On average, I read about ninety books a year. I pick them a bit randomly though, grabbing new releases from favorite authors and then anything else that catches my eye.
While I sometimes find new things to read by wandering the bookstore, it’s more common for me to hear about books through blogs, newsletters, or social media. These can be really great tools, but I’ve started to think about how relying on the same handful of sources has limited the types of things I hear about.
After looking at my book lists from the past few years, I mostly read genre novels by straight, white American authors. I tend to read more books by women than men, partly because I like female protagonists and fewer men write those.
So for 2018, I’m going to try to diversify my reading. I’m going to read more books by minority and LGBT authors, more books by authors who aren’t from the US or UK, and more nonfiction. I’ll also be looking for a few more novels outside my regular set of genres. My goal is to have these kinds of choices make up at least forty percent of my yearly total.
I feel like there are a lot of really interesting stories out there I’m just not being exposed to. And while the same can probably be said for any avid reader, I want to do my best to work on some of those blind spots.
For Helium! 