Men Who Read Romance

Whenever I would hear men say “What do women want?” or “I don’t understand women,” I have always said to myself, “why don’t they just read romance novels? It’s a blueprint.” So now, a group of men have started a romance book club on zoom, and author Jason Rodger, a former Olympian athlete, has written an article about in the July issue of Men’s Health to give us a bird’s eye view. It’s a must read for any romance-reader of any gender or sexual persuasion.

Inspired by the novel The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams, which the author of this article called “a Fight Club for romance fiction,” he started his own online romance book club for mostly partnered men during the pandemic.

To qualify as a selection for his reading club, Roger had this criteria: the book had to have an approachable non-Fabio cover and an obviously manly subplot (baseball in the case of The Bromance Book Club) as well as “a central love story and an emotionally satisfying ending.”

Roger says that ultimately what he personally took away from the book was that “it fundamentally changed the way my wife and I communicate in the bedroom.” Wow! It also taught him how to keep intimacy going outside of the bedroom. Just powerful stuff.

I don’t want to spoil the joy of reading this article for you, but this author has basically started a consciousness-raising group for his partnered male friends and it’s such a pleasure to read. I hope it inspires many other men to start male romance reading book clubs, or at least start reading romances, to open themselves up so they can truly share themselves with their partners, and maybe make deeper friendships with other men!