Ten Changes in My Bookish Life Since 2010

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

In celebration of the Top Ten Tuesday linkup turning 10, we're revisiting a topic we missed the first time around (or want to redo). I skipped this one last year, and it seemed particularly appropriate for this 10-year anniversary celebration: How has my bookish life changed in the last 10 years?

1. I started using Goodreads.
I had held out for several years because I had all my books and reviews on another site and I thought it would be a pain to switch, and then that site shut down and took all my data with it! So I set myself up with a Goodreads profile and since then have rated and reviewed just about every book I've read in the last 7 years — over 800 reviews!

2. I joined several different book clubs, two of which I'm still part of.
About a year after we moved to Portland, I read the book MWF Seeking BFF, which made me think to start seeking out book clubs for a first time. I tried out several local ones through Meetup before settling on one that I've been part of ever since, and I simultaneously found an online book club that I've also been with for the past 7 years. I've been part of a few others throughout the years that have formed and then disbanded, but these two have been constants. I try to never miss a meeting and to always read the book!

3. I switched to digital formats for the vast majority of my books.
I talked about this way back in 2014, and since my son was born in 2015 my opportunities to read hard copy books have been drastically reduced, so now the percentage of books consumed digitally (ebook and audiobook) is even larger. Thank goodness for OverDrive!

4. I started tracking and intentionally diversifying the books I read.
In 2014, I made an intentional effort to diversify the race, gender, and nationality of the authors whose works I read and the protagonists of the fiction books I read. This involved creating a spreadsheet to track these details from every book listed under my Goodreads profile at the time, which I've since added to as I read more books. It's been a good exercise in keeping myself accountable so that I'm not reading just book by and about white Americans.

5. I started this book blog.
A Cocoon of Books launched in September 2014! At the time I didn't know the blog would be almost entirely Top Ten Tuesday, Quick Lit, and Best of the Bunch linkup posts, but I'm OK with that — I knew I didn't want to post my book reviews here since I was already using Goodreads for that, so it's worked out well.

6. I started setting annual goals for my reading.
As part of Top Ten Tuesday — which used to have a topic at the beginning of each year to generate ten goals for the year, but hasn't in recent years — I've set goals around my reading life every year. At times these can feel constraining, but they can also push me toward books or genres I wanted to read anyway, get outside my comfort zone, and give me permission to read things I otherwise might not make time for.

7. I read tons of new picture books.
After my son was born in 2015, I got rid of a ton of old books on PaperBackSwap and used the credits to start filling his bookshelf. In addition to classics from my own childhood, I sought out books with diverse representation, most of which have come out within the last decade. For some of the more in-demand books that have long waiting lists on PaperBackSwap, I've put them on his Christmas and birthday lists. This has given me the opportunity to read lots of great contemporary picture books that I otherwise wouldn't have had reason to pick up!

8. I made my "to read" list less of a "to do" list.
When I realized that my to-read shelf on Goodreads was stressing me out, I stopped adding books to it and made a "might-want-to-read" shelf where I started putting everything. Just recently I moved a bunch of books from that original to-read list to my might-want-to-read list, so now I feel less pressure to read some of the books I was no longer as interested in.

9. I set up a special reading area for myself.
When we moved into a larger apartment, I wanted to make an area dedicated to reading. (I think I got this idea from a book, but I don't know which one.) I got an old stuffed chair my parents were getting rid of and decorated the wall behind it with bookish items — a poster, a shelf of our Harry Potter books, and a clock that says, "Too many books, too little time." The chair has an organizer over one arm where I keep my Kindle and my bookmarks. I don't get a lot of chances to sit and read, but it still makes me happy to have this special space for my favorite activity.

10. I stopped owning books I haven't read.
After clearing out many of my old books after my son was born, I was able to get my unread stack down to a manageable amount, which I read through over the next few years. I try very hard now not to add anything to my shelf unless it's a book I've already read and loved so much that I want a physical copy to be able to reference or lend to others.

What has changed for you in the last 10 years?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Warmth of Other Suns
Five years ago I was reading: The Miracle Worker, Angle of Repose, and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
Ten years ago I was reading: Everything Is Illuminated

Books that Take Place in Another Country

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Welp, this is quite a large category. I know I haven't always done a great of diversifying my reads, but I've read books that take place in at least 40 different countries, according to the stats I keep. Here are some of my favorites!

