I’ve had the privilege of being invited to speak to hundreds of book clubs, usually to discuss one of my novels. I find it to be an invaluable experience for a writer. First, because I learn so much about what readers look for in fiction, and second, because I learn about my own work, both the good and the bad. Unlike paid critics, these readers read a book because they want to.
However, I’ve made two troubling observations in my experience with these groups. First, there appear to be fewer book clubs than there were in the ’90s, and each one has fewer people. When I first started being invited, the average book club had eight to twelve people. Now it’s more like five or six. These observations echo a broader decline in reading for pleasure. A recent study published in the journal iScience found that “the proportion [of people] who read for pleasure on an average day declined over the last 20 years, from highs of 28 percent in 2004 to lows of 16 percent in 2023,” a decline of some 40 percent.
The second observation is that the book groups I’ve been invited to are composed overwhelmingly of women. Data suggests as many as 88 percent of private book clubs consist of all women. Occasionally I’ll find a lone man in a group, and once I had a co-ed book group of male-female partners, but those seem to be anomalies.
An interesting question these women often ask is why their teenage sons have stopped reading and whether I, a writer and retired professor of literature, have any suggestions to get them to read. I respond with a question of my own: Why aren’t there any men in your book group? They usually say their male partners are too busy, don’t read fiction, or, quite frankly, that the women like the group to be just women. They often say it’s because they feel they can talk more freely and are less inhibited without men. Fiction is, at its core, about feelings, and the women I've spoken to about this say most men don’t like to talk about their feelings. Of course, this might be an oversimplification. What research does show is a gender gap in fiction reading: Many studies suggest that men today are not reading as much fiction as women — or even as much as men used to.
Are we — or more importantly, should we be — worried about how few men are reading fiction?
"But who cares if men don’t read fiction anymore?" you might well ask. "For far too long men have dominated literature, as they have most everything else." But as David J. Morris, a writer and professor, wrote in a highly touted article in The New York Times, “If you care about the health of our society — especially in the age of Donald Trump and the distorted conceptions of masculinity he helps to foster — the decline and fall of literary men should worry you.”
As a culture, are we — or more importantly, should we be — worried about how few men are reading fiction?
Over the last 30 years, reading novels has been linked to a person's level of empathy. “[Literary stories] function to abstract social information so that it can be better understood, generalized to other circumstances, and acted upon,” the psychologists Raymond A. Mar and Keith Oatley suggested in a 2008 paper. In other words, reading literary novels may help readers develop empathy and understanding. This is a serious but not surprising claim. Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle, in his Poetics, posited the concept of catharsis — that is, by experiencing a fictional tragedy, we are brought face to face with our own flaws and the limits of human control, thereby gaining greater insight into our human condition. As Mar and Oatley conclude, “Works of imaginative literature — stories — are one means by which we make sense of our history and our current life.”
Fathers who don’t read may raise sons who don’t develop the habit, either.
Natalia Albin Legorreta, a London-based Mexican writer and creative director of Ataraxiain, wrote in a Substack post titled, “Men aren’t reading and it’s hurting all of us,” that “the problem is that men see reading fiction as something ‘frivolous and feminine.’" Reading habits form in childhood, and boys are likely to imitate their fathers. Fathers who don’t read may raise sons who don’t develop the habit, either. Of course, this isn't absolute, and I'm not suggesting all men who don’t read novels lack empathy. I have many empathetic male friends, both those who read novels and those who don’t. But in a society where too many men — young men, in particular — are alienated, lack empathy, and spend far too much time in their basements playing violent video games, we should be concerned about how to turn this troubling trend around.
I propose three (modest) suggestions:
Start a co-ed book group
One of the most memorable book groups I attended was the co-ed one I mentioned earlier. They made it a fun night out with food and wine, and I found the men's questions and reactions in this group interestingly different. Not necessarily better, but different. For example, they were discussing my novel Soul Catcher, about a slave catcher in 1857 hunting an enslaved woman. The women in the book group focused on the emotional relationship that developed between the two, while the men often spoke of technical things like the slave catcher’s horse or his handgun, or even the politics of the Fugitive Slave Act. I felt it was one of the most dynamic and productive book discussions I ever had.
Encourage husbands/partners to form their own book groups
I know of at least one men’s book group in my town, and I’m told it's both rewarding and challenging. Another example comes from Joseph Bernstein’s article, “Why Did the Novel-reading Man Disappear?” The group’s leader, Yahdon Israel, called it “The Fiction Revival.” Israel confessed that the book club was about more than men reading fiction; it was meant to encourage deep emotional conversations. “I’m doing this because I need it,” Israel said. Men’s book clubs can also show teenage sons that reading novels is something men do, too.
Encourage fathers and pre-teen or teenage sons to read and discuss a novel together
This could be informal or more structured, developed through various organizations such as libraries, church groups, and other civic organizations. In fact, schools could organize regular meetings of fathers and sons to discuss selected novels, say, one night every other month. Beyond the reading benefits, imagine fathers and sons bonding like this over books. In a culture of alienated young men, what better way than for a father and son to be talking about anything at all?
These are just a few suggestions to start a larger, much-needed conversation. Regardless, we must recognize the many benefits of reading literature — to the individual and to society — and then acknowledge that men and boys are falling behind. What better way to begin than book clubs involving men?
Michael C. White, author of the upcoming Skunktown (Regal House; August 31, 2027), has published seven previous novels, including Soul Catcher and A Brother’s Blood, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book. His novel Beautiful Assassin won the Connecticut Book Award for Fiction. He founded and directed Fairfield University’s low-residency MFA Program in Creative Writing. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two Labs.
