Yesterday I started reading "Don't Let Anything Dull Your Sparkle: How To Break Free of Negativity & Drama" by Doreen Virtue. Although Doreen Virtue is known for her spiritual/new age books, this one (so far?) appears to be a non-spiritual book. At least, that's what I'm hoping for. One of the things I enjoy about human life is how events, thoughts, ideas, etc. all mix together in the mind and then sometimes combine to make a better idea or to create an epiphany. This happened to me yesterday. I was reading the Doreen Virtue book after spending hours listening to book-related podcasts (The Readers, Book Riot, and Books on the Nightstand to be precise). And that's when I read this:
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
1. Best book(s) I read in 2014: "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin
2. Most disappointing book of 2014: "The Art of Sleeping Alone" by Sophie Fontanel
3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2014: "Redshirts" by John Scalzi
4. Books I recommended most to people in 2014: "No Relation" by Terry Fallis
5. Best series I discovered in 2014: The 'Measure of Devotion' series by Caethes Faron
6. Favourite new author(s) of 2014: None this year
7. Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2014: All three books in the 'Measure of Devotion' series by Caethes Faron
8. Book I most anticipated in 2014: "No Relation" by Terry Fallis
9. Favourite cover of a book I read in 2014: "The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry" by Gabrielle Zevin
10. Most memorable character in 2014: Earnest Hemmingway from "No Relation" by Terry Fallis
11. Most beautifully written book of 2014: None this year
12. Best book that was out of my comfort zone or was a new genre for me in 2014: "Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking" by Benjamin Perrin
13. Book that had the greatest impact on me in 2014: "Do Less: A Minimalist Guide to a Simplified, Organized, and Happy Life" by Rachel Jonat
14. Book I can't believe I waited until 2014 to FINALLY read: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving
15. Book I read in 2014 that would most likely be reread in 2015: "The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality" by Julie Sondra Decker
16. Book that had a scene in it that had me reeling and dying to talk to someone about it? (A WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. No spoilers!): "Flee, Fly, Flown" by Janet Hepburn
Some fun stats:
Books completed: 54
Books by male authors: 19
Books by female authors: 35
Fiction: 29
Non-fiction: 25
Children's books: 3
YA books: 0
E-books: 24
Did not finish (DNF): 3
Re-reads: 1
Translated books: 2 (one Swedish, one French)
Big fat books (more than 500 pages): 0
Doing this year-end recap made it completely clear how much my reader's block affected my reading. There are questions I just can't answer. That hurts, actually. It makes me wish for a 2015 with much more reading that I did in 2014. I still haven't decided whether or not to participate in the 2015 Goodreads Reading Challenge. I want to because it keeps track of my books for the year for me and their data makes it easier to fill in my recap. Unfortunately, they don't provide as much data (book length, overall page total, etc.) as they used to. And although I want to read more than 50 books in 2015, I do not like failing at a challenge and don't want to have to edit my goal down from my original (something I had to do this year). I can always join it at a later date so I will continue to mull it over for now.
Here's to a merry book-filled year!
Read on,
Paula
