve seen here, like Bertrand, N.D. Wilson, and Andrew Peterson.
BIG UPDATE in the comments below.
Hmm . . . my brother is sitting here reading a book based on the Wing Commander games. I’m not sure if that counts or not.
My husband likes Jim Butcher and David Weber.
Most of the other guys I know dislike books that are completely hopeless and filled with pointless despair. Basically why few seem to read mainstream fiction anymore.
As for what they DO read… well, it’s all over the place from supernatural thrillers to older sci-fi to the classics. But they all seem to dislike the same general aspects of mainstream literature.
Feel free to elaborate on what y’all dislike, Sparky. That could be good. I’m willing to read depressing stuff, if I’m sure there will be some kind of reward–Brideshead Revisited, for example.
On the topic of enjoying what we read, Alan Jacobs has a good book on reading in a distracted age, and this bloke talks about it. “Jacobs is encouraging readers to pick up books that they will love and appreciate, rather than to simply cross a book off a reading list. Pleasure and joy are the reasons for reading, rather than completing an assignment.”
Here’s a blog dedicated to this subject: http://menreadingbooks.blogspot.com/
I asked this question on Google+. Here are the direct responses:
A) 1. Thrillers (Crichton, etc.) & Military (Clancy, etc.) are the two obvious ones.
B) 1. Thrillers, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Adventure stories… just walk through a Barnes and Noble.
2. Do those publishers publish fiction for men? I didn’t spend a lot of time browsing their websites, but I Harvest House seemed to only list non-fiction titles and Waterbrook only had six fiction titles available. All of those titles seemed to be romances that focused on historical periods from over a hundred years ago.
I take that back. They did have a fantasy book, but it’s not branded in a way that makes you think it’s a fantasy book until you read the subtitle. If anything, it looks like a literary take on medieval history.
C) I read Thrillers, Mystery, YA, Fantasy and Science Fiction (sometimes), and stuff by long dead authors like Rudyard Kipling.
The last thing I read that I believe would be in the Christian category was the Screw Tape letters. I didn’t have any complaints.
D) I read science fiction, fantasy, mystery, thrillers, and will occasionally delve into literary fiction. If my wife raves about a particular romance, I’ll read that as well so I know what she’s talking about.
I’m not a Christian, so I do not have a habit of reading Christian fiction. I think the last modern American Christian novel I read was Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness, and I did so only because a relative gave me the book as a Christmas present because she was concerned that my enjoyment of Stephen King and Black Sabbath was leading me down a “dark path”.
Never mind that with songs like “After Forever” and “Lord of This World”, Sabbath wrote the only Christian metal I find palatable. :)
E) 1. SciFi, Fantasy and Tom Clancy (not a genre, just a one-off from my usual).
2. My complaints about Christian Publishing in general is that is generally caters to the conservative Evangelical leanings and seem to be out of touch with lot of alternative ideologies. On the fiction side, I find the stories cliche and narrow. I believe there is better stuff out there, but the authors seem to shy away from identifying as Christian to avoid some stigma. I’d love a C. S. Lewis-like author to become successful.
As a side note, I was thoroughly impressed with The Shack. I think it is a anecdote of my sentiment, too. Young was rejected by the “typical” Christian publishers and had to form his own publishing company.
F) 1. SF (particularly space opera) and fantasy (epic quest, sword & sorcery).
2. I don’t read Christian fiction – ever – so I have no complaints about it.
G) Read and write most genre’s, so anything goes!
I convinced a friend back in the day to use Sabbath’s lyrics in his poetic essay presentation. (speech) in high school, worked great!
H) I think regarding men and Christian fiction, you’re working against two large scale trends. Men don’t read as much as women, and men tend to be less religious than women
I) 1. Any question in the form of, “What does half the population do?” invites such gross generalizations as to be completely meaningless. You’re a man. What do you like?
2. I’m a Christian but read practically nothing in the Christian fiction genre. My impression, (although I’ve already noted that it’s largely based on ignorance) is that the characters tend to be flat and fall into convenient good or evil stereotypes, and the plots are so heavily focused on delivering a message that they don’t tell a compelling story. They also tend to err heavily on the safe side, excluding anything that could possibly offend those of a heavily conservative cultural disposition, producing something very bland.
