I began my background research using Google < https://www.google.com > to see if a specific gender liked to read more. I only found one article on it and it was only covered for a paragraph or two. According to the Observer < http://oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/653/Girls_read_more_than_boys.html > “Girls have overtaken boys in the literacy stakes when it comes to reading, both in their ability to understand what they read and in their tendency to read for pleasure.” The Observer then talks about the literacy of boys and girls, saying girls are more literate and do better on reading tests compared to their male counterpart.
I continued my search on < https://www.google.com > and found Taylor and Francis Online < https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131881.2011.552242?src=recsys&journalCode=rere20 > They claim there is a direct link to the motivation to read and the skill of the reader. It seems like girls have an easier time comprehending reading when they first start reading. Since they have that initial comprehension, they tend to enjoy reading. But most boys don’t have that initial comprehension, leading to them not reading as much and losing advance comprehension. “Conclusions: The closer reciprocal relationship between boys' intrinsic motivation, competency beliefs and reading skill could be interpreted in at least two ways. Firstly, boys' motivation and beliefs in their ability may be more dependent on their success in reading. Alternatively, boys' motivation and competency beliefs may play a more significant role in the effort they put into reading.In short, kids enjoy doing what they’re good at.” In short, kids enjoy doing things they are good at. If they are good at reading, they will do it more.
I still didn’t quite find what I was looking for so I went back to < https://www.google.com > and I found a research article by the Washington think tank Brookings.< https://www.brookings.edu/research/girls-boys-and-reading/ > Brookings shows the same theme as the other two publications, “reading tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show girls outscoring boys at every grade level and age examined.” Their explanations offers a combination of the Taylor and Francis’ hypothesis mixed with culture theory. They claim “Boys are inferior to girls on several school measures—behavioral, social, and academic—and those discrepancies extend all the way through college. This explanation believes that even if schools do not create the gap, they certainly don’t do what they could to ameliorate it; Cultural influences steer boys toward non-literary activities (sports, music) and define literacy as a feminine characteristic. This explanation believes cultural cues and strong role models could help close the gap by portraying reading as a masculine activity.” Certainly Brookings thinks the deck is stacked against young boys.
My extensive research concluded that researchers care more about reading comprehension compared to what genders read more. It’s clear to me that girls do like to read more and that could be due to cultural factors or even genetics. I still couldn’t find any research on what each gender likes to read. The closest thing I could find was an acient Pew Research poll < http://www.pewresearch.org/2008/02/06/where-men-and-women-differ-in-following-the-news/> from 2008 on < https://www.google.com > that broke down the types of news that each gender likes to read. It showed that girls like to read about crime, food recalls, and extreme weather while boys like to read about war, the economy, law, and sports. However Pew did not state whether girls or boys liked to read the news more.
Overall, I feel there is sufficient research on gender vs liking to read, but if there’s been a study done on what genres genders like to read, the information isn’t easily available so I have to use my own research.