why we read what we read

Nick Gillespie surveys some recent investigations at the intersection of literary criticism and evolutionary psychology. I could try to recap, but you should probably just read it for yourself, if you are interested in such things.

The context is a recent British survey asking men and women what novels have meant the most to them. There were, unsuprisingly, some differences bewteen the sexes. And I seem to fall into line with my fellow males fairly well, having read 13 of the top 20 male responses, and only 7 of the women's top 20 (4 of which were common to both lists).

I suppose my top 5 would be:

1) Haruki Murakami The Windup Bird Chronicle
2) Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude (#4 on the men's list, #13 on the women's)
3) Ralph Ellison Invisble Man
4) Joseph Heller Catch-22 (#6 among men, #8 among women)
5) Robert Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land

I'm also left to wonder if (as the investors say) past trends indicate future results. The books currently stacked on my nightstand include:

Jose Saramago The Double (I'm about halfway through)
Phillip Roth American Pastoral
John Kennedy Toole Confederacy of Dunces
Gabriel Garcia Marquez The General in His Labyrinth
Ian McEwan Saturday

Yours?