*shrug* If he doesn't like it he doesn't like it. He's got plenty of time to pick and choose. And I haven't actually noticed anything girly being off-putting to him--he reads Nicholas Sparks and loves it which from what I understand are basically the chick flicks of the literary world (I could be wrong, I've never read them).

I am honestly not sure how much a fairly dense book will work for him--I think I'm gonna throw Lord of the Rings at him and if he gets through that and enjoyed it at least somewhat I'll start trying stuff with older style writing/denser plots.