J) 1. Steampunk of all genres (Steampunk is a setting not a genre), SF, Fantasy, and the occasional romance.
2. Can’t answer that one, sorry.
But you’re asking writers when you should be asking readers. (I know we read, but it’s not the same. And you’re also self-selecting those writers who like to talk about stuff.)
Go to your local church and ask them.
K) I started reading Lew Archer, Travis McGee, Mike Hammer as a kid and now it is Harry Bosch, Jack Reacher and Spenser/Jesse Stone. The last Christian fiction I read (other than Dostoevsky) was those Frank Peretti novels from what the 90’s?
Author John Robinson on Facebook: For what it’s worth, my then-agent had a tough time getting any CBA house to give my first Joe Box novel a read. “Too gritty, too violent, too dark,” were the most common comments, with “Box is too much of a smart-a**” (my term) running second. That said, a solid CBA house did finally bite, and I was offered a contract for the entire trilogy. At the end, though, the house was at a loss as to how to market them, and the rights eventually were reverted back to me (all three are now on Kindle). My current agent is pitching my new series to general market houses, and is garnering quite a bit of interest.
Author Ty Patterson on Twitter: John Connolly, Brad Thor, Mike Lawson, Brian Haig, C.J. Box, Tom Wood, P.T. Deutermann, Greg Rucka, Harlan Coben,Kyle Mills
Just saw a vote for Douglas Reeman, a.k.a. Alexander Kent.
1.) I read Louis L’Amour Westerns until I about cleaned out his catalog. I have since expanded into Max Brand and Zane Grey.
2.) Alexander Solzenhitzn’s prison novels. However, I bailed on his Red Wheel trilogy after bogging down in August 1914 for the third time.
3.) Lars Walker
4.) Authors I learned about on Brandywine books such as Stuart M. Kaminsky and Jasper Fforde.
5.) Classics such as Dickens and Dostoyevski.
I’ve been reading a bit of a mix lately:
* CJ Cherryh’s “Foreigner” series
* Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series, and his “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”
* “Arabian Nights” (taking this one a bit at a time)
* The first two books in Sara Hoyt’s “Darkship” series
* Revisited some Edgar Rice Burroughs’ books that I found on Project Gutenberg
* Also from Gutenberg: a couple of H. Beam Piper’s non-Fuzzy works.
* “A Logic Named Joe” (a Murray Lienster collection from Baen)
* Dabbling in “Weird Tales” by ETA Hoffmann
Louis L’amour. It’s the most surprisingly ethical action/adventure fiction you’ll ever find. Almost every piece is about the virtues of hard work and self-education in the classics. Plus poker, maintaining physical strength, and once in a while a reference to some gun.
+1 for Jim Butcher and the “Harry Dresden” series.
I also like Robert Crais and Loren Estleman, plus the classic Raymond Chandler detective stories.
Historical fiction as a genre appeals to me.
And she does not write fiction, but I’m convinced that Laura Hillenbrand is incapable of writing a bad book.
Each of the 3 primary contributors to Men Reading Books has what we refer to as our ‘power rotation’:
East Coast Don: Robert McCammon, George Pelecanos, Charlie Stella, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly, Olen Steinhauer, Stephen Hunter, CJ Box (on any given day, my list could include most any of the favorites of my partners or Alex Berensen, Elmore Leonard, George V. Higgins, JD Rhoades, Jonathon King, Daniel Woodrell, Patrick Robinson, William Kent Krueger, Tom Robb Smith, Zoe Ferraris, Roger Smith, Donald Ray Pollack). The undiscovered gem from my list is Charlie Stella.
West Coast Don: Daniel Silva, Vince Flynn, James Lee Burke, Ken Bruen, Michael Connelly, Stephen Hunter, Charlie Stella, CJ Box, John Sandford
MIdwest Dave: Lee Child, Micheal Connelly, Robert Crais, Jonathan Kellerman, David Lindsey aka Paul Harper, John Grisham, John Lescroart
Crime and political thrillers dominate our corner of the world.
Thanks for the list, East Coast Don. That’s good stuff.
The Killer trilogy by Brit writer Jack Elgos. Tough, hard hitting fiction that could just change the way you look at things.