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Women Keep Novels, And Reading In General, Alive

AUDIENCE, WORDS Posted: December 8, 2019 8:30 am

Who buys 80 percent – that’s a super, super, super majority – of novels? You knew it: Women. But our love for novels, as the narrator in Anna Burns’ The Milkman experiences, seems to be a challenge for some other humans. “William Thackeray called fiction ‘sweets’ – to ensure a balanced diet, he also recommended ‘roast,’ by which he meant nonfiction. It’s surprising how enduring these puritanical associations have proved; fiction is still seen as ‘a slippery slope to idle self-indulgence,’ as Taylor has it. One of her correspondents wrote: ‘having an affair is dangerous, masturbation requires solitude and privacy. Reading a book offers both without anyone noticing.'” – The Observer (UK)

AUDIENCE, WORDS Published: 12.07.19

Read the story in The Observer (UK) Published: 12.07.19

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