CULTURED Surveys Publishers, Agents, and Authors on the State of Male Reading
CULTURED magazine recently published an article addressing a "male literacy crisis," featuring insights from five literary experts. Sean Manning, the president of Simon & Schuster, remarked in June that Luigi Mangione's Goodreads profile, associated with the 2024 shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, mirrored the reading preferences of many young men. He suggested that peril captivates young males and introduced the concept of "brain-maxxing" as an alternative to looksmaxxing. This article coincides with the 30th anniversary of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Recent statistics reveal that 71% of men read a book last year, compared to 78% of women, with only 25% of men engaging with fiction. Other contributors included Matt Starr, Ethan Bassoff, Ben Brooks, and Rob Franklin.
Key facts
- CULTURED interviewed five figures: Sean Manning of Simon & Schuster, Matt Starr of Dream Baby Press, Ethan Bassoff of WME, Ben Brooks of FSG, and novelist Rob Franklin.
- Sean Manning spoke to the magazine in June about overlaps between Luigi Mangione's Goodreads list and those of many young men.
- Seventy-one percent of men read a book in the past year, compared with 78 percent of women.
- The most recent NEA survey found only a quarter of men read a book of fiction over a year.
- The feature coincides with the 30th anniversary of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, which runs 1,088 pages.
- Matt Starr's Dream Baby Press launch at Church Street Boxing featured a 20-person marching band and a Drake impersonator.
- Dream Baby Press hosted the PEN America Literary Gala after-party at the Museum of Natural History.
- Ben Brooks recommended Natasha Brown's Assembly as one book every man should read.
Entities
Artists
- Sean Manning
- Matt Starr
- Ethan Bassoff
- Ben Brooks
- Rob Franklin
- Luigi Mangione
- Brian Thompson
- David Foster Wallace
- Mary Higgins Clark
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Charles Bukowski
- Christina Aguilera
- Angela Trimbur
- Jemima Kirke
- Drake
- Haruki Murakami
- Han Kang
- Amy Tan
- Raven Leilani
- Bryan Washington
- Brandon Taylor
- Natasha Brown
- John Waters
- Callum Turner
- Dua Lipa
- Hernan Diaz
- Jeremy Liebman
- Layton Davis
- Lily Rabe
- Chris Messina
- Matthew Wong
- David Zwirner
- Scott Kahn
- Kaveh Akbar
- Lena Dunham
- Josh Silver
- Sarah McNally
Institutions
- CULTURED
- Simon & Schuster
- United Healthcare
- Goodreads
- Dream Baby Press
- Substack
- WME
- FSG
- PEN America
- Museum of Natural History
- Church Street Boxing
- National Endowment for the Arts
- McNally Editions
- McNally Jackson
- The Drift
- n+1
- Clandestino
- Café Paulette
- TIFF
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Brooklyn
- Fort Greene Park
- Times Square