A simple reflection on the diversity of authors from my 2020 reading list.
A former colleague shared with me his goal for a more diverse 2020 reading list and his plan to “try harder to read books by people who are not like me”. I loved this idea and applied it to my own reading habits in 2020. I never paid much attention to the authors of the books I was reading before 2020.
I’ve done a very simple analysis based on their sex, ethnicity and whether the book was fiction or non-fiction. Shout out to Notion Parallax (Hi, Ben) for teaching me how to run his Python script.
My 2020 reading goals were:
- Read 1 book a month
- Read more fiction books
- Read more books by female authors
How diverse were the authors of the books I read?
Before my conversation with Ben, I never thought about reading more books by people not like me. I mean, most books on an English best selling list were by people not like me. Naturally I felt I was a step ahead in the diversity game by default. But it did make me more mindful of the authors of the books I was reading and to seek out authors from backgrounds I wasn’t familiar with.
According to the “compound diversity” analysis, I am proud of the books I read by female authors. I’ve learnt a lot from African American female authors and was able to get a glimpse into the adversities and challenges their history. I hope 2021 will include more diverse authors, especially Asian females.
Favourite books by female authors:
- Parable of the Sower (1993) — Octavia E. Butler
- Girl Woman Other (2019) — Bernadine Evaristo
- Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2009) — Barbara Demick
Fiction vs. Non Fiction
The last few years I’ve gone down the non fiction rabbit hole of business and self development books which made me feel like I always had to be learning something in a book otherwise I was wasting my time. I’m happy with the injection of fiction books I read in 2020. I realised how much I missed a good novel that gripped you emotionally and allowed you time to connect with the characters. It made me appreciate the imagination, creativity and story telling of the writers which I believe will help me a lot as a designer.
Favourite fiction books of 2020
- Girl Woman Other (2019) — Bernadine Evaristo
- A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) — John Kennedy Tool
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003) — Mark Haddon
Favourite non-fiction books of 2020
- Sapiens: A brief history of humankind (2011) — Yuval Noah Harari
- Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2009) — Barbara Demick
- Everything I know about Love (2020) — Dolly Alderton (this was an unexpected one)
My 2021 reading goals
- Read 2 books a month
- Keep the non fiction and fiction balance I had in 2020
- Read more books by Asian females
This was the first time I’ve done a retrospective on my reading list, mainly because I don’t know when the last time I read more than 4 books in a year was. It’s a nice way to look back and identify any patterns in my reading list that isn’t serving me well. One thing that the pandemic sure gave me was time to read. Looks like 2021 isn’t going to be much different but I’m excited to continue to be mindful of the books I read.
