Personally I love dead white males ;-). I find that I don't much care whether a book was written by a man or a woman; as long as the subject matter interests me, I will pick it up; whether I'll finish the book depends on how engaging the writing is. My tastes are rather old-fashioned, I'm afraid... *g*

At least the book I'm currently reading is a woman's. It's Susanna Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Adieu. I'm loving it :-).