Reading this blog post (and the original
article mentioned) about diversity in reading material recently got me thinking
about how my choices away from the straight/white/cis/male author arena stack
up. And as I have the last few years-worth
of reading handily listed in posts here it is clear I’m not doing very well! It does get a bit better when you throw in
the Selected Shorts podcasts as I have been downloading and listening to them
for a couple of years, and they do cover a good spectrum of gender, ethnicity
and (presumably) sexuality of authors in the stories they present. But then, this is not something I have ever
really thought about before and has certainly never been a factor in choosing
what to buy and read for me.
I’m not sure why though. When it comes to non-fiction I guess there
aren’t that many women writing about the history of bus services or fighter
planes or some of the other subjects that fascinate me but that doesn’t mean I
won’t be looking out for them from now on.
Of course in some areas it is going to be decidedly tricky to be more
diverse - the fact that nobody other
than straight white men went to the moon makes it hard to read an autobiography
outside that category and I’ve not seen any books about them from the female
perspective either. But there have been
female and coloured astronauts since then so one of those must have a book out there. And I have got Lilly Koppel’s “The Astronaut’s
Wives Club” sat on the shelf waiting for me to pick it up. Indeed I have actually done two ladies in my
non-fiction this year already (Amanda Palmer – The Art Of Asking and Harriet Tuckey
– Everest) and have a couple more in the waiting pile.
However, one thing I don’t often do in
non-fiction reading is seek out other books by the same author unless they are
on similar subjects or again look interesting.
For a (s/w/c/m) example – Charlie Connolly has written about the
shipping forecast, Elvis and walking in three books I really enjoyed, but also
about football in which I have no interest so will never delve into. But I am going to be more pro-active here in
future, especially when I find a non-fiction writer of the
gay/coloured/female/trans (not necessarily all at once!) persuasion I enjoy the
works of.
Fiction-wise I guess I have done better over
the years, as I do enjoy female writers. Anne McCaffrey, Jean M. Auel, Julian May and
Katherine Kerr are particular favourites in the fantasy/sci-fi field, and as
the basic unit of book there is the fat trilogy (often with many more than
three books) there have been years they have dominated. But when it comes to different ethnicities
etc. I again admit to falling flat. Mind
you, I’d read two or three of his books before I discovered Mike Gayle was
black, so there may be other surprises on my shelves. But, despite listening to the short stories
from Selected Shorts, I have not dashed out to buy anything from any of the
authors featured other than those I was already a fan of. Some of this must be from wanting the written
equivalent of comfort food from my fiction.
I have heard tales of growing up black in the south, or as an oriental
woman transformed into a mutant silkworm or whatever, but haven’t always found them enjoyable. I think this is partly linked to my
depression in that I see racial or religious strife on the news, and don’t want
that when I’m trying to escape for a few pages.
In the same way that I know enough of the history of domestic service in
the UK to never want to watch Downton Abbey, I am OK with a chapter or
undercurrent about it in a history of country houses but wouldn’t want a story
set amongst the occupants of such a home.
(Heck, I struggle with servants being abused in fantasyland castles, but
then I’m already accepting dragons and wizards so I know it is not real people
suffering).
So the question is, am I going to
challenge myself to only read books by non-white/straight/cis males for a
year? Answer, no. But I am going to attempt to mix things up
more. The main reason for this being
that I have already set myself the challenge of not buying any more books until
I’ve got through a significant percentage of my unread collection. And I know most of that will not pass. But then I don’t have the same issues
with books by w/s/c/m authors that others do so avoiding them is not a way of
improving my life or avoiding uncomfortable things. But who knows, when I do let myself start
buying books again, perhaps things will be over a much wider spectrum…
