At the bookstore where I worked for over 20 years, I rang up hundreds of couples. With the traditional middle-aged male/female couple, I noticed that men often bought books on war and women bought romances. Of course, this is a generalization because many traditional couples bought all kinds of different books. But, in general, older men usually like war-related books. I've been mulling over why this is so and here are some of my ideas. Men born in the late forties and fifties were inundated with war stories for most of their lives. Either their fathers or a friend's father probably fought in WWII and Korea. They heard stories directly from soldiers about war and it's consequences. Also, television took over from the radio and covered every aspect of past wars and current ones. Korea, Vietnam, and more filled the airwaves and minds of adolescents and teens. I remember watching endless war movies and imagined myself as John Wayne fighting for our country. Young girls were...
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