No, no I wouldn’t.

I don’t think the other guys would either.

I am NOT stalking her!!!

Well just do what all the British do. Use your first 2 initials and last name.

Yep, ditto to Spanny. But then, I’m a girl.

Oddly enough, if it’s in nonfiction I generally avoid female authors… for some odd reason the women historians who get published tend to be a little bit nuts, and often overly dramatize everything. And oh God, the horror of historical fiction….. gahhhhhhhh! Queen Elizabeth I probably did die a virgin, and no, she did NOT HAVE THOMAS SEYMOUR’S BABY WHEN SHE WAS THIRTEEN!

Ahem. Sorry…. /rant

Eh, nowadays I haven’t seen that many believable female protagonists written by males simply because of the social expectations. Male authors tend to let themselves become too worried about appearing not-sexist and end up with GRRL-Sues.

Manly Muscleton

Don’t use that! It’s my real name.

Well, Spanny (fine, Spanman) , there was this book (historical novel) titled Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir that speculated what if. She did note in the back that Elizabeth probably didn’t… but she could have.

And it’s sad, because usually Alison Weir is a competent and interesting historian.

It depends on my past experience with that author/ Dianna Wynne Jones? Go for it. Tamora Pierce? I’m not so excited. Emily Rodda? Hell yes, when I was a teenager. Isobelle Carmody? Yes, please! But Jane Austen, Bronte sisters, Stephanie Meyer, and countless small-time chick-lit author(esse)s? No, thanks. Keep that stuff away from me.

So I guess it’s more about th quality of writing and what it’s actually about, rather than the gender of the author. I mean, Jones, Rodda, and Carmody (I don’t mention Rowling because she in some way hid her gender with initials, as discussed above) all have engaging narrative styles, realistic, rounded, synthetic characters of both genders, and well-devised, interesting plots that keep the reader interested in what happens next. Whereas I don’t read Pierce because it’s so blatantly “Oh, woe is me! I’m a princess who doesn’t like wearing dresses and wants to do what the boys do, but my arranged suitor is forcing me to be pretty! Wauuugh!”, and even if it might be interesting to girls, I have no interest whatsoever in that sort of thing. Meyers, of course, is the same, except it’s “Woe is me! I’m ugly and clumsy, yes everyone in my new school swoons over me except this one guy who keeps treating me like I have swine flu! Oh wait, he’s a vampire and he loves me! O, woe is me, I can’t make out with my vampire boyfriend because he might accidentally kill me because he’s so sparkly and hard and hawt!” Really, when it comes down to it, the authors I don’t read, male or female, I don’t read because either they adhere to cliches, have underdeveloped characters or settings, or I just can’t enjoy their writing style.

Eh, author’s gender doesn’t bother me. Although, according to my bookshelf, I obviously prefer male authors. It’s kind of embarrassing that the bottom shelf (i.e. the main one) has only one book by a female author.

Well, two if you count the Mighty Mince Cookbook.

Okay, first of all, I admit that I am a product of contradictory stereotypical societal influences.

That said:

1.When I see a book by a woman author my first instinct is “this will lean toward a emotional/drama plot.”
2. For a male author, I think, “could be anything.”
3. For an author with initials + surname I think, “ooooh, must read back cover and discover what the heck kind of first name starts with the letter Q….”

Now, having said THAT:

I know more guys that read romance than girls. It’s also an age thing. Adventures seem to be equally enjoyed by both.

You may use this information to help your research.

For the longest time, I didn’t know that Harper Lee was a girl.

Anyway, I think I might read more books written by men, but it’s not really a conscious thing. I look at the back cover and judge from there. A lot of the time, I don’t even look at an author unless I really end up liking the book.

Eh. I dunno, her world she builds for Circle just feels wrong. Tortall feels real to me, but the other world… eh. And the group of four for some reason just rubbed me the wrong way. Funnily enough, I read her the Circle of Magic first- Sandry’s Book, Tris’ Book, Daja’s Book, Briar’s Book. I liked them, then found her Tortall books and went “oh, these are good. Why did she write that CoM crap?”. Weird, I know.

Waiiiiiiiiiiit. You’re a girl? Huh. I was always wondering about you… I was caught in the middle. Your pic is a girl, but you sound more guy-ish. Sorta.

Ducks in case of angry retaliation

I dunno. Your writing somehow has a slightly more masculine feel. I don’t know how to describe it… not an insult at all.

^^Okay, I chose to take that comment as a compliment, sansafro. Though I think it may be because I argued against everyone being male whenever I saw you mention it.

^^He thought everyone was a guy, or were you talking to me?

EDIT:
May I refer you to this, Willow.

honestly, I could not care less about whether the book was written by a male or a female author. As long as it does not suck ass, I will read it and enjoy it. Sex has nothing to do with it.

I think I favour male authors naturally.

That said, a LOT of the books I enjoy have been written by female authors. It’s only that I didn’t realize the author was female until I did a Google search.

It’s a rather weak subconscious prejudice, but it exists.

I don’t know if this is true, but SF sounds as if it would be a male dominated genre. Fantasy sounds pretty evenly distributed in terms of number of authors, and I can think of more female historical fiction authors than male.

But that’s just me.

I think it’s more of a genre thing. Traditionally, speculative fiction has always been male dominated, and all of the genre-defining works were written by men (Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien, CS Lewis, etc…). That sexism might be hard for the genre to overcome. I can only really think of two woman fantasy authors that I’ve really liked, Susan Cooper and JKR. I’m sure there are more out there…

Other genres, I don’t think this is so much the case. Literary fiction has its share of female writers (Harper Lee, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austin, and so on) and lets not start on romance.

Trudi Canavan, Anne McCaffrey (though she’s a bit divisive), Diana Wynne-Jones.

There are many.

Justine Larbalestier > Scott Westerfeld.

Oh, you are SO going down.

Scott Westerfeld also has female protags in Uglies and Midnighters.

Andre Norton, Appelgate, and Anne McCaffrey

Oh, you are SO going down.

Runs and Hides

Go on, I dare you.

I think Westerfeld is very, very good. (I’m not fond of Extras or The Last Days, though.)

But I’ve read Liar.