Afghanistan: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

China: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Egypt: Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi

India: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

Ireland: In the Woods by Tana French

Italy: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Norway: Hunger by Knut Hamsun

Russia: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Sudan: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

Sweden: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

What books from other countries have you enjoyed?

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Ten Great Novels Featuring Women of Color

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's theme is the open-ended "Ten Books That Feature Characters _________." I don't know about you, but I know that my reading skews way too heavily white and male (especially in a year like this, when I'm trying to read more of the "classics"). I thought I'd take this opportunity to highlight some of my favorite works of fiction told from the viewpoint of a woman (or women) of color. Most of the authors are also women of color. (LaCour, Talley, and Hosseini are not.)

1. American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Through the story of a Haitian immigrant coming to live with her cousins in inner-city Detroit, we get the perspectives of multiple complex female characters who are trying to survive with bad options on all sides.

2. The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
This story is told from two perspectives: Ruth, a first-generation Chinese-American woman, and LuLing, her mother. As an old woman, LuLing is difficult to live with and presents constant struggles for Ruth, but through LuLing's journal of her childhood in China we (and Ruth) gain a richer understanding of her life and personality.

3. Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
This is one of my favorite books I've read this year. Emi's identity as a biracial lesbian isn't central to the plot, but neither is her character like a straight white YA protagonist with some adjectives and pronouns changed.

4. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Obviously this list would not be complete without this powerhouse of a contemporary classic. If you haven't picked it up yet, it's time.

5. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
This novel is based on the true story of the Mirabal sisters, who took on the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960. It's told from the perspective of the fourth sister, the only one not assassinated by the government.

6. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
Told as a series of short poems aimed at the middle grade level, this is the story of a Vietnamese girl whose family emigrates to the United States right before the fall of Saigon in 1975.

7. Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Sarah Dunbar is one of a few black students chosen to integrate an all-white Virginia high school in 1959. Her experience of brutal harassment closely matches what Melba Pattillo Beals describes in the memoir Warriors Don't Cry... except for the part where Sarah falls in love with a white girl.

8. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
I still maintain that this should be the definitive book read in schools about racism in the 1930s American South, as it's just as good or better than To Kill a Mockingbird but it's told from a black girl's perspective instead of a white one's (and her black father is the hero).

9. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
This is a beautiful and painful story of female friendship set in rural 19th-century China. It's also powerful for its insights into the lives of women at that time and place.

10. A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini
This book is really, really dark and depressing, but its unflinching portrayal of women in Afghanistan is ultimately rewarding. Mariam and Laila are both excellent characters who will take hold of your heart.

Which are your favorite novels featuring women of color?

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What's on My To-Read List (and How Did It Get There)?

It's been a long time since I did a non-linkup post! Originally I envisioned doing more of these kinds of posts, but apparently I need the structure. Ah well.

The last time I shared some data on my personal reading was back in 2014, when I shared information on how my preferred book formats have changed over time and how I fit reading into an average week (a topic I definitely need to revisit now that I'm a parent!). This time around, I decided to take a look at my to-read list, which you may remember that I capped at the beginning of 2016 after creating a new "might want to read" list, which feels a lot less obligatory. What's left on the original list and why is it there?

I grouped the books into rough categories of why I put them on my list in the first place. (Some could definitely be in more than one category, but I picked the primary reason I put them on my list.) Here are the books I'm planning to read, and why I plan to read them.

Classics I Should Read: 55
I wrote a whole post previously on why I read classic books, and there are many that I'd still like to read. Some of these made it onto my goals for the year, like The Sun Also Rises, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Bleak House. Some are less obvious, like Silent Spring and We Need to Talk About Kevin. They're books that I see over and over again on lists of "100 books to read before you die" and "books to be well read." When I feel like there's a gap in my base of classic books, it goes on my list.

Diversifying My Reading: 42
A bunch of books ended up on my list during my 2014 project to diversify my reading, and I didn't get around to all of them. I'm still interested in reading books like In Search of April Raintree, The Mis-Education of the Negro, and Girl in Translation.

