Oh, boys; with the passage of time, have you forsaken your Goldberry … or have you forgotten her entirely?

Gen X, millennial and gen Z men are reading less than boomers and older generations in Australia, and there’s only one good thing about it. Thirsty, bookish young women might now be spared the niche heterofatalist torture of a sexual objective frustrated by the obstacle of male literary opinion.

Oh, what a second-by-second social negotiation it was; if she hadn’t read the enthused-about text, would her desired object find her vapid and shallow? If she had read it, she was in even more trouble: would his interest be piqued or levelled dare she confess she found Stranger in a Strange Land a meandering journey? Would she argue Fight Club beat you around the head with its message? Would the young woman really have to listen to him read out bits from And the Ass Saw the Angel before his pants removal?