I’ve been thinking a lot about my goals for my reading in 2018. I’m not necessarily someone who likes to set a ton of New Years Resolutions because I mostly don’t keep them, but I think it’s important to critically evaluate the reading I’m doing to make sure I’m spending my time reading in a way that’s benefiting me. So these are just a few goals I have for myself in 2018.
1. Read More Nonfiction
Even though this is not my favorite genre, now that I’m out of school, for good, I feel like I should probably start learning the things no one bothered to teach me in school, to read books that challenge me and my thinking or further my feminist theory and knowledge, and let’s just go ahead and throw in some more celebrity memoirs for levity. Interestingly, it seems that audiobooks and non-fiction is apparently the best way for me to read this unfavored genre so we’ll see how it goes. Some of the books I would like to get through in 2018 include Bad Feministand Shrill.
2. Read More Male Authors
If your eyebrows have shot up because virtually everyone whose voice is loud (i.e. the book reviewers at The New York Times) need to be reading more women, I read virtually no books by men. Fewer than 10% of the books I read in 2017 were by men and while I would like to continue not reading too many white men, especially dead white men, I would like to be a little more even in my numbers. By which I mean, just achieve 10%. So for every ten books I read, I only have to read one book by a man. This seems do-able. I would like to read more Santino Hassell and The Serpent King by Jeff Zetner so perhaps they will help me achieve this goal.
3. Read More Adult Books
I’m a real adult now–cue the sobbing–so I should probably start reading books that have characters in their–oh God–late 20s. But 26 is mid-twenties, right? So maybe just more New Adult. LOL, I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THIS GOAL, Y’ALL. We’ll figure it out though. It’ll be fine. Basically just read more books with women who are not 18 or younger. I read plenty of adult romance, so I’ve got that aspect covered, but I’m still reading so much YA fantasy and contemporary. I need to find adult books, including literary fiction, that I actually enjoy and can relate to the characters as they are in the book rather than my 17 year old self being like, “Hey! That’s me!” We’ll see.
4. Re-Read Books More
I’ve made myself a list, that I haven’t posted here yet, of 18 books I would like to re-read in 2018 because I’ve realized I’m quite terrible at re-reading my books anymore. I used to love to do that, but I haven’t re-read Pride and Prejudice, for example, since undergrad probably. At one point, I’d re-read it so many times my book fell apart. So it’s time for some re-reading to happen and to be a part of my life again. I’m really looking forward to this concentrated effort even though I’m also a bit nervous about re-reading Harry Potter after all this time.
5. Read More Diversely
I thought I’d done a pretty good job reading more diversely this year and that I just had a few trouble spots to sort out in 2018 and to an extent, I guess that’s true, but I didn’t even manage to hit 25% of my books being from authors of color in 2017. I was close, kind of. At the time I’m writing this I had read 48 books from authors of color out of 238. So, not really that close. But I’m also in the middle of four more books by authors of color I’m hoping to complete in the next three days. Wish me luck.
Anyway, due to reading most of Courtney Milan and Alisha Rai’s backlists, the amount of books I read by Asian American authors was significantly higher than any other demographic. I need to read more books by Latinx and Native authors in 2018 especially, but I need to increase the amount of books read by all marginalized racial/ethnic groups significantly. I would like to shoot for somewhere between 25-50%. I know that’s a wide range, but I’m bad at making goals, okay?
I would also like to read books by and about nonbinary, intersex, asexual, and trans characters next year. I read a total of seven books that meet those categories, which I think is mildly pathetic. I know there isn’t the largest selection of books about characters belonging to these marginalization, but there are definitely more than I’ve read. I’m definitely hoping to get to Tash Hearts Tolstoy next year.
Finally, I would like to read more books with characters who are neurodiverse and/or experience some sort of physical limitation/disability. I’m less concerned about hitting a specific number goal here because if I don’t beat five I’m concerned, but I do want to read more books that have this representation in them. One book I’m excited to hopefully get to in 2018 is You’re Welcome Universe, but I welcome any and all recommendations in this category.
I don’t know if that seems like a lot of goals to you, but I’m pretty excited to make sure that I’m doing better about making conscious decisions about the books I choose to read next year. I want to be more deliberate in both the books I pick up from the library as well as the ones I buy to ensure that I am able to meet these goals. Do you have any reading goals in 2018? Let me know in the comments down below!
xx
firewhiskeyreader 