Books that Sound Interesting: 35
I'm a sucker for good nonfiction, so a lot of books are on my list because I think I'll learn something interesting from them. Books like The Discoverers, How the Irish Became White, Team of Rivals, and The New Jim Crow all fall into this category.

Books I Keep Seeing Recommended: 33
These are books that I see repeatedly not because they're classics but because they're popular. Books in this category include YA books that show up on a lot of Top Ten Tuesday posts, like The Raven Boys and Throne of Glass; books that Modern Mrs. Darcy and her readers recommend a lot, like Bel Canto and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day; and contemporary books that I've just seen show up in articles and book reviews a lot, like Cutting for Stone and The Light Between Oceans.

Highly Rated Books: 20
One of my 2016 reading resolutions was to read some books I'd never heard of that were highly rated by a lot of people on Goodreads. I didn't end up getting through very many in 2016, so I still have books like The Way of Kings, The Winds of War, and Imperium on my to-read list.

Books that Sound Enjoyable to Read: 16
These are books that I put on my list not to learn things or brush up on classics or expand my reading horizons, but simply because they sounded like I'd enjoy reading them. These include mysteries like Gaudy Night and A Kiss Before Dying, children's books like Howl's Moving Castle and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, and humor books like Girt and Notes from a Small Island.

Books that Sound Helpful to Read: 12
These books could be broadly considered "self-help," but they range from books about parenting (It's OK Not to Share and Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child) and relationships (Getting the Love You Want) to books about faith (Amazing Grace and For the Life of the World) and psychology (Feeling Good and 10% Happier).

Books from the BBC's Big Read List: 12
Every so often a list goes around claiming that "the BBC thinks you've only read 6 of these books!" This list is loosely based on an actual list that the BBC compiled based on their 2003 Big Read survey in the UK. I added a number of these books to my to-read list after I uncovered the original list, as a kind of combination of diversifying my reading, reading classics, and reading well-loved books I wasn't familiar with. These include The Magus, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, and Katherine.

Personal Recommendations: 5
One of my 2015 reading goals was to read through the books that had been personally recommended to me over the years, and I got through most of them, but there are a handful left, including The Blue Castle, Maurice, and Bitter in the Mouth. (A lot of books people recommend to me are already on my to-read list for other reasons, or there would be a lot more in this category!)

Holy Texts: 3
Another 2015 reading goal was to read holy texts from other religions. I read The Qur'an, The Book of Mormon, Tao Te Ching, and The Bhagavad-Gita, but I'm still interested to read The Rig Veda, The Upanishads, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

So there you go! It's interesting to see how much of my to-read list is based on specific reading goals I've had the past few years. Maybe next time I set a goal I should be more circumscribed in how many books I try to tackle for that goal!

I now have 515 books on my "might want to read" list, but it's only these 235 from my original to-read list that I'm determined to finish, which I'm guessing will take me about five years. This year I'm mostly focusing on the Classics category, as I hate coming across references in other books that assume I've read a classic book and/or spoil something in it. I also want to tackle more of the Books I Keep Seeing Recommended so I'll have more to discuss with other readers. (It's so frustrating when multiple people ask, "Have you read X?" and I have to keep saying, "No, it's on my list!") Outside of that, the rest are for my own interest, enjoyment, or learning, so I can read them in tandem with other books that I'm interested in from my ever-growing "might want to read" list.

I'd be interested to hear where your to-read list comes from. Have I inspired you to sort your own books into categories? If so, please share your own findings in comments!

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Top Ten Books I Wish Had More Women in Them

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is "Top Ten Books I Wish Had (More/Less) X In Them." Looking over my previously read books, most have a balance of male and female characters. What's interesting is that the books with primarily female characters tend to be called "chick lit" (in a disparaging way), while those with primarily male characters are more likely to be labeled "classics." With that in mind, here are ten male-centric books that could have benefited from more female characters.

1. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
There is one great female character in this book, Pella, but the majority of the action revolves around Henry, Mike, Guert, and Owen. True, it's about a college (men's) baseball team, but the attention paid to the various romantic subplots as well as the explorations of depression, substance abuse, and academics make it clear that there was plenty of room for at least one other female character to play a role in this hefty novel.

2. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
OK, don't tell me there were no women involved in World War II. (Have you read Code Name Verity?) And there are a number of women in this book, but they're all described in sexual terms (except for a few who are merely pathetic and helpless), and most of them seem to be sex-crazed without any care for who they're sleeping with. If you can have a character named Major Major Major Major, you could have thrown in at least one female character who had some purpose other than prostitution.

3. A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron
Even though this book's frequently reincarnated protagonist spends one lifetime as a female dog, the remaining incarnations are male, so the book description (and everyone in my book club discussion) refers to him as male. His closest relationship is with a boy (and later with the same boy as a man), and even as a female dog his/her owner is male, with only a brief spell spent with a woman. With so much flexibility in the plot (literally every new life is a different story!), it didn't have to lean so heavily male.

4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
There are some female characters in this book, but they're mostly tangential, tragic characters. The narrator of the book's outer frame is Robert Walton (male), who listens to the story of Victor Frankenstein (male), which includes a long passage by Frankenstein's monster (male). Frankenstein does start to make a female monster but then tears it up. I'm kind of surprised that the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft couldn't find a way to include some active female characters; even Dracula, written by a man, has more central female characters.

5. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The majority of this book is inside the head of the perpetually anxious and/or stoned Theo, but there are some other characters with major roles: Boris, his sketchy Russian friend, and Hobie, the substitute father figure. The primary female character, Pippa, is mostly important for the space she holds in Theo's mind after he sees her briefly, not for anything she herself does during the book. Why do the two men get to alter Theo's life in active ways while Pippa only affects it by passively existing somewhere?

6. The Hobbit / The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
One of the reasons I put off reading the Lord of the Rings series for so long was that I read The Hobbit after reading David Eddings' fantasy series and found it sorely lacking in female characters in comparison. Once I did finally get around to the series, I found that there were a handful of good female characters, but they were still few and far between and mostly there to be beautiful. I think I would have liked the series much better if it had had a character like Polgara the Sorceress in a starring role.

7. How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
I get that this is supposed to be a "boy's book," what with the dragons and the fighting and the bodily functions. But there's no reason that boys can't read about girls training dragons too. With a little more imagination I think Cowell could have made this book just as entertaining with more female characters.

8. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Pretty much the only substantial female character in this book is Jude's social worker, and she's dead when the book opens. The book focuses on four male friends from college, but in this behemoth of a novel that spans decades, we encounter lots of other characters, almost all of whom are male, from Jude's law professor to his neighbor/friend to his abusive boyfriend to the monks that raised him. The handful of female characters have minor side roles as people's wives, old college friends, and one-night stands. Surely some of them could have been written to have a more substantial role.

9. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
I love this book, but most of the main characters are male: Milo, Tock, The Humbug, King Azaz, The Mathemagician... Only the princesses (Rhyme and Reason) are female, in a stereotypically storybook way. Almost all the side characters are male, too, except for the wicked Faintly Macabre. A world as creative and fantastical as this one could certainly have more starring roles for women.

10. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
This is another book I love, but I can't deny that it's lacking in significant female characters. John's mother is really the only one with any substance, and she dies early on, so her significance ends up being more as a symbol than as a principal actor. The other female characters — Hester, Harriet (John's grandmother), the servants, Barb Wiggin — mostly exist for comic relief. John doesn't have serious life conversations with them like he has with Owen, Dan, and the Rev. Louis Merrill, which is a shame. In contrast, we hear that his best friend as an adult is the Rev. Katherine Keeling, but we rarely get to hear from her directly.

Which books would you add more female characters to?

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Ten Books Set Outside the United States

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

I try to read a mix of books set in the United States and elsewhere, sometimes more intentionally than not. Here are ten books I've enjoyed that are set outside the U.S.

1. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Sweden and elsewhere)
The protagonist of this ridiculous and hilarious story starts off in Sweden, but the book ranges around the world as we learn about his life of getting unintentionally embroiled in major political events of the 20th century. At 100, his adventures aren't over — nor are they any less ridiculous or far-flung.

