Because I didn’t want to do work today, I thought I’d look at books that I’d ranked five stars since 2007, when I started keeping track of what I was reading again (I had previously, but stopped formally in 1995, only ranking books now and then on Amazon before I moved all my rankings over to LibraryThing in 2010). I can read all sorts of diverse books but it’s interesting to see my subconscious bias in what I really loved.
So…
- I have 189 five star rated books on LibraryThing
- 41% are by women;
- 26% are by POC (I kind of want to popularize AOC as Authors of Colour but I don’t think it’s going to catch on);
- 4% are by GLBTQ authors.
So, ouch. Especially GLBTQ – even if this number is an underestimation (not everyone’s sexuality is openly divulged on wikipedia entries so unless it was explicitly stated somewhere I didn’t include it), that’s still pretty poor. If anything, since many of my favourite books are ones I read growing up, especially in what is now considered the YA genre, it shows how white, male my reading growing up was. That I didn’t even get to 50% women also makes me feel squicky inside.
So my internal bias needs to be overcome. Obvious solution, read lots of women, POC, and GLBTQ authors to find more favourites amongst those groups. Expand my mind! Expand my tastes! As always, recommendations welcome.