Mid-Year Reading Check In

[forestofglory]

For 2021 I decided not to set myself any reading goals at the beginning of the year. However I said back in January when I talked about my 2020 reading that I would do a mid year check in and see if I wanted to add any goals.

So lets take a look at my reading so far this year.

Books read: 44
Books by non-white authors:31
Sequential art*: 25
novellas:3
non-fiction:8

I'm still reading a lot fewer than I was before the pandemic started, due to a combination of reading more fic and pandemic brain. However I'm on track to read slightly more books this year than last year. About 60% of books I've read so far this year are sequential art or novellas, which are faster to read. And I've continued to read more non-fiction. Right now I'm alternating between reading things for my urban planning book club and reading things about Chinese history.

So my reading year is going ok at the moment. I wish I was having an easier time focusing on longer works, because I miss that, but I'm being kind to myself about it. I read for pleasure, and there's none of that in stressing over numbers or forcing myself to read things.

However I do want to add one small goal. I've noticed that although I read a lot of books by authors who don't identify as white I don't read a lot of books by Black authors, and I want to work on that. So my goal is to read 6 books by new to me Black authors by the end of the year. Recommendations welcome, especially for fluffier works.



*comics, graphic novels, manga ect.

Comments

[torachan]

My favorite Black authors for adult fiction are Jackie Kay and Tayari Jones, though they are definitely not fluffy. For YA, I've loved everything I've read by Brandy Colbert and I'd say she's a bit on the fluffier side, though there are some serious themes. For comics, Rob Guillory of Chew and Farmhand is pretty fun, and those series are humorous if not fluffy (very gory and kind of deliberately gross-out).

[forestofglory]

Thank you!

[lunabee34]

High five for reading!

[oracne]

I have Talia Hibbert (Get a Life, Chloe Brown) on my list for Black romance writers to try - her contemporaries sound like a lot of fun.

[forestofglory]

I have hear good things about those books, I should check them out!

[planting_cabbages]

You might like these. I read check please. It was good.

Check, Please!, by Ngozi Ukazu, Bingo Love by Tee Franklin, Akissi: Tales of Mischief by Marguerite Abouet, World of Wakanda by Roxane Gay, M.F.K.: Book One by Nilah Magruder, Marvel Rising: Heroes of the Round by Nilah Magruder, What We Don't Talk About by Charlot Kristensen, Ironheart by Eve L. Ewing, Love! Love! Fighting! by Sharean Morishita, The Invention of E.J. Whitaker by Shawnee Gibbs, Dayo's Diary by Micheline Hess, Rocket Romance by Sophia Chester, Can You Keep A Secret? Kimberly Truesdale, Secret Diary, Julien Neel, Carol Klio Burrell (Translation), Basement Dwellers by Leland Goodman, Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers, Class Act by Jerry Craft, Twins by Varian Johnson, illus. by Shannon Wright, The Black Mage illus. by D.J. Kirkland,

[forestofglory]

Thank you! I've read Check, Please! which is great, but I will have to check out some of these others.