Things That Aren't News

I read a lot.

I mean, a lot. Plenty of folks read more than me, but I guess in some circles it isn't common to read about 50 books each year. During college my pleasure reading went on a small hiatus due to the sheer quantity of reading I did for class, but I always managed to get a few books under my belt during vacations. It wasn't until I encountered several articles about which books are reviewed in prominent publications like the New Yorker and the New York Times that anyone pointed out to me that because books are written by people, you can track the details of the authors you read. For instance, you can count how many books you read by women, or by people of color.

Intrigued, I went over my last twelve months only to find that while I read many books by women, they weren't nearly half of my library. My books by authors of color were even fewer- probably less than 10% of my total.

In my past year of service it has been pointed out to me that one good way to be anti-racist is to listen to people of color, to step back and acknowledge their rightful leadership. Why shouldn't that extend to books? So, for the past year, I've been fighting sexism and racism in my reading choices. So far I've read 38 books this year. Of those, 24 were written by women and 14 by men; 15 have been by authors of color and 23 by white authors.

These are the books I read in 2011 by authors of color so far.

The task has been fascinating, frustrating, and telling. I habitually veer toward books by white people. The switch to primarily books by women was easy- I hear my own frustrations, dreams and voice echoed in their words- but reading books by authors of color has been trying. It's an exercise in being proven wrong, in listening to stories vastly different than my own, in being shown racism in my world and life very matter-of-factly.

At the LSC meeting tonight, my book problem came up in the context of the proposed LSC Book Club. Sarah Huelskoetter and I agreed to put together a book club, with a potential book to read as a group- one that has to do with our discussions of the Journey to an Inclusive Community, one that is accessible in both readability and a plethora of afforadable physical copies, one that is short enough not to intimidate and intriguing enough to start and finish. For myself, I'd ideally like to be sure it's written by a person of color.

A daunting task! I think I'm up to the challenge, but ... what would you read, for either my personal challenge or for the book club? What's of local interest to Minnesotans? What's made you think? Do you think about this, or is it just me?