Studies show that we can become traumatized by hearing about another person's trauma." (p.4)I realized that this is why I do not read as diversely as I could. I didn't know the exact reasoning behind why until now. Although I am sure that the books I pass up for this reason have their own merits and value in the world, I find I just cannot read books about abuse, violence, manipulative psychopaths, war, etc. Everyone has been raving about "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. I listened to the Overdue podcast episode about it just so someone who had read it would tell me what the big deal/secret was: manipulative psychopaths. Frequently, books by diverse authors and authors of colour are books about overcoming hardship. Typically, that hardship takes the form of abuse, violence, and/or war. "Beloved" by Toni Morrison deals with the topic of slavery, and according to the synopsis on Goodreads '[Sethe] has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened'. Who wants to read about hideous things? Despite reading the Book Riot article in defense of reading offensive books, I will continue to read whatever I want to read even if it's not as diverse as someone else thinks it should be. However, I am not saying I will never read a book that has diverse settings, topics, authors, etc. I voluntarily read "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee last year because it was not in my assigned reading in school. I enjoyed it very much. I'm guessing because it was pretty tame as far as racism goes and didn't have gory details. I do not like being scared; this is the reason why I don't read murder mysteries or crime novels either. Sure, I could read diversely and feel so much better about my somewhat-privileged white North American life. But as a person who reads for plot more than anything else, I highly doubt many diverse books would appeal to me. I recently read "The Book of Speculation" by Erika Swyler. If the main characters had been of a different ethnic background, I would still have enjoyed the book. I read and enjoyed "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. I enjoy a fair amount of LGBT writing, especially that of Ivan Coyote and Caethes Faron.
So I guess I could say that I read diversely in the same way that I read in general: by whim. If a book plot sounds attractive enough for me to read the book, I don't care about the gender and/or ethnicity of the author and/or characters. To me, reading is all about the content and plot.
Read on,
Paula
