About

I consider myself a feminist. I don’t think men are inherently better writers (or better comedians, musicians or waste collectors – you show ‘em Leslie Knope). But I recently wrote a blog post with my top 25 book recommendations for adults, and only four of them were written by women. On top of that, as a whole, the list was pretty ethnically un-diverse.

So I went to my Goodreads account, and starting counting out all books I’ve read – love, hate, indifferent – and by far there were more books by white men than anyone else. This may not be surprising, given that in the history of authorhood, white men probably make up the majority (or at least when it comes to books available in English), so the odds are in their favour.

I want to even the playing field. I don’t believe in loving books by women just because they’re by women. But I do want to give female authors a fair shot at my heart. Same goes for authors of different ethnic backgrounds. And oh look, my last blog project has run its course so I’m in need of something new!

All of this to say: Welcome to “You Aren’t What You Read (But Maybe That’s the Point)” – Andrea’s new blog project in which she will read a book by a woman from each country of the world. I await your suggestions.

 

PREVIOUSLY ON Age is just a page number:

On August 28th this year, I’ll turn 25.

I thought this impending milestone would have me more on edge. I don’t really like change and on my 20th birthday I cried because I felt I was getting too old too fast. But I seem to be embracing this age with mild indifference – or maybe come August the tears will flow. Regardless, I’ve been feeling more nostalgic than usual. In particular I’ve been thinking a lot about books I read when I was younger. I’ve always been a book lover; even before I could actually read I sat among a stack of books, making nonsense sounds as I pored over pages, pretending I knew what the words meant.

After more than two decades of books however, some of the first stories I remember reading are still among the best I’ve ever encountered. So I decided to revisit some and write about it.  As luck would have it, I came up with this plan 25 weeks before my 25th birthday – a book a week it is.

Typical toddler afternoon