Even outside the likes of 50 Shades of Grey, reading is considered universally sexy.
It turns out that certain topics and authors will earn the attention of the opposite sex more than others.
Online dating platform E Harmony surveyed over 4 million of its members recently and found that men who read Steve Jobs received 76% more messages than other men – but those who read Star Wars received 52% fewer messages than other men.
When it comes to women, the mix was a little more diverse. Those women who had read Gone Girl attracted 63% more messages than other women – interesting considering the main character is a sociopath.
Both sexes felt that the Hunger Games and Game of Thrones were sexy reads, and in the UK The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo also made the cut.
Surprisingly, those women in Australia who read Scar Tissue, by Red Hot Chilli Peppers frontman, Anthony Kiedis received 100 times more messages than other women.
The most popular, and therefore most sexy author elected by both sexes was the master of suspense, Stephen King.
Interestingly, none of these titles would be considered especially ‘sexy’ or ‘erotic’, considering the genre of erotic fiction has been on the rise over the past few years.
That success sent the sales of erotic novels soaring by more than 30 per cent in recent years, a result of both the impact of Fifty Shades and the anonymity offered by the proliferation of e-readers, such as Kindle and iPad.
With technological advances came an ability for women to download and read this type of novel without ever having to physically confront a salesperson. You can read it on the bus and no one has any idea what’s going on in your imagination. That access has also given women permission to explore some of their own feelings about sex and fantasy. And according to a scientific study by researcher Harold Leitenberg of The Journal of Sex Research, women who read romance or erotic novels have an astounding 74 per cent more sex with their partners than those who don’t.
This, Dr Leitenberg says, is because women fantasise more frequently and have more intense and realistic fantasies when they read suggestive content. He concludes that not only were women readers having more sex, they were having better sex because they and their partners were more adventurous and playful.
“Every generation has had their erotic book,” says Nikki Gemmell, author of the worldwide erotic hit, The Bride Stripped Bare. “In the past, it might have been Fear Of Flying by Erica Jong or Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Women have always enjoyed reading these types of books. They are transporting. They help us to feel. They are powerful and they take us to another world.”
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