2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan, France, and Greece)
Some sections of this book are set in the U.S., but most of it takes place elsewhere in the world. It's a collection of fictional, interconnected stories that together tell a sprawling story of family and opportunity across multiple decades and countries.

3. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (India)
Boo spent about four years living among the people in a Mumbai slum and recording their lives, and the resulting book is a heartbreaking but important read. It won't provide you with easy answers, but it will give you a thorough understanding of why the climb out of poverty isn't a simple (or sometimes even a possible) one.

4. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (Australia)
I love Moriarty's writing, and this is my favorite of her books to date (though I have a hold on Truly Madly Guilty, which comes out later this month!). School politics, bullying, and domestic violence are by no means limited to the United States, as we see in this cleverly crafted and ultimately relatable mystery.

5. The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (Afghanistan)
This is a well-written middle grade novel about an Afghani girl who dresses as a boy in order to support her family after her father is taken by the Taliban. Although the external threats she faces are very real, the plot is driven not by action-packed reactions to external conflict but primarily through her own internal struggles as she learns to have courage to do what she needs to do to get by and help her family.

6. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom (Netherlands and Germany)
This memoir of a Dutch woman during World War II was incredibly moving and inspiring. Her faith, and that of her sister, led them to risk everything while trusting that God would be with them, even in the midst of a concentration camp.

7. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
The characters in this book are from the United States, but the book is set largely in what was then Belgian Congo. This missionary family thinks they're bringing everything they need with them, but they soon find out that neither their garden nor their Gospel can be wholly transported to another continent and left intact.

8. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (England)
I'm currently reading Never Let Me Go, which reminded me of this other book by Ishiguro that I enjoyed so much. It's an incredibly sweet book told from the perspective of an English butler reflecting over his career and specifically his "strictly professional" (as he keeps insisting) relationship with the housekeeper he worked with for so long.

9. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (China)
This beautiful and painful story of friendship is set in rural 19th-century China. This book is powerful not just for its depictions of friendship, but for its insights into the lives of women at this time and place, something I only knew a little bit about going in.

10. Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (Japan)
This memoir (written as a novel) tells of the author's experiences at a unique school in Japan in the 1940s where children were encouraged to explore their natural interests and were taught many lessons from everyday experiences. It reminded me a lot of the Ramona Quimby books I loved as a child.

What are some of your favorite books set outside the United States?

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Why Making a Public Commitment to Read Diversely Isn't a Bad Thing

I've been thinking about a recent article from the often-controversial Jezebel titled (sarcastically), "Damn, You're Not Reading Any Books by White Men This Year? That's So Freakin Brave and Cool." I can't promise that this post isn't at least partially a defensive response in light of my year of intentionally reading diversely (2014). But it got me thinking more generally about why we read, why we set goals, and why we talk about our goals, and I wanted to share my thoughts.

The writer makes two main points, as I understand it. The first point is that while there is a definite problem in the publishing world of things skewing white and male (and straight and able-bodied and so on), these resolutions tend to be more about the person making them and how they as an individual will be changed by the experience. The second point is that when you do things that are good for you, you should not publicize them. In other words, you should privately start reading a more diverse selection of books, and then simply let that inform the range of books you mention, recommend, etc.

To the first point, I say, yes, that is true. Resolutions are about the person making them. But... is that a problem? There is definitely a need to push back against the norms of publishing, such as by supporting organizations like We Need Diverse Books. But the major way an individual pushes back is in the books they choose to read, buy, and recommend. If that comes about only a consequence of more people making a personal commitment to broaden the scope of their reading... I'm not sure I'm seeing the part where this is a bad thing.

And maybe it is just about the reader personally feeling more educated and open-minded as a result of reading these books. Isn't that much of the reason we read, period? Certainly there is an element of engagement and entertainment, but a reading diet that includes at least a handful of "literary" type books is going to challenge and educate the reader. There's a reason researchers often tout the benefits of what fiction does to your brain, such as improving empathy. We as readers want to be stretched and to glimpse what it's like to be in someone else's head, and we can then go out and be better friends, spouses, neighbors, parents, coworkers, and citizens.

