I don’t think I am the only reader out there that loves stats. I am constantly wondering how books fit into my end of year statistics. I even have a page on my blog where you can look at my stats from the past few years. I have a spreadsheet full of all the books I have read so I can easily create pivot tables and graphs. It seems like book bloggers pay close attention to genres, genders and cultural diversity, which is great, but there is something problematic about this. I am not saying we shouldn’t strive to balance out our reading lives but I recently discovered something interesting about my own reading life.
I recently had a book-buying binge and I went into a local indie bookstore and walked out with eight new books. I didn’t look up the authors or read the backs of the books, I just picked books I have heard were good by readers I know and trust. I love the impulse buying part going into a store and just picking up whatever I want. As an experiment try it, see what books you end up with; it reveals a lot about your reading preferences.
Out of the eight books I picked up, two were translations, two female authors, one YA and one graphic novel. I probably can go deeper and looking into where every author was born but I think I’ll stop there. I didn’t even think about diversity or anything like that when I bought the books, I just wanted these books, they were available and I bought them. Two books I bought were ones I’ve read before and plan to read again; I just wanted to make sure I had my own copies of those books.
I agree we should be more diverse in our reading but maybe we should just enjoy reading on impulse rather than closing the gaps. I plan to read more translated novels but maybe a reading challenge is a better way of spreading our literary tastes rather than putting so much pressure on ourselves. I know this is a controversial topic and I am all for diversity, I just want to be free to read what I want when I want, I bought these books and only realised the lack of diversity afterwards.
What do others think? I know there are holes in my reading life but should I be so worried about them? Do you wonder the same thing? Do you worry about the gaps in your reading life and do you have any methods of being stress free?
Note: I’m not saying we shouldn’t be diverse in our reading, I think that is still important. I just think we shouldn’t feel guilty about the books we buy; especially if we don’t pay attention to the author when choosing.
Title: 84 Charing Cross Road (