Image description
A Twitter screenshot which shows a quote-retweet and a reply to said QRT.
The quoted tweet from Alex & Books (@AlexAndBooks_) on November 5, 2025 reads,
Books men like to read vs. Books women like to read:
and has an image of a graph titled “Goodreads reviewers by genre and sex (Thelwall M., 2017)”; the data seems to be from the 2017 paper “Reader and author gender and genre in Goodreads” by Mike Thelwall. The graph has a list of Goodreads genres on the Y-axis and percentage of readers on the X-axis, with bars for “Males” and “Females” (representing the gender proportion of reviewers in a sample of books within each genre), and the list of genres sorted from highest male readership to lowest male readership. The most striking thing about the graph is that females overwhelmingly dominate in nearly all genres, with only four genres having more male than female readers (and only relatively small margins even then). The genre with the highest male-to-female ratio (roughly 59% to 39%) is philosophy.
I have provided tabular editions of this data below in two versions: an abbreviated version with only the genres and percentages, as in the graph, as well as a full version with all the data from the paper plus the percentages (since the percentages were not in the original paper, only raw numbers).
The QRT from august (@regularagust) on November 8 reads,
This becomes way funnier to look at if you know what the philosophy section in the average bookstore looks like.
The reply from 滿帖子乖謬之言觀汝似有瘋症 (@remmettmaxwell) on November 8 reads,
what we imagine: “phenomenology of the being and cognition” by j. j. r. von Grosseschleichen (1889)
what they mean: “locking in: 12 lessons on the meaning of life i learned from being with the operators in the coast guard auxiliary”
Data (abbreviated, percentages only)
| Genre[1] | Male % | Female % |
|---|---|---|
| philosophy | 59.1% | 40.9% |
| sequential-art>comics | 57.8% | 42.2% |
| politics | 56.4% | 43.6% |
| sequential-art>graphic-novels | 54.9% | 45.1% |
| science-fiction | 49.8% | 50.2% |
| history | 46.9% | 53.1% |
| religion | 42.0% | 58.0% |
| science | 41.4% | 58.6% |
| literature | 40.9% | 59.1% |
| horror | 40.8% | 59.2% |
| classics | 36.5% | 63.5% |
| non-fiction | 35.8% | 64.2% |
| reference | 35.0% | 65.0% |
| novels | 34.6% | 65.4% |
| biography | 34.2% | 65.8% |
| adventure | 33.9% | 66.1% |
| psychology | 33.7% | 66.3% |
| short-stories | 32.7% | 67.3% |
| thriller | 32.2% | 67.8% |
| travel | 30.9% | 69.1% |
| mystery>crime | 30.4% | 69.6% |
| poetry | 29.8% | 70.2% |
| art | 29.4% | 70.6% |
| fantasy | 27.8% | 72.2% |
| autobiography>memoir | 24.9% | 75.1% |
| christian | 24.4% | 75.6% |
| fiction | 23.9% | 76.1% |
| humor | 23.1% | 76.9% |
| thriller>mystery-thriller | 22.9% | 77.1% |
| mystery | 21.8% | 78.2% |
| sequential-art>manga | 21.1% | 78.9% |
| suspense | 21.1% | 78.9% |
| historical | 17.8% | 82.2% |
| historical-fiction | 16.9% | 83.1% |
| fantasy>magic | 16.8% | 83.2% |
| romance>m-m-romance | 15.8% | 84.2% |
| young-adult | 15.0% | 85.0% |
| childrens | 13.1% | 86.9% |
| food-and-drink>cookbooks | 13.1% | 86.9% |
| animals | 12.6% | 87.4% |
| adult | 12.3% | 87.7% |
| fantasy>paranormal | 11.7% | 88.3% |
| contemporary | 10.4% | 89.6% |
| childrens>picture-books | 9.8% | 90.2% |
| adult-fiction>erotica | 6.3% | 93.7% |
| romance | 5.4% | 94.6% |
| romance>paranormal-romance | 4.0% | 96.0% |
| womens-fiction>chick-lit | 3.6% | 96.4% |
| romance>contemporary-romance | 2.7% | 97.3% |
| romance>historical-romance | 2.5% | 97.5% |
Data (full)
| Genre* | Books | Ratings | Male reviewers | Female reviewers | Male % | Female % | Reviews for RQ5[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| philosophy | 5131 | 95606 | 11234 | 7772 | 59.1% | 40.9% | 857 |
| sequential-art>comics | 8567 | 166331 | 13334 | 9749 | 57.8% | 42.2% | 1263 |
| politics | 3894 | 34030 | 12657 | 9790 | 56.4% | 43.6% | 490 |
| sequential-art>graphic-novels | 6961 | 169828 | 13204 | 10828 | 54.9% | 45.1% | 878 |
| science-fiction | 9967 | 261253 | 22221 | 22363 | 49.8% | 50.2% | 1614 |
| history | 16315 | 199503 | 33017 | 37310 | 46.9% | 53.1% | 4033 |
| religion | 5056 | 54552 | 11505 | 15890 | 42.0% | 58.0% | 676 |
| science | 4463 | 71467 | 9908 | 14006 | 41.4% | 58.6% | 938 |
| literature | 3697 | 77384 | 9679 | 13979 | 40.9% | 59.1% | 92 |
| horror | 5545 | 161636 | 9923 | 14398 | 40.8% | 59.2% | 914 |
| classics | 5187 | 664000 | 10818 | 18831 | 36.5% | 63.5% | 556 |
| non-fiction | 40208 | 507491 | 69899 | 125264 | 35.8% | 64.2% | 8215 |
| reference | 6039 | 27524 | 8862 | 16453 | 35.0% | 65.0% | 580 |
| novels | 4564 | 52933 | 11389 | 21551 | 34.6% | 65.4% | 76 |
| biography | 7925 | 103156 | 18571 | 35705 | 34.2% | 65.8% | 1627 |
| adventure | 4822 | 83352 | 13506 | 26298 | 33.9% | 66.1% | 180 |
