Reading and sexual arousal

Speaking with my husband about he doesn’t read anymore he said, “I read a lot before I was 12 and then I was more interested in hitting on women than reading books.” Which got me to thinking about the fact that females read more books from adolescence on than males. This has been proven true over and over again. And there are many articles on theories as to why. Well, this is my theory of why.

Romance novels, targeted primarily to women, make up 55% of all paperback books sold. These books arouse women emotionally, mentally and sexually. While men are more visual when it comes to sexual arousal and once they hit adolescence this is even more pronounced than any other time of their life.

So between the beginning of puberty well into their young adulthood men are much more interested in women than they are into books. Once they settle down some men return to reading while others seem to have lost the joy that books once brought them.

Women on the other hand have romantic elements in many of the books targeted towards them from puberty on. This encourages a loyal readership since they can often find something that they cannot find outside of these books. Men of their age are often more interested in the carnal aspect of the relationship than the emotional and women are biologically programmed to want a mate more than many sexual partners.

So I wonder what do you think? Do you think there is a link between sexual arousal and readership? Or is this simply a coincidence and not a cause and effect?