Get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich!

I've come to the conclusion that I don't like books written by female authors. Ok, let me rephrase that -- I prefer books written by male authors. There are plenty of books I've read that I thought were great that were written by members of the fairer sex -- Toni Morrison, for example. But I don't get the same enjoyment from reading Toni Morrison that I do from reading Orson Scott Card. Really, comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges. Any English major worth his B.A. will tell you that Toni Morrison is great and everything -- I mean, she did win the Nobel Prize. Orson Scott Card won a Hugo (or two?) and a Nebula award, but I don't think sci-fi awards are really in the same league as the good ol' Nobel. That being said, I've only read Sula and Beloved once, and I don't really have any desire to read either of them again. I could read Ender's Game a billion times. And I've noticed that I tend to gravitate towards male writers in general, maybe just because science-fiction is mainly a male-dominated field. But I also like Daniel Quinn and (to a faaaaarrrr lesser extent) Piers Anthony -- the guy may have pedophilic tendencies in his writing, but he's basically the reason why I became an English major. If I hadn't started reading all those god-awful (but only in hindsight) "Xanth" books, I don't think I would have ever considered myself to be someone who likes reading. And I say this after having spent most of my literate childhood reading every damn Beverly Cleary book I could get my hands on. Ah, the days of Ramona Quimby's vaguely dysfunctional family. I still remember "cheating" when I had to do a book report by claiming that I had just read "Ramona Quimby, age 8" for the first time -- in reality, I didn't read anything; I just had the plot memorized after having read it 5000 times. I was always one for repetition of the familiar.

In summary, if Jane Austen were born blind and never learned how to read and write, I think the world would be a much better place. I intend to sit and play video games for several hours.