July 23, 2014

Reading "Girly" Books: An Interview with a Bookish Guy

So as y'all might recall, I am a strong advocate for guys reading so-called "girly" books.  I did a whole post about it back in January, and then I challenged a guy-friend to read 5 "girly" books/series, the results of which I shared in May.  Well, I know a couple guy book bloggers, one of which loves a ton of books, despite how "girly" they may seem.  I asked him if he'd be interested in doing an interview, and he was more than happy to.  So please welcome Bayram of Dystopian Books.


Emma: So I know you read a ton of "girly" books.  I'm curious why, since most guys won't.
Bayram: I don't think of them as girly books. Just because it has a female main character or some romance doesn't define a gender for it in my opinion. If I'm interested in a book, then I read it; I don't think about whether I'll be judged for it as some guys do. In fact, some of my really close friends became close with me because of our mutual interest in "girly" books. 

Emma: What's your favorite so-called "girly" book?
Bayram: Picking a favorite book for me is always hard because there are tons of amazing ones but I'm going to have to say that my current favorite "girly" book of 2014 is a tie between Heir of Fire by S.J. Maas and Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. Both were AMAZING and I loved every page of them.

Emma: Why do you think so few guys read "girly" books?
Bayram: For the most part I think it's because most guys think they'll be judged for reading a "girly" book. They're afraid of being called not "manly" and being ridiculed. If they could just get past that point of thinking, than they could see that they won't be judged and that they're missing out on some pretty amazing books.

Emma: What 3 "girly" books/series do you recommend?
Bayram: I would definitely recommend the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, the Selection trilogy by Kiera Cass, and the Unremembered trilogy by Jessica Brody.

Emma: On the flip side, what are 3 books/series geared more towards guys that you think girls would enjoy?
Bayram: I'm not sure if these would be considered "manly" books since I don't differentiate between the two but I think girls would enjoy The Eye of Minds by James Dashner and while I have not read Proxy by Alexander London and Noggin by Corey Whaley I think they would enjoy those as well.

Emma: How can we as bloggers get guys to read so-called "girly" books?  And what do you think publishers can do?
Bayram: Bloggers can try to raise a bigger awareness that YA books aren't just for girls, guys would enjoy the majority of them as well. They can show off some reviews of "girly" books to guys and if they find it interesting show them a similar one and so on until that guy sees that those books are in fact not "girly". Publishers when advertising books can try to gear some of the ads towards guys and try to convince them to try it out. If there was more of a focus from publishers in this area than there would be way more guys reading "girly" books.

Emma: If someone gave you the following 3 options in a "blind date with a book," which would you choose?
a. island, culture shock, the ocean
b. DNA, murder mystery, world flipped upside down
c. boarding school, murder mystery
Bayram: I would go with option A.
Emma: Then you chose Searching for Sky by Jillian Cantor.  Have you read it yet?  If not, do you want to read it now?
Bayram: I have not read Searching for Sky yet, but I do want to read it now.

Emma: Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Bayram!

1 comment:

  1. This is a cool post! It's so weird, because my boyfriend literally just finished reading The Hunger Games series. He got so into it that he read all three books in one weekend! And he's not normally a reader! I don't know if I'd call The Hunger Games super "girly," but it's still definitely a book that I think has mostly been read by girls.

    Guys should definitely start reading more "girly" books! Because just because they have female main characters does NOT mean that they're just for girls, or are girly in any way. Like you guys were talking about the Throne of Glass series...that's about a kick-ass assassin! I feel like anybody could easily enjoy that — not just boys! :) I hope we get to a place as a society where books become less gendered and everybody just kind of reads what they want no matter what.

    Great post :D

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