Key To Literary Success - Be A Man or Write Like One?

Interesting piece from 12/30/09 Washington Post.

"This fall, Publishers Weekly named the top 100 books of 2009. How many female writers were in the top 10? Zero. How many on the entire list? Twenty-nine."

"What are the best books? The answer is always subjective, and I'm not a literary arbiter. But the message I received from this year's lists was painfully familiar. It forced me to explain to my students -- the next generation of writers -- that the men in the class have double if not five times the chance of this kind of recognition. I'll hand over the statistics and explain that an industry kept afloat by women is sexist. I'll confess to my own sexism. And I'll tell them that we have failed, but they don't have to."

Should It Stay or Should It Go?

Books You Can Live Without - fun views from the New York Times, 12/28/2009.