But what if you find that you — yes, you personally — have been limited in the fictional (or autobiographical) heads you've explored? That was the case for me in 2013, when I undertook an extensive project to categorize the gender, race, and nationality of the authors and main characters from every book I'd ever read (excluding most picture and chapter books I read as a kid for sheer number and lack of records). I found that, as I expected, they skewed very far white American, and more male than female.

So I spent 2014 not just trying to regain some kind of balance but also learning about my own tendencies that led to this skewing in the first place, which — as much as I would like to lay it at the feet of the publishing industry — had as much to do with my own habits and thought processes as anything else. I discovered that certain past experiences (like having to read The House on Mango Street in school twice, and disliking it both times) had implanted in my subconscious brain the idea that I "didn't like" Latin@ literature, something I only discovered by consciously pushing up against it.

Although I didn't announce my goal at the outset (simply because my blog didn't exist yet), I did write a reflection post on the year, which brings me to this article's second point. It would be wonderful if we lived in the kind of idealistic world the writer depicts, wherein we read books for their own sake and they just happen to fall across a diverse spectrum of topics and demographics. But until we live in that world, why not talk about how we don't? Why not admit that you are making a conscious effort to diversify your reading because you've recognized that, on your own, that doesn't happen?

I understand the point that resolutions don't always pan out and that it's crappy to make these kinds of public resolutions if you're just doing it in an attempt to show how "social justice-minded" you are or what a good "ally" you are. I get that. But it seems like most of the people she's calling out are people who already have platforms and audiences and write things about themselves, so why avoid mentioning this specific thing?

For the past two years I've shared my reading goals for the year (2015 goals, 2016 goals). Is there something permissible about saying I want to read more graphic novels or books about World War I that does not extend to wanting to read fewer books by white Americans?

The reasons for sharing the resolutions are the same: First and foremost, I want to hold myself accountable by publicly sharing my goals (and then, later, reflecting on whether I accomplished them). And secondly, I want to challenge other people to be self-reflective about their own reading habits and whether they've been intentionally or unintentionally avoiding books in certain genres or, more uncomfortably, by authors of certain ethnicities or nationalities.

This goes above and beyond just recommending books from my own diverse(r) reading selections, as the article suggests. As I said above, before I intentionally set out on a journey to broaden my reading, I wasn't aware that I was discounting particular book recommendations as "books I wouldn't be interested in." Sometimes someone else's personal challenge, made public, can inspire others to — if not do the same — turn a critical eye on their own thoughts and behaviors.

Two final thoughts:

I saw some responses to the Jezebel article that said simply, "Read what you want!" Which, to me, just underscores why it's so important to have these conversations, not just about what we're reading, but why. I don't think people realize the origins of what they "want" to read until they stop and think about them. As my own to-read list ballooned to 300+, I started being more mindful of what I added to the list, and why. Before a book gets added to my list now, I generally have to see it recommended multiple times in multiple places by people or publications I trust, and check with myself that I really do want to read it. However, if a book falls outside my own "default reading scope" (i.e., the books I naturally gravitate to), I am more likely to add it to my list after just a few recommendations. This is my own way of ensuring that the books I read continue to expand my mind rather than keep it running in its existing, well-worn circles.

Secondly, if you are considering your own resolution to read more diversely, I would point out that there's a reason my personal tracking system (which I continue to use for my own accountability) looks only at author and main character demographics. I cringe a little bit when I see book reviews that celebrate "diversity" on a surface level, as in, "This book is so diverse! There is a black character and a gay character and someone uses a wheelchair!" Google "tokenism" and read about the tendency to relegate non-white, non-straight, non-ablebodied characters to the role of "best friend" or "classmate." If you're a white person and your goal is to break out of your whitewashed reading box, then read books by people of color — of all genders — where the main character is a person of color. Don't be content to tick off that a book contains "diverse" people if you never get inside the head of someone different from yourself.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Have you tried to intentionally broaden your own reading in this way? If so, have you made this intention known to others? Why or why not?

Review of 2015 Reading Goals

Happy New Year! The start of a new year is always a good time to set some goals, and I'll be sharing my 2016 bookish goals very soon. But first, it's important to look back at last year's goals and see how things went!

Below are the goals I set for 2015, and how I did with them.

