It is an inconvenient truth that some book fans will be quick to deny.

尽管一些书迷会迅速否决，但这是一个难以忽视的事实。

But according to a new survey, most people in Britain prefer to read books by writers of their own gender – and tend to read fewer of those written by the opposite sex.

最新的一项调查显示，大多数英国人更喜欢阅读与自己性别相同作家的著作，而倾向于去阅读异性作家作品的则少之又少。

The research, which comes after claims of sexism in publishing, found a stark gender divide in reading habits in the 40,000 people polled.

在有人提出出版行业也存在性别歧视后，这项研究应运而生，研究发现，在参与调查的4万人的阅读习惯中当中存在着鲜明的性别差异。

Male authors accounted for 90 percent of men’s 50 most-read titles this year, while the reverse was true for the women’s titles.

男性作家占据了2014年阅读排行榜前50名的90%，而女性作家的情况大相径庭。

According to Goodreads, the reading website which collated the research, female readers also rate books by female writers more highly.

据好读网（美国最大书评网）透露，他们负责整理了研究结果。结果表明，女性读者给女性作家的作品评分要更高一些。

On average, women rated books by women 4 out of 5 and books by men 3.8 out of 5.

女性读者对女性作家作品的平均打分为4分（满分5分），而对男性作家作品的平均打分是3.8分。

A website spokesman said: ‘Ultimately, when it comes to the most popular 2014 books on Goodreads we are still sticking to our own sex.’

网站发言人说道：“而当好读网评选2014年最受欢迎书籍时，人们基本上还是偏爱自己的同性作家。”

Goodreads was prompted to conduct its survey after the author Joanna Walsh launched a campaign to get more people reading female authors at the start of the year.

今年年初，乔安娜·沃尔什发起了一项让更多人去阅读女性作品的活动，这也促使好读网进行了此次调研。

Recent statistics from the US showed a vast imbalance in the numbers of women reviewed and reviewing in today’s literary press.

来自美国的最新数据显示，当今的文学出版界中，得到评论的女性作品和来自女性的评论数量都存在着巨大的不平衡。

Elizabeth Khuri Chandler, editor-in-chief and co-founder of Goodreads, said the aim in sharing the data ‘was to stimulate conversation and self-reflection’ and ‘to create a space for some friendly conversation about the subject’.

好读网的总编辑、联合创始人伊丽莎白·库里·钱德勒称，把统计数据共享出来的是为了“鼓励交流和自省”，并“为友好讨论这个话题创造出一个空间”。

She added: ‘It’s been fascinating to see our members discussing the male author/female author ratio of their reading.

她补充道：“看到我们的会员在讨论他们阅读作品中作家性别的比例，我感到十分惊喜。”

‘For the most part, people are saying that they don’t set out to read a male author or a female author.

“在大多数情况下，人们对于所读作品的作家性别，并没有特别的要求。”

‘It’s all about the book. But when they look at their lists, some of them are realising that maybe they might want to explore different authors.’

“仅仅是关于作品本身。但当他们看到作家列表时，一些人可能意识到或许自己想要寻找不同的作家。

The researchers also found that men and women tend to read the same number of books but that women preferred to read more recent books than men.

研究人员也发现，男性和女性阅读的书籍数量往往都差不多，但女性更喜欢阅读新书。

Chandler added: ‘Some men said they felt they read more male authors because of the type of books they like to read.

钱德勒还说：“一些男性读者说他们需要阅读更多男性作家的作品，因为这正是他们所喜欢的类型。

‘They thought that more male authors tended to write in the genres or about the topics that interest them than female authors. We also noticed that most people were unaware of the gender breakdown of the book they were reading. It certainly seems like an untapped area to explore.’

“他们认为，比起女性作家，男性作家则更能写出吸引他们的体裁和主题。而我们也注意到大多数读者并不十分介意他们正在阅读作品的作家性别。在某种程度上，这似乎还是一个亟待研究的领域。”

（译者 490252028 编辑 丹妮）