mostly basic

washington, books, coffee, dabs, ISFJ

[sarahviehmann]

2018 Diverse Reading Challenge

Welcome, Everyone! Let’s Diversify Our Reading Lists!

Some of you might know that last year I started making an effort to read more diversely. It wound up being an excellent experience and one that helped me grow as a person, so I highly recommend the practice to everyone. In the spirit of the book community, this year I’d like to help promote the practice by hosting a Diverse Reading Challenge! 

How Does It Work?

This is not a contest, but I promise you’ll feel like a winner if you participate. The goal of this challenge is not just to read books with diverse content, but books by diverse writers as well. To make it easier on folks who are only just getting started reading diversely and don’t know how to begin, this year the challenge is set up to correspond to Heritage Months in the U.S. Obviously, not everyone is from the U.S., but it’s a useful guideline. Not every month has an assigned Heritage Month, so where there are blanks, I’ve filled in with something I think is missing. At the end of the month, I’ll hear from participants about what they read and compile it in a master post, which will go up at the end of the first week of the following month (don’t worry, responses can be anonymous if you prefer). You can also make your own posts with the tag #sarahviehmann dvrc18. I’ll be tracking the tag, but if you mention me in the post, that’s another way to make sure I see it and include it in the wrap-up.

The Goals

The goal for this challenge is simple and should be easy to attain for people of all reading volumes, whether you have a lot of time to read or not. The goal is to read at least ONE BOOK per month by a diverse writer and/or ONE BOOK featuring a diverse protagonist. The former is my recommendation, because supporting marginalized authors is of extreme importance right now, but the latter fulfills the challenge as well! By all means, if you’d like to read more than that according to the monthly theme, feel free!

Questions

If I’m participating in the challenge, can I only read diverse books? No! You can absolutely read other books, too, but to meet the challenge, you have to fill the above requirement. For example, I’ll be reading books for school that I can’t pick on my own, but I’ll target my “for fun” list according to the theme.

Do my diverse books have to fit the month’s topic? The goal of the challenge is to inspire people to pick up books by and about marginalized communities they might not have considered before, so the best practice is to stick with the theme. But if you read another kind of diverse book in that month, I’d still love to hear about and I definitely encourage it!

What if I can’t find books that fit the theme? I’ll post recommendations below and leading up to each month so you can get ideas! I promise they’re out there. 

Can I read any genre? Absolutely! There are no restrictions on genre for this challenge.  

And now for the schedule! Click Read More to see the full list!

Keep reading

[firstbook]

We love this idea! We’ve curated collections based on these themes for our Stories for All Project. Click the links to see what we recommend. We have titles for all ages!

JANUARY 2018 - WARM UP/WILD CARD

FEBRUARY 2018 - BLACK HISTORY MONTH

MARCH 2018 - WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

APRIL 2018 - ASIAN-AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER MONTH

MAY 2018 - JEWISH-AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH 

JUNE 2018 - PRIDE MONTH

JULY 2018 - ASIAN AMERICAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER READS

AUGUST 2018 - MUSLIM READS

SEPTEMBER 2018 - HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH

OCTOBER 2018 - DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH

NOVEMBER 2018 - NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

DECEMBER 2018 - WRAP-UP/WILD CARD/DIVERSE HOLIDAYS

Happy Reading!

[prettysimpletattoos]

by Liv Frost

[prettysimpletattoos]

by Olga Nekrasova

[prettysimpletattoos]

by Liv Frost

[trueastrologyfacts]

Capricorns love templates.

[thoughtsandresults]

For Women Who are ‘Difficult’ to Love

you are a horse running alone and he tries to tame you compares you to an impossible highway to a burning house says you are blinding him that he could never leave you forget you want anything but you you dizzy him, you are unbearable every woman before or after you is doused in your name you fill his mouth his teeth ache with memory of taste his body just a long shadow seeking yours but you are always too intense frightening in the way you want him unashamed and sacrificial he tells you that no man can live up to the one who lives in your head and you tried to change didn’t you? closed your mouth more tried to be softer prettier less volatile, less awake but even when sleeping you could feel him travelling away from you in his dreams so what did you want to do, love split his head open? you can’t make homes out of human beings someone should have already told you that and if he wants to leave then let him leave you are terrifying and strange and beautiful something not everyone knows how to love.

[Warsan Shire]

[respectfulmemes]

[respectfulmemes]

Everybody thinks their dog is the best dog in the world, and everybody is right.

[respectfulmemes]

[earendil-was-a-mariner]

Tolkien: This character is Feanor, which in my language means Spirit of Fire, which gets at his personality, creative spirit, and destructive tendencies. 

Also Tolkien: This character is Treebeard because he’s a tree with a beard.

[buttermybooks]

Someone decided to interrupt my photo and I cant even be mad about it.

bookmarks by bookmadbookmarks

[hanpula-deactivated20180216]

Currently reading ❤

[reading---eating]

One of my first reads of the year 💙

[fiderly]

THIS IS THE YEAR I WILL FINALLY READ ASOIAF SERIES and hopefully GRRM finishes the rest of the series *probably won’t happen*

[reading---eating]

There is nothing you can throw at me that I cannot metabolize, no thing impervious to my alchemy.

Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts, (2015)

[reading---eating]

It is obvious that the energy that goes into writing a poem is enormous and totally out of proportion to any gain it might bring

Rosemarie Waldrop, “Alarms & Excursions” (via reading---eating)

[jennwitte-deactivated20260419]

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

[reading---eating]

“the questions matter as much, perhaps more than, the answers…”

[camillemarieart]