Saturday, April 4, 2009

The Gentlemen's Edition?

Countering recent news that women read more books than men, Jean Hannah Edelstein offers a tongue-in-cheek suggestion of "re-masculating" books to attract more male readers. Here's more of Edelstein's plan, which is available in full at the Guardian's book blog:
One option, I suppose, would be to publish special gentlemen's editions of books that are currently targeted at women, but might actually have male appeal. Female protagonists could be given male names, and romantic plots could be tweaked slightly to be more about football. My editor was not a fan of my suggestion of a special manned-up print run of my (quite feminine) book with a cover featuring a tractor and a pint, but I am holding out hope for the second edition once the trend catches on.

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