I realize I totally neglected to do all the book analysis I did last year!
I drastically overestimated how much reading time I’d have this year, and I read only 21 books from my goal of 40. For 2014, I’ve set my goal at a conservative 26.
While I succeeded in my goal to read more nonfiction (9 books to last year’s 4) and came down even on books written before my birth (3 in both 2012 and 2013), I fell lamentably short in my goal to read more books by women and people of color.
A paltry 25% of the books I read were by women (5.5:16.5, counting “Attached” as half and half due to its co-authorship), and a mere 2 featured female protagonists, compared to 1 with male and female co-protagonists and 10 male. And of those pathetic two, one was a graphic novel and the other was a short story. Good lord, that’s embarrassing.
I read two books by people of color–one Arab-American and one Native American–compared to 20 by white authors, though one of the white authors is a Muslim writing about Arab protagonists.
In terms of publication history, 8 were published this year, an additional 7 came out within the last 10 years, 4 came out between 2002 and 1984, and 3 came out pre-Priscilla: Looking for Rachel Wallace (1980), Dimension of Miracles (1968), and The Autobiography of Black Hawk (1833).
Genre Breakdown
- Read more books, period.
- Read more books by and starring women and people of color
- Read more books written before my birth
- Continue to read a diverse selection of nonfiction subjects