Via Bookgirl, here is an examination of how inclusive my own reading has been:
- Name the last book by a female author that you’ve read.
Persuasion by Jane Austen. I finished it on April 18. - Name the last book by an African or African-American author that you’ve read.
Wow, it has been a really long time since I read anything by an African or African-American author. Looks like it was Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying in July 2007. - Name one from a Latino/a author.
That’s going to be really hard. Probably Judith Ortiz Cofer’s novel The Line of the Sun, and I’ll bet I read it in 1991 or 1992. Yikes. It’s no consolation, I suppose, that works by Isabelle Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, and Laura Esquivel are on my list if I haven’t actually picked them up, right? - How about one from an Asian country or Asian-American?
This is bad, too, but probably Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies back in 2006. - What about a GLBT writer?
Probably The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in July 2007, unless, that is, I’ve read an author not knowing whether or not he/she was GLBT. - Why not name an Israeli/Arab/Turk/Persian writer, if you’re feeling lucky?
Ha, ha! That one’s just cruel. My book club read Reading Lolita in Tehran, but I had already read it, so I didn’t do a re-read. I read it in November 2005. - Any other “marginalized” authors you’ve read lately?
I guess maybe Native American writer Louise Erdrich. Her novel The Plague of Doves was one of my favorites last year.
So how about you? How diverse is your reading?
The presumption that in order to be a 'good spirited' wholesome person you have to go out of your way to 'diversify' yourself is moronic at best.
Make sure to read a book by a vegan too.
I'm sure you thought the 'tea parties' were racist, that the government invented aids, that Caucasians are inherently evil,and that its plausible to think throwing money at third world countries is going to fix their problems, as well as cleanse your inherently evil soul. You might also think that the continued socialization of the western world is a step in the right direction and may also believe, albeit erroneously, that this will bring about a Utopian world.
You've probably read it, but maybe you should (re)read '1984'.
Welcome to an increasingly Orwellian society.
Something your progeny will surely thank you for supporting. As long as they think the right thoughts, that is.
Yeah, I could see how open-mindedness and broadening your horizons, reading different things and that sort of thing are all really stupid. I'm sorry, "moronic." I started not to publish your comment because you didn't provide a real address, and you used a fake name; I tend not to give a voice on my personal Web space to people who are not brave enough to stand behind what they say in a way to which others can respond. You hide behind your anonymity like a coward while I use my real name and stand by what I say. I'm glad I'm not so full of hatred and meanspiritedness that I have to lash out to a complete stranger online because I don't like it that they want to read different kinds of books.
I never used the words "good-spirited" or "wholesome." You did. You made that inference, and it was quite a leap based on what I actually said. I'm not even going to address the tea parties because it's completely irrelevant to reading choices. You need to look in the mirror. Your final thoughts describe you more accurately than they do me.
Really, Dana, you should read 1984. It's all about a man named Winston Smith who is forced by jack-booted socialist vegans to read Jane Austen novels.
Chris, you are a trip.