I always find it interesting when I tell people about the Bookstore Revival. There is a 600% increase in bookstores nationwide according people who track these things. Bookstores are popping up everywhere. There are over 30 in the Tampa Bay area, from Brooksville to Sarasota.
Is this sustainable? I am not an economic forecaster, but I hope so. A lot of bookstores fill specific niches, such as romance-only, used-only, Black community, or fiction-only. There are bookstores that sell only books, bookstores that have coffee shops attached, bookstores that are part record stores, bookstores that are part of oddity shops, and even bookstores that share spaces with tattoo parlors and virtual reality gaming areas. If you put up a wall of books, to me, you are a bookstore.
I wholeheartedly believe the rise of bookstores is 100% attributed to women. Not only do women own a large majority of the stores, but women visit bookstores far more often. Go to a local bookstore. I guarantee you will see more women buying books than men. Especially fiction. In my experiences selling my novel in bookstores, the ratio is not even close. Probably at least to a 66% to 33% woman-to-man ratio.
Bookworld is predominantly female.
This dominance of women in book spaces has led to several interesting phenomenon. As women also tend to be more social in their book reading, reading and book buying has become a lifestyle brand. Books are the anchor in which elements of their social life revolve. They are part of book clubs, which range from the typical discussions of a weekly/monthly read to experience-based adventures, such as wine tasting and soirees. There are elaborate cosplay events to celebrate certain best-selling book releases. There is an overwhelming amount of bookish merchandise – book bags, t-shirts, hats, mugs, stickers, and numerous other pieces of swag that announce the owner as an avid reader.
Enter Hot Girls Read.
Hot Girls Read is a slogan seen on a lot of bookish merchandise. It is proclamation of empowerment. Reading isn’t only for nerds and outcasts, it is for Hot Girls. You can be a Hot Girl and become a reader with no judgement or you can be a reader and be accepted as a Hot Girl. The only qualification to being a Hot Girl is to read.
(There was also a giant kerfuffle earlier this year when a book influencer tried to copyright the phrase “Hot Girls Read” for their own specific line of merch. The women in bookworld made them public enemy number 1 until they dropped their copyright claim.)
The predominance of Hot Girls in book culture has also led to discussions that book reading is feminine. Preposterous as a rhinoceros addicted to phosphorous. But whether for clickbait or honest discussion, “reading is feminine” has been an online discussion in recent years.
Again, women tend to read more, be seen with books more, wear bookish merch more, and are more social about their reading more. I can see why the layperson who might not be in bookish culture might assume that reading is feminine in the same way that playing video games might be masculine. Newsflash: there is no additional testosterone needed to play video games as there is no additional estrogen needed to read.
Finally, there is a trend, mostly online and mostly among women book reviewers, to call their followers “girlies”, regardless of their gender. Because the majority of their audience is women, they assume only women are watching their content. This might be ok for a romance or romantasy book review, but what about sci-fi or mystery or horror or fantasy?
My fear is that these cultural phenomenon in bookworld are not welcoming new men into reading. There has never been a more important time for men to read. But I fear they are discarding bookworld before even giving reading a chance.
Of course, there is a different between reading and involving yourself in book culture. But why not create a line of book merch for men? Do Hot Guys Read? Is there a space for men in bookworld?
I do see men in horror. I see men in sci-fi. Plenty of men write non-fiction. But maybe men aren’t supporting bookstores as often as women, as I don’t see them browsing the stacks to the amount I see women. Maybe men order their books on Amazon, which I don’t recommend, but it beats not reading at all.
There are a few all-male book clubs. I am a huge fan of the Tough Guy Book Club, a network of Australian book clubs that meet in pubs. They only have three rules: you have to define yourself as a man (however you want to do that), you have to be an adult (it is in a pub, after all), and you have to read. Easy. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of Tough Guy Book Club in the United States, and most of them are in the Northeast.
So how do we get guys to read books? I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe it starts at the top. Maybe seeing well-regarded male public figures reading or carrying books might make it “cool” again. Several years ago, President Barack Obama put out a list of his favorite reads twice a year during his presidency. That tradition has sadly gone away.
We need men to read. We need men to read diverse books by diverse authors. Getting them to read is the first step. For that to happen, we need to welcome them into book spaces. We need to lure them in and get them hooked.
Unfortunately, the problem is there is no money in marketing books to men. Women read more. Of course publishers are going to publish to the gender that buys more. Whereas there are still many men in the traditional best seller lists, self-published and independent book publishing is dominated by women.
It frustrates me that outside of my author and writer community, most of the men I know don’t read regularly. Maybe they are a lost cause. Maybe society needs to focus on school age boys and get them into books. But they aren’t going to like being surrounded by Hot Girl Reads swag and being called “girlies”.
I am not in a position or role to make changes, but unless we want men to be ignorant lumps in society, we need to create spaces for men, especially young men, to embrace reading. Hot Girls shouldn’t be the only ones reading.
