I have been a member for about a year now, and the overwhelming majority of my swaps have been with ladies. Do women really read that much more than men?

I really don't think they do.  I seem to see a lot of men at Barnes and Noble.  Besides, I order my husband's books for him, and books that my cousin in Iraq requests, etc.  I think men are sometimes a little more quiet about the fact that they are readers though.  But just running through the list of guys that I know, I can think of lots of conversations that have led to book talk and I have discovered that they read quite a bit. 

Most guys I know either buy their books or are married or otherwise unsingle and task their mates with the shopping. There are several guys I know of on this site though....but many. many more women. Perhaps we are just more frugal than the average male?

My Hubs reads infrequently and either borrows from me or, more frequently, his best male friend. He does ask for a book from here from time to time.

I think it's more that woman are more interested in trading books on a website like this.  My husband will read a book and just toss it in the trash if I don't catch him first.  I finally have him trained to give them to me when he's done.  They're usually unpostable by then and I put the really bad ones in the recycling bin or offer them as freebies.  He takes such good care of everything else he owns but he abuses books.  Most of the books he reads are WL too which really irritates me.  Lately he's been saving them for his dad. 

Yes, on average women do read and buy more books than men do. Here's an article discussing an AP poll on this subject: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-21-reading_N.htm

"More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer non-fiction."

"Among those who said they had read books, the median figure — with half reading more, half fewer — was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger."

"Who are the 27% of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn't read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious."

I don't know about the entire site membership, but I do think women outnumber men on the forums.

It could possibly be that women are more likely to chat about books and other assorted topics that come up on these boards?  I don't know - but there really aren't many men that participate in discussions on the boards.

My husband doesn't read a lot and he's college educated.  I think he just doesn't care to sit and read much.  Usually he only reads an actual book if he's deploying on the ship or going on vacation. And then he takes Moby Dick or Sun Tzu's the Art of War-not light reading.  He's more likely to read a technical manual related to one of his hobbies which he ends up keeping.  He likes non-fiction mobster or Vegas related books. They're almost always WL on here but he beats them up-like I said in my previous post. 

I should have put in my 1st post that I read a lot of mysteries and have sent out several to men.  Mostly I read romance and I even had one go to a man once-I think he ordered it for a spouse.  That would be my guess although you never know. 

Mine will reread books over and again. Mindboggling. My ex did it too. Must be a man thing.

In my book swaps so far, I've sent mostly to women (I think - there have been a few people using just first initials or ambiguous first names), but in books I've requested and received, I'd say it's running almost 50/50.

It may have something to do with the types of books requested?  The Sci Fi book posters tend to be male, in my experience.

I think maybe women are just more likely to join a site like this and swap their books. If my husband wants a book, he'll just tell me and i'll look it up. He would never be bothered with something like PBS on his own, and was dubious about it when i started. Now he's definately a PBS supporter, hehe. He gets dragged into bookstores much less often.

He's not much of a reader, but it's been known to happen.

Perhaps the women you are swapping with are ordering some of them for their SO? It is very possible!

I also think it is genre related - the types of books I read are geared towards a more female audience, but when I post or order my dh's books, they tend to be for/from men.

I agree with the others who said that maybe it's just that more women than men are interested in a site like this.  I request books here for the DH now and then, but he just isn't interested in setting up his own account.  He and a friend from the Navy days save up books for each other and mail them when they have enough books to fill a box. 

I also tend to have more requests from women then men here, but at the Books for Soldiers site, we see many more requests from men then women.  I think it's because there are more men than women in the military. And I think we have more women members here at PBS then men.

I send and receive a fair # of books to/from men (many more than the forum postings of men would suggest), but I agree that the women probably outnumber the men on the site.

my dad just buys his books new. i keep telling him that i can get them on here. but he doesnt listen to me

My husband couldn't be bothered to belong to a book swapping site--but he has no problem reading at least some of the book I request(not all--we do own a ridiculous number of books--and he does read a lot of physics books, too). 

I tend to read more than my husband, but then he's slightly dyslexic, and reads slower than I do.  We're both college educated.   Since reading's a bit of a chore for him, he feels like he needs to read non-fiction and educational things for it to be worth the effort.  My view is that my life is non-fiction, so my reading doesn't have to be.

I do trade his books along with mine here, but more of his are keepers.

Yes. I think they do.

From my perspective as a Tour Guide, I'd say maybe 20% of the members I get are men.  I've gotten the impression over time that the percentage of overall PBS members who are male is slightly less than that, but it's still a decent enough approximation.  I don't know how to read into it, as far as understanding the reading habits of an entire gender, just that those of us men who have found this site are an intelligent bunch!

I think it definitely has to do with genre.  The non-fiction and science fiction and history all probably have a much greater membership of men than others.  And married men with families - who have time to read (I don't know many of them) - join for the financial help it gives.  Also - retired men join for the same reason.  I don't think that many men come on the forums - and I don't blame them.  There aren't that many subjects that the men are apt to discuss.  Of course it would help them out if they started their own threads!  Maybe they do in the other more specific ones.

Ruth

It seems most of the book-sites I've seen online have been majority women.  Most book clubs are also women--it might be related.

It was quite a surprise to me when I realized that SaCD is either mostly men or at least a large chunk of the forums are. I've gotten used to book sites where the women outnumber the men noticably.

Maybe women are more patient.  ;)  My dh buys a book when he wants it, in the store.  If it's not in the store he doesn't even want to order online, because that takes too long LOL.  No way would he wait for a waitlist book!  :-p

Also, women buy books for the kids.  We have three children and my husband has never purchased a single book for any of them--ever.  Grandma buys them books too, but grandpa buys them toys.  :)-

My husband reads more than I do, but he does very little on the internet.

Ha, this is totally random. When I mail out books, I have some packs of address labels. For whatever reason, they came in a sheet of half blue, half orange/red/pink. For a while to be funny (Ok, probably just to myself), I was putting blue on packages where the requestor was male (or the name "sounded" male to me) and the pinks on females. I blow through tons of the pink ones before I even finish up a half sheet of the blues. :-)

My husband is hesitant to give up his books.

One of the books I posted he got upset about because he used to have a copy of it.  I knew this one was mine because when I pulled it out it had cat fur on it from a cat who died before we moved in together.