On the basis of two ethnographic studies, this article demonstrates how the social construction of reading is gendered. Imposing competitive and exclusive representations, this normative social construct impedes the figure of the man-reading and, more importantly, the figure of the boy-reading (teenagers and young adult). In rural areas, much like in the areas of the underprivileged suburbs, reading is for girls, and the few boys and men readers, often viewed as artists, intellectuals or activists, must find strategies to disguise reading. Thus, in both of these areas, the chosen solitude of the ‘reader’ is a behaviour associated with the female gender. Therefore, which culture does the act of reading reflect boys and men?