rationalskepticism.org

Maybe, just maybe, it's because they are marketed as books for girls? The content itself is largely irrelevant since the majority of people don't read and the works of Miss Austen are included in that huge reading gap, of course. The books nearly always have unbearably girly front-covers with praise from women. The literature teachers are nearly all women who recommend that literature students (mostly girls) pretend to read books by Jane Austen and I think in all this marketing and academic theorising, many potential male readers (it's a small group, I know) are somewhat put off and go and watch the football or read jizz-rags like Nuts, or whatever it is they do. Of course, it's a shame that many males (even if they are habitual readers) tend not to read Austen, but I put that down at least in part to the way that they are marketed and discussed. The mostly awful TV adaptations (useful for female literature students who need to pretend that they have read Austen to impress their teachers and gain bookchat credits) just add to the ridiculous belief that Austen's books are ''girly''. So it goes.

I can say that there are excellent novels that can be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates good books (unfortunately, most of the students who are made to read them are not included in this category). If you don't, don't read them.