Different ways of reading : an interview study of how men and women approach literature

The aim of this essay is to examine how men and women approach literature, and how it differs from each other. Earlier studies focus on children’s reading habits, and this study will compare this to how men and women read as adults. From this it discusses how this information could be used to increase men’s reading. With gender studies made by Raewyn Connell and Rebecca Pearse, and dr Elaine Millard as a background, ten interviews with five men and five women were conducted. The interviewees were asked questions regarding their reading habits, approach to reading and their opinion on audiobooks and physical books. The answers collected in many ways mirrored earlier research done on the subject, showing similar patterns in reading habits both for physical books, e-books and audiobooks. This showed that women in general read more books than men, but the difference were much smaller when looking at the use of audiobooks. The examination of the sources and the interviews show the possibility of increasing men’s reading with the use of audiobooks.