This year I decided that I was going to keep close track of what I read. I have made other half-hearted attempts in years past but I always gave up around this time. Had several reasons for wanting to keep track. The big one for me was that I wanted o make sure that I read widely. Iknow if left to my own devices that I would default to old white men. I want to be “well-read” and that is hard if you are cousinly or unconsciously limiting who you read.
I also tend to skew toward the nonfiction. O.K I will be honest, y the new agey self-helps stuff. You would never know my parents are fundmenlisy=t Christians if you were to see my books and listen to me talk. Nothing WRONG with this expectation that I want to read some art also. I read enough new agey stuff t get me through this life si I think I am good.
Another problem have I had no way of specifically tracking who my trusted source of books when. It seemed every book was a hit or miss. Either I DNF it or in the case of Internet Famous leave a scathing review and be angry that I cant get the time I spent on that sorry piece of crap back. I was overjoyed when Sarah of Sarah bookshelves made a tracker that kept track of all of this. Especially my god to sources and which sources to stay far far far away from. After this year I am hoping that I will have a better understanding of who I like and why.
Ok Confession time I have
Kindle Unlimited
Audible
Audible romance Package
Scribed
Amazon Prine
Ok, I have a problem I know. I do which is why I am taking steps to correct the problem. Initially, Sarah tracker couldn’t track EXACTLY where the book came from but she was nice and added them for me! Now I will be able to see which services are really benefiting me and which ones that are turning out to be a giant money suck. As all my friends love to say I make to much money to be as broke as I am all the time. I just need to be able to see all the data laid out for me and then it will be easier to cut them. I hope.
I feel that Sarah’s Rock Your Reading tracker is with every penny. It has helped me see that I tend to go to a dead white dude and new hey stuff and guess what ELSE I learned. Every single person I have read this year is white! I was flabbergasted as I KNOW there are people of color writing great books but it seems that unless I pay attention I go for dead white dudes. I blame my college education.my English proffers loved to be all like you read who?? You can try the *name of dead white dude* for your paper instead. So in my head, I have a heavy bias. That is good to know and I wouldn’t have realized that without the tracker.
As readers, it is up to use to support the authors that we want to be a success and I don’t know about you but I want to live in a world where Ursula Ginn get the same reversal treatment as say.Chaucer. That can’t and won’t happen unless I made a couscous decision to support authors of color.
I challenge you to go and pick up an author that you would have never picked up otherwise and do your small part in making the literary world just a tiny more diverse.
