I decided to go through the list of books I read last year, compiling data. I used the incredibly scientific method of thinking up some interesting categories on the drive back from a day trip to the coast and putting books into those categories as I saw fit. The results?
Total Books Read: 51
Novels: 24
Written by American White Guys: 29
Short Story Collections: 6 (I also read or listened to around 100 additional short stories)
Poetry Collections: 2
Translated Books: 6
Written by Women: 3(ouch)
Non-Fiction: 12
Plays: 5
Essays or Essay Collections: 5
Illuminating. Before collecting this data, I figured I needed to read mainly more nonfiction and works in translation. The fact that only 5.8% of the books I read last year were written by women totally escaped my notice (although one of my big goals for reading last year was to get up-to-speed on my knowledge of the American literary canon, so…).
2015 will see me seeking out more:
Female authors, especially in translation.
Poetry.
Books in translation.
Books published in the last 10-15 years.
Happy reading, everybody!
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