In 2018, I challenged myself to read 80 books. I managed to sneak an 81st book in yesterday.
Here’s a break down of the types of books I read in 2018.
The Breakdown
1.) By Genre
I primarily read Speculative Fiction, but there were a few other genres thrown in this year.
- Speculative Fiction (Includes SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror, both Adult and YA): 35
- Manga/Comics: 40
- Memoir: 3
- Self-Help/Lifestyle: 1
- True Crime: 1
- Mythology: 1
I also partially read a few different non-fiction books while doing research, but as I have read them completely, I didn’t include them in my reading challenge.
2.) By Language of Origin
I’m trying to branch out and read more translated works. I didn’t do the best job this year, especially considering that the vast majority of the translated works I read were Japanese Manga, but it’s something to work on in 2019.
- English: 53
- Translated from Mandarin: 1
- Translated from Japanese: 27
3.) By Author’s Gender
A couple of years ago, when I looked at the books I’d be reading, I noticed I’d fallen into the habit of reading predominately white, male authors. Again, I’m trying to diversify my reading and while I’m not as diverse a reader as I’d like to be, I’m getting better. Looking at the numbers below, I kind of feel like I failed, but then I remember that more than half of the books I read by male authors were manga written by the same man. Still, I want to especially work on reading more books by trans authors and authors who fall outside the gender binary of male/female.
- Male: 45
- Female: 33
- Non-Binary/Gender Fluid: 2
- Transgender: 1
There are definitely other categories I could break these down into such as whether authors are POC, whether authors are LGBTQA+, the diversity of their characters, but to be honest, I’m starting to get lazy and it all boils down to the same thing: I want to read across a wide variety of experiences, I want to seek out stories that aren’t the straight, white, male default that we’re all accustomed to. So my goal in 2019 is to do that. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop reading books written by white men, but that I’m going to start read more beyond that narrow view of the world.
What are your reading goals for 2019?
Thank you for reading.