Sunday, September 07, 2014

In Which I Participate: Diversiverse!

The fabulous Aarti is hosting A More Diverse Universe again this year, and I'm incredibly excited.  My to-read list is overflowing with good stuff that fits the criteria here--any book written by a person of color--and I have plenty of books that I've been itching to read, but that just never make it to the top of the pile.  So, I'm totally planning to overshoot here, and seriously even challenge the hell out of myself. 

Two full weeks of Diversiverse posts.  I'm going to stick to my (recent, consistent, and fingers-crossed) MWF posting schedule, and I'll have six posts during that two weeks.  I'm pretty psyched about this.

Now, I will admit that I do not expect to read all of those books in two weeks.  I am too slow, and there will be a book club meeting in that period.  But I have a couple of queued up reviews for books I've read recently, including some comics and novellas, and I'm reading an Aliette de Bodard novel right now.  I will definitely read at least one book that fits the criteria during the actual week.

I think the exciting part is that I've already started finding new authors because I'm going out proactively looking for this kind of work.  It's great that I'm digging people out of the TBR list who were already there and bringing their books up to the (teetering near the moon) top of the pile.  But to me, a lot of this is about finding new books I wouldn't have found, because their authors didn't cross my path or catch my eye.  I've already found one great new novella because I went exploring for this event, and I've added several comics I didn't know existed.

So, starting next Monday, two weeks in the Diversiverse!  I'll have a list and a schedule and everything.  Make sure to head over to Aarti's blog and check out all the activity for the event, including some cool suggestion lists she's already put together.  Welcome to a wider world, everyone!

2 comments:

Aarti said...

Hooray!! I am so glad you started digging and don't feel (too) uncomfortable seeking authors out based on different criteria. I'm very excited to see your six reviews, too! If everyone else posts multiple reviews as well, we could have over 200 reviews posted!!!

LibraryHungry said...

Oh, I'm not at all uncomfortable seeking authors out in new ways. The uncomfortable part was checking up on authors I'd run into anyway, to see whether, for example, the book with a POC heroine was written by a POC author (and in many cases, it wasn't). And honestly, that was mostly uncomfortable because I end up looking at a photo and thinking "well, she doesn't LOOK Latina or Pacific Islander," which seems like an awful way to approach things.

When it comes to checking out new sources, though, or letting authors catch my eye because I'm targeting diversity, when previously they might have flown under my radar--I'm actually having a lot of fun with that! New sources, new books, yay!