Diversifying my reading list

Last year, I read an article on XOJane entitled “35 Practical Steps Men Can Take To Support Feminism.” I consider myself a feminist, but being a male feminist often means regularly relearning that you have a long ways to go when it comes to understanding and supporting feminism. Thankfully, I’m lucky to have many amazing women in my life—my wife chief among them—who challenge me to consistently better my comprehension of feminist issues and struggles. So, I read lists like this hoping to push myself to even better understand the issues.

This XOJane list has a bunch of great advice for men seeking to support feminism, I think, but as someone who works in publishing and reads a ton of books, #3 (“Consume cultural products produced by women”) really jumped out at me. I thought, “I totally do that!” Then I thought about the large “to read” pile of books I have at home. Sure, no one’s gonna argue that Kurt Vonnegut or Elmore Leonard aren’t great writers that you should be reading, but it hit me: My “to read” list was white guy, old white guy, white guy, oldest white guy, white guy, and so on. I was disappointed in myself. I hadn’t specifically chosen to pick up a bunch of books solely written by white men, but I had.

Seeking to fix this problem, I took to facebook and twitter and asked for recommendations of great female writers. Taking those recommendations and my own research to the book store over the past year, I’ve since tackled these books by excellent female writers…

California

Cuckoo’s Calling

Oryx and Crake

The Handmaid’s Tale

Yes Please

The Rape of Nanking

We Should All Be Feminists

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

Orange is the New Black: My Year in Women’s Prison

And I’m currently reading Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay.

I know it sounds incredibly obvious, but as soon as I began reading more female writers I realized just how much I’d been limiting the voices I was reading. There are thousands of amazing writers out there, each with their own voice, own perspective, and own style to offer. But, what I realized when I began reading more women was that I’d doubled the amount of amazing voices, styes, and perspectives I was getting. I was getting insight into characters substantially different than male writers deliver, I was getting new stories, I was getting new voices. In short, I was getting a better reading experience and learning more about writing by expanding what and who I was reading.

Branching out to more female writers has also diversified the types of books I’ve been reading. I’ve read more nonfiction, memoirs, and essays this year than I have in the past. It’s been a really enriching year of reading. I highly recommend you take a look at your “to read” pile and mix it up.

Next up for me: trying to work in many more non-white writers, both male and female. In my search to diversify the gender of writers I was reading, I fell into the same trap I’d previously fallen into and my to read pile, while not all white, is lacking diversity from a race perspective. Looks like, while my intentions were good, it’s still best to check yourself every so often and reevaluate your (in this case) reading habits. Hopefully, if I keep that up, I’ll insure I’m always keeping a variety of diverse voices in the mix.

For those who are interested, here’s the entire list of female writers and specific books by female writers that were recommended to me. I’ve got some work to do!

The Secret History

A Visit from the Goon Squad

The Corpse Had A Familiar Face

Pretty Monsters

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt

The Group

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

The Girl in the Road

Storykiller

Divergent

Wild

This One Summer

Gone Girl

The Shining Girls

Kindred

On the Woods

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