1. Read some fun books I've put off
I read all of the fun books I'd planned on reading (Hyperbole and a Half, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Anna and the French Kiss, and Yes Please), as well as some other fun reads, like The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet, The Rosie Project, and The Mysterious Benedict Society. Not all of them were as enjoyable as I'd hoped, but none of them were awful, and it was a nice change of pace from the heavier stuff I tend to read.

2. Read at least 100 books again
I wasn't sure when I made my goals in late 2014 whether I'd become a parent in 2015, and how that would affect my reading. As it turned out, we got the adoption call just a few days into the new year, and I exceeded my count from 2014, reading 129 books total in 2015. This was partly due to listening to many classic children's book on audio while feeding my son; now that he's more independent, we'll see whether I can keep up the same pace in 2016!

3. Rate and review every book I read
I accomplished this, except for intentionally choosing not to rate religious texts (#7). I also wrote a brief review/explanation for books I abandoned, though I didn't rate them either.

4. Read books recommended by people I know
I got through a ton of recommended books! Anna and the French Kiss, Boxers and Saints, Me Before You, Gilead, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, The Crossover, The Princess Bride, The Girl with All the Gifts, Brain on Fire, The Other Wes Moore, Invisible Cities, and The Unthinkable were all reads based on recommendations! And that's not counting recommendations from people like John Green and Anne Bogel, who both recommended several of the books I read this year.

5. Finally finish the "classics" list I've been working on since high school
Complete! It took me 15 years, but I read all 88 classic books featured on my middle school English teacher's classroom border. The last four I finished this year were The Canterbury Tales, Little House on the Prairie, The Miracle Worker, and Flowers for Algernon.

6. Read more classic children's literature I've overlooked
Thanks to the plethora of audiobook options available on OverDrive from our library, my son and I listened to a ton of classic children's books I'd never read before, including The Cricket in Times Square, Ballet Shoes, All-of-a-Kind Family, A Little Princess, Heidi, Because of Winn-Dixie, Mary Poppins, George's Marvelous Medicine, The Tale of Despereaux, Betsy-Tacy, Caddie Woodlawn, and Stuart Little, as well as some newer books, like How to Train Your Dragon, Fortunately, the Milk, and A Snicker of Magic.

7. Read some other religious texts
This is one goal where I failed pretty badly. I only got through the very short Tao Te Ching in 2015. I started The Qur'an and am halfway through now. Still on my to-read list are the Book of Mormon, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita.

8. Read some graphic novels
I no longer have to say that I've never read a graphic novel! This year I read Boxers, Saints, Persepolis, Maus, and Blankets. Watchmen is still on my to-read list.

9. Reread at least one book a month
I am so averse to rereading that I couldn't quite get myself to do this, but I did use baby-feeding time to listen to some audiobooks of children's books I read in school a long time ago and remembered very little of. These were Summer of My German Soldier, Pippi Longstocking, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective, Sarah, Plain and Tall, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and Number the Stars. I also reread The Glass Castle for book club. With nine books total, I didn't quite make my goal of one per month, but that was more rereading than I'd done in a long while!

10. Continue diversifying my reads
This was a pretty vague goal, but I did manage not to read only books by white Americans in 2015. (After avoiding them in 2014, I was afraid that's all I would read in 2015.) It certainly helped that one of my book clubs did a "year of reading around the world," with a book from a different country every month, so that's why I read The Garlic Ballads, The Book of Chameleons, Nervous Conditions, The Good Muslim, Death in the Andes, and On heroes, lizards and passion. Some books from other countries I read on my own were Persepolis (and Persepolis 2), Madame Bovary, A Small Place, The Death of Ivan Ilych, Annie John, and Invisible Cities. I also read a number of books by and about black Americans, including Sula, Between the World and Me, The Other Wes Moore, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Twelve Years a Slave, Brown Girl Dreaming, and The Crossover. Certainly, though, the majority of the books I read were by white Americans, and I'm hoping to swing the pendulum back in 2016.

All in all, I think I did pretty well! My goals did what they were intended to do, which was challenge me and push me a little outside my comfort zone. I look forward to sharing my 2016 goals!

Did you accomplish your book-related goals this past year?

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