| psychology | 3259 | 49520 | 6378 | 12558 | 33.7% | 66.3% | 617 |
| short-stories | 7834 | 96615 | 8555 | 17644 | 32.7% | 67.3% | 758 |
| thriller | 5003 | 86473 | 12521 | 26326 | 32.2% | 67.8% | 453 |
| travel | 2941 | 31811 | 4369 | 9781 | 30.9% | 69.1% | 654 |
| mystery>crime | 4786 | 72899 | 11691 | 26793 | 30.4% | 69.6% | 272 |
| poetry | 7011 | 111621 | 5686 | 13389 | 29.8% | 70.2% | 1943 |
| art | 4469 | 30879 | 4043 | 9718 | 29.4% | 70.6% | 876 |
| fantasy | 19909 | 1057426 | 26409 | 68596 | 27.8% | 72.2% | 2758 |
| autobiography>memoir | 3673 | 67055 | 8576 | 25807 | 24.9% | 75.1% | 480 |
| christian | 4356 | 45478 | 7915 | 24530 | 24.4% | 75.6% | 796 |
| fiction | 41475 | 1218673 | 69470 | 220826 | 23.9% | 76.1% | 5187 |
| humor | 6409 | 87725 | 10417 | 34633 | 23.1% | 76.9% | 516 |
| thriller>mystery-thriller | 3167 | 26621 | 7562 | 25407 | 22.9% | 77.1% | 30 |
| mystery | 13093 | 389375 | 20210 | 72440 | 21.8% | 78.2% | 3645 |
| sequential-art>manga | 6623 | 285353 | 349 | 1306 | 21.1% | 78.9% | 162 |
| suspense | 3829 | 41560 | 6874 | 25647 | 21.1% | 78.9% | 79 |
| historical | 8654 | 137803 | 12514 | 57776 | 17.8% | 82.2% | 260 |
| historical-fiction | 9243 | 309406 | 12213 | 60237 | 16.9% | 83.1% | 1909 |
| fantasy>magic | 3028 | 60821 | 3188 | 15762 | 16.8% | 83.2% | 70 |
| romance>m-m-romance | 5729 | 125520 | 1100 | 5847 | 15.8% | 84.2% | 525 |
| young-adult | 11286 | 621919 | 10739 | 60915 | 15.0% | 85.0% | 1943 |
| childrens | 14147 | 163267 | 11264 | 74404 | 13.1% | 86.9% | 1989 |
| food-and-drink>cookbooks | 3642 | 36381 | 1183 | 7833 | 13.1% | 86.9% | 899 |
| animals | 3280 | 29674 | 3501 | 24264 | 12.6% | 87.4% | 294 |
| adult | 7043 | 72240 | 7151 | 50876 | 12.3% | 87.7% | 101 |
| fantasy>paranormal | 9094 | 261909 | 4556 | 34374 | 11.7% | 88.3% | 599 |
| contemporary | 13853 | 204599 | 8471 | 72730 | 10.4% | 89.6% | 227 |
| childrens>picture-books | 7410 | 131850 | 4754 | 43752 | 9.8% | 90.2% | 2945 |
| adult-fiction>erotica | 6981 | 78255 | 906 | 13487 | 6.3% | 93.7% | 427 |
| romance | 29205 | 676026 | 6805 | 119519 | 5.4% | 94.6% | 3342 |
| romance>paranormal-romance | 4239 | 110105 | 706 | 17100 | 4.0% | 96.0% | 288 |
| womens-fiction>chick-lit | 4072 | 91559 | 1318 | 35144 | 3.6% | 96.4% | 481 |
| romance>contemporary-romance | 7403 | 91478 | 868 | 30965 | 2.7% | 97.3% | 212 |
| romance>historical-romance | 3767 | 103730 | 555 | 21370 | 2.5% | 97.5% | 872 |
edit: just realized the link I gave for the paper wasn’t the open access link I used, so here’s a direct link for that one
The symbol > indicates that the category on the right has been classified by Goodreads as being a subcategory of the category on the left. ↩︎
Review Question 5: Are there differences in the types of things that male and female reviewers write about male and female authored books in specific genres? ↩︎
Yeah, I don’t think you can draw fine-grained conclusions about readership based on the source the data was sampled from and the study’s methodology, and that’s literally not even a question the original study was asking (I’ll post the research questions below). I honestly just thought that the reply was funny, and it required the original QRT for context.
Research questions
• RQ1: In which genres do female reviewers give higher ratings than male reviewers and vice versa?
Although reviewers tend to be more positive towards books authored by their own gender, does this occur once genre has been factored out and, if so, does it occur universally across genres? As discussed above, gender homophily does not seem to be a big factor in the social web and so this should not obscure book preference gender homophily.
• RQ2: In which genres are reviewer ratings biased towards books authored by the same gender?
One aspect of gender in book reviewing that does not seem to have been examined before is the relationship between reviewer gender and the reception of their review by other readers. For example, do readers empathise more with reviewers if they are from the same gender as the author or the reader, or does one gender tend to be more authoritative in the role of reviewer?
• RQ3: In which genres are female reviewers more liked than male reviewers and vice versa?
• RQ4: In which genres are reviews of books authored by the same gender as the reviewer more popular?
Finally, although there are theories about why different genders might enjoy specific types of books (e.g., Radway, 1984) there is little empirical evidence about how writer gender influences the way in which readers of different genders understand or engage with books in the genres that they have chosen to read.
• RQ5: Are there differences in the types of things that male and female reviewers write about male and female authored books in specific genres?