Don't quote me on this but I think men are less likely to be flexible in what they will read together or discuss. Less likely to go along to get along. Men tend to go to movies alone, women go in pairs more often. Sign me 51, fat balding white guy.

There is a scene at the beginning of the movie Yentl in which a book peddler in 19th century Russia wheels his barrow through the shtetl, crying "Novels for ladies, religious books for men!"

Amazing how little things have changed. Maybe the lack of men's book clubs (and co-ed book clubs) can be attributed in large part to the increasing separation of published material into "men's books" and "women's books."

I belong to an all-female book club that I enjoy a lot, but I do get frustrated by the selections sometimes. A visit to any large bookstore will reveal an entire genre of books which seem to be written primarily to be read by women's book clubs. You know what I'm talking about: Reading Lolita in Tehran, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Empress Orchid, Three Cups of Tea, Eat, Pray, Love, Water for Elephants, and anything by Jodi Picoult. Need I go on? I usually buy the books in paperback and resell them to Half-Price Books, where they join their fellows in large stacks of the same titles, mute testimony to the fact that other ladies' book clubs are reading the same things.

I have observed that discussion of most of these books flags after a few minutes. There just isn't that much to say about them. Often, by the next month's meeting, I can barely remember the book from the month before.

I'm certainly not suggesting that men would choose "better" or more thought-provoking books. But I do think that too many of these "ladies' book club books" are pretty unchallenging and not very memorable. Then again, the latest John Grisham or Tom Clancy, which men like to read, probably aren't either.

Not to sound like a Neanderthal, but I wonder if book clubs wouldn't be more appealing to both genders and more worthwhile if they read more of the classics. Books become classics for a reason. They tell timeless truths about the human condition and contain a wealth of situations and characters that can provoke endless discussion. They're full of the kind of moral ambiguity that gets people talking. My club reads at least one classic a year and almost invariably these selections stimulate the most interesting discussion. Several years ago, we read Pere Goriot by Balzac, about a father reduced to poverty by his selfish daughters' relentless fleecing. Talk about timely!

I think the issue raised by this article is a serious one because it points to one aspect of a trend toward self-segregation of the sexes that I have observed in recent years and that I think is unfortunate.

Agree (mostly) with the author. Our gentlemen's bookclub, a.k.a the Manzebo (named for man-izing of a backyard gazebo for our grill-out meeting to discuss The Omnivore's Dilema) reads all kinds of books and use a democratic process entitled the shapely analysis to select our book. Apparently, the Manzebo is quite well respected as our significant others have expressed great interest in joining.