For today's post, I wanted to do a little bookish experiment. Basically, I wanted to examine my shelf with a critical eye and see how diverse they really are. After all, if we want more diversity, we have to support it, right? The results were certainly interesting...
- All up, I have 191 books. (This is only counting books I keep on my shelf. I also have others in cupboards that I’m finished with, on loan, ect.)
- After sorting through, I found 31 books that counted as diverse, including QUILTBAG, POC, authors of colour, nerodiversity, ect. I went off what I knew and Goodreads, so it’s a rough estimate, give or take a few.
- So to sum up, my shelves are 1/6 diverse.
Now for some picture evidence...
Now, the first picture is my shelf with any diverse titles removed. And the second drastic picture, where-did-all-the-books? go are the diverse titles I own:
Quite an eye-opener, huh?
Was I surprised by the results?
Yes, but also, sadly, no.
No, because you have to counter in the diverse books available/published vs. all the other books. That is, the latter dominates.
Yes, because I thought my shelves were more diverse than they are. So to see photos and numbers showing otherwise was quite a realisation.
What did I learn?
Well, my shelves are definitely not as diverse as I’d like them to be. I wouldn’t say I make a special note to buy them, but I’m learning it’s very important to do so. Because the bottom line is: If we buy and borrow and request them, publishers will print them, libraries will have them and bookshops will sell them. It’s as simple as that.
So…what did you think of my little experiment?
How diverse do you think your shelves really are?
How diverse do you think your shelves really are?
