An investigation into men's reading habits left Luton shoe shoppers baffled last weekend, when they were faced with books labelled 'Read Me' inside Clarks in The Mall Arndale.

The Alice in Wonderland-style stunt was the brainchild of Mike French, senior editor at online literary magazine 'View from Here', who wants more men to start picking up fiction.

Mike, 42, of Alexandra Avenue, said: "The idea is to see if men who are perhaps bored whilst their partners shop, will pick up a book and read it. You could say we're targeting the vulnerable.

"We've supplied Clarks with 50 copies of Markus Zusak's new book, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, to display in the shop and inside each cover is a sticker headed 'Are male readers an endangered species?'

"It then invites the finder to take the novel home to read, and to send us an e-mail saying how they got on."

Zusak's second novel, which follows his bestselling debut, The Book Thief, charts the journey of two teenage brothers who take up boxing.

Mike chose Luton for the experiment because he's keen to promote literature in the town and has been working closely with the University of Bedfordshire, and publisher Random House was happy to supply the books when he approached them.

He added: "For a town boasting so many cultures we think Luton deserves a more active literature scene. It's our third annual experiment and we've previously done them in St George's Square in Luton, and in Covent Garden. We try to keep it fun but at the same time encourage more males to read fiction, as they seem to be a dying breed.

"It was important we found a good book for this and Markus' latest offering fits the bill perfectly. Hopefully the copies will be snapped up quickly, we'll be quite happy for people to pinch them so long as they have a good read." 

Clarks manager Alan Goreham said: "People have been quite slow on the uptake of this opportunity, only four books have gone so far, but we're expecting things to pick up as word spreads. It's surprising really as the public normally love a bargain, especially in Luton."