I’m wondering if other people have any input on this.
I’ve been tracking a few basic facts about every book I read since 2018 - gender of the author, author’s nationality, original language the book was published in, and year of publication. Initially this was just a random thing I did, but I soon noticed that I was reading significantly less female authors than male authors. In 2018 and 2019, it was like 25-30 percent female authors. That bugged me a little bit, so I made an effort to look for more female authors, and then I figured I maybe should aim to read less European and North American authors (comparatively) and give a bit more space to South American, African, Asian authors. It became a bit of a hobby project, tracking these stats. Now I’m at a point where for the first time in 2024, I don’t want to set a reading goal in terms of number of books read, but I want to set myself conditions like 50% female writers, 50% non-European non-North American writers, and works from every decade between 1850 and now. Something of the sort, I haven’t worked it out exactly. The thing is I know it’d be super easy to game this system, which defeats the point. I want to read more voices that are different from my own, not just rack up points in some game against myself. I’m not sure I’m going about this in the best way.
Does anybody else track these sort of things? Do you think it’s worthwhile? Where do you draw the line between gamification of a valid goal (reading more voices that aren’t like you) and gaming your own system? What sort of statistics do you track, if any? Have you made any conscious changes to your reading habits?
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Nope, never done that and never will.
No, I read books I think are interesting
I personally don’t, I just read books I’m interested in. I don’t care who the author is and where they’re from, I only care about the story they’ve created. I guess it’s good if you want to be more diverse in your choices, but I feel like at some point people start caring more about the authors than the actual books and it seems like a stressful way to approach reading.
No, I read for pleasure. I don’t care if the author is like me or unlike me, I care about enjoying what I’m reading.
No, I’d rather know as little as possible about the author so I can judge a book solely on its merits and not bring in any biases based on who the author is
Yeah, I love that. It’s a truly honest approach. I’m sure diversity quotas can lead to a wider range of experience, but I think it also clouds a person’s judgment of the quality of the works too, as anything foreign is usually held in greater esteem, especially if underrepresented in some way. A world where everything is judged on it’s merits seems appealing.
I don‘t necessarily track these stats but I do record some things as tags on LibraryThing. I don‘t really aim for balanced representation but I do want to „broaden my horizon“ by reading books from more different cultures in the future.
I don’t keep track or have a set quota per se, but yeah, I do make an effort to read different authors and subjects. It takes various forms for me. I’m part of a book club that reads graphic novels, and we make a point of reading something by an Indigenous Canadian writer for our Canada Day meeting, as an example. Same with Black History Month, etc. It’s really cool to keep our eyes open and find books we’d already find intriguing but might not have sought out if we weren’t paying attention. As for my regular reading, I take recommendations from my relatively diverse friend group, and I’ll browse through articles on Goodreads if they’ve posted lists pertaining to a given month (I’ve read specific books during Pride, during Asian Heritage, and right now I’m doing a very general Nonfiction November, haha). Sometimes I’ll seek out something that’s been translated to English from a language I don’t speak, like Polish. I find it fun to see how far I can broaden the scope!
I am gonna be honest - when I first glanced at the title I thought it was some hyper woke post, but after actually reading hrough it I will say that it is actually very cool. I myself have never done something like this, and neither do I aim to in the near future, but this is definitely an excellent idea to open oneself up to new experiences and ideas from all around the world.
Unless a book is specifically about any given gender, religion, school of political thought ect, no. And I don’t read those sorts of books as I find them too dense. A little poetry and philosophy is where I draw the line there.
Books should be read based on whether the content appeals to you, not because of the author’s skin, genitals or beliefs.
Not even slightly. I read books that I find enjoyable and I couldn’t care less about who wrote it.
I do feel the need to read female authors when I get particularly annoyed by the depictions of their anatomy. You can only read about the swaying of breasts so many times. How many otherwise beautifully written novels reduce women to their chest? If things feel a bit too macho, I do think it’s nice to read other perspectives but I didnt become moonstruck by Toni Morrison because of her gender or race. Her brilliance, like all brilliance, is not exclusive to her purely physical properties or to say it simply, her outward appearance. Books are about ideas.
Race is also not something I make any check list for. I think its ridiculous to say that I dont see color but that it because I do think it is tied to their individual identity but it’s rare that that alone is why I read them. Even books that are completely tied to the author’s race have other reasons they are worth reading. That all being said, I would like a more worldly view. I think we should read everything that’s good and everywhere around the world has distinct contributions to the art form.
I read a lot of British and American authors, so sometimes I seek out something local — Irish. And I do other times look further afield. Partly, I think it’s “good” (and also good for me), but partly it’s just interesting and fun to look for stuff I wouldn’t normally come across, set in real cultures far away from mine.
I find it difficult to care about that sort of thing. I’m aware that female authors, authors of colour, and queer authors (amongst other groups) have traditionally been held back by mainstream media and I think it’s a good thing to have them be able to get their voice out there, but I don’t like choosing books to read based on what the author represents (even if I support that representation). I think that would render me incapable of viewing the book on its own terms. I would be trying to understand where it fits in the history of African American women, for example. Books should be judged on their own terms.
If I find a spare hour or two, I read. I don’t have time to analyse or input data about the act of reading.
Sort of? Like I am conscious of the gender ratio I read and I have actively tried to read more female authors before. I also do try to read more authors from my own country and other indigenous minorities like myself, but I’ve never set targets. I just try to read more stuff outside of the trends and if I like the book I’ll finish it and if I don’t, I don’t.