In her monthly blog post, contributor Cindy Orr takes on the notion that men don’t read.

Men don’t read… women buy most of the books… girls read, boys don’t… the male audience for fiction is disappearing.

The impression that reading–especially of fiction–is becoming an activity for the female gender seems to be growing. But is this generalization really true?

One suspense writer recently complained that men do read, but that publishers don’t market to them. A book publishing insider says that the problem is that the industry believes that men don’t read, and so they acquire mostly books for women. And the book publishing business–especially the editorial side–is dominated by women, who may not understand what men like to read. One leading publishing executive talked about the “feminization of fiction”–the conscious decision to feature female protagonists in novels to the point that authors are sometimes asked to switch the gender of their main character.

Concern with their personal image is part of the problem with young men. After all, tough guys don’t read, or so goes the stereotypical attitude. And some young guys are very conscious of the book cover, not wanting to be embarrassed by it, one long-time teacher points out. Reading eBooks, with covers concealed from public view, might just solve that problem. (Not everyone would agree, as the blog Hot Guys Reading Books illustrates.)

But what kinds of books do men enjoy right now? Stephen King says his son Joe Hill calls the male version of chick lit “manfiction.” And who are some of the manfiction writers that King would recommend? Robert B. Parker, Jonathan Kellerman, Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child.