That stat about women authors vanishing from library shelves stunned me

I was reading a report from the VIDA count and found out that in 2022, only 38% of books reviewed in major literary magazines were by women. But here's the kicker: library circulation data showed women-authored books actually get checked out more often. Someone in my book club brought it up and I spent two hours digging through the numbers. Have you noticed this split in your own reading habits?

3 comments

3 Comments

benclark6d agoTop Commenter

Man, @bennett.vera is spot on about the gatekeepers thing. It's like the critics and the big review outlets have this blind spot where they only see a narrow slice of what's actually popular and good. The numbers from my own library back that up too - the most requested holds are always women authors, but you'd never guess it from the front page of the book review section.

the_wren6d ago

Tbh I've noticed this split without even trying. My hold list at the library is basically all women authors right now - Sally Rooney, N.K. Jemisin, Ottessa Moshfegh - and the wait times are brutal. But when I flip through the staff picks or the "critics choice" shelf, it's like a completely different world, mostly dudes I've never heard of. It's wild that the stats back up what I'm seeing in real life.

bennett.vera6d ago

Yeah the weird thing is this disconnect has been going on for years. I saw a study from some university that tracked which books stayed on the shelves in libraries and which ones kept getting checked out. Women authors always came out on top for circulation but got way less press and fewer reviews. It's like the people deciding what's "important" to read don't actually pay attention to what people are reading. My local library has a whole display of popular fiction and mostly women write those titles yet the critics keep talking about the same five guys. Feels like the gatekeepers are stuck in an old way of thinking.