(An Abundance of) Male Authors
As predicted after listing my (few) primary Women authors here recently, the number of and books by Male authors is very, very different. Where previously my notes had run to ¾ of a page, this time they ran to 2 ½ pages. Anyway, this is the list so you can see what I mean. As before the timescale considered is 10 years – from 4th March 2013.
Bernard Cornwell 9Robert Goddard 3
James Holland 5
Michael Cobley 2
Jules Verne 2
Asa Larsson 2
Mark Chadbourn 2
Charlie Huston 4
Kim Newman 2
Harry Turtledove 2
John Birmingham 4
S M Stirling 2
Albert Camus 2
Taylor Anderson 2
Ben Kane 3
H G Wells 3
John Berger 2
Ian Tregillis 3
Ha-Joon Chang 2
Valerio Massimo Manfredi 3
Christopher Priest 2
George Orwell 2
Mark Urban 2
Owen Hatherley 2
Eric Hobsbawn 2
Peter Rex 2
Joseph Kanon 2
Charles Dickens 2
Svend Brinkmann 2
Ian Kershaw 2
Richard Aleas 2
Nicolas Carr 2
Matt Haig 2
Matthew Plampin 2
Robert Harris 4
Lloyd Shepherd 2
Richard Woodman 2
Alan Evans 2
James S A Corey 2
Frederick Taylor 2
Frank Herbert 2
William Dalrymple 2
George Mann 3
Alistair Moffat 2
Paul Cartledge 3
Robert Campbell 2
Now, that’s QUITE a difference, you’ll agree! On purely a numbers scale my male authors VASTLY outweigh and outnumber my female authors – 46 multiples here compared to just 9 for women! I think I need to do something about that.... [muses] Oh, and its zero surprise that Bernard Cornwell came top of the heap!
7 comments:
Lots of 2s and 3s... is that intentional or a coincidence? It looks like you've covered a lot of ground, which is really cool!
I tend not to read one particular author obsessively - at least I try not to! If I like someone I want to pace out my encounters with their work, rather than reading ALL 5, 6 or 25 books in sequence and then have nothing to look forward to for years! [grin] That's one excuse I use when I'm asked why I've just started a new series when I already have 4, 5 or 25 other series already on the 'go'.... [lol]
You are so the opposite of me finally, in one regard - if I find an author I love, I devour everything they have written and then pout that I have to wait another year for their next release, lol.
I'm more like Sarah -- I focus on an author and read them obsessively until I've exhausted my access to them. (Asimov, for instance...in 2009 I read DOZENS of his books!) You recommended Cornwell to me, and I read the Sharpe series through devotedly, then switched to Uhtred, etc. Doing the same for Holland now!
What about Bill Fairclough and the spy novel Beyond Enkription? This thriller is like nothing we have ever come across before. Indeed, we wonder what The Burlington Files would have been like if David Cornwell aka John le Carré had collaborated with Bill Fairclough. They did consider it and even though they didn’t collaborate, Beyond Enkription is still described as ”up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”.
@ Sarah: I've noticed that about you.
@ Stephen: So it seems! If I REALLY like the first book in a trilogy, I might read the rest within a year or so but I don't think I've read anything super-quickly. *Maybe* 'His Dark Materials'... *maybe*.... It's possible I might have read them within a month or so.
@ MI6: Welcome back. I haven't heard of the Fairclough novel. I'll check it out. I do like a decent spy novel. It's definitely been a while since I've read one.
Do read some of the articles (identities + Pemberton's people) about it on their website before you plunge into the book. Once you become immersed in the Burlington "pool" you'll never want to stop swimming in it - mark my words.
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