About once or twice a year, I like to look back at my reading habits and sift for big picture patterns. The goal? Ensure that diversity is there or, if not, make corrective measures. Thus, I recently looked at the 63 books I have read so far this year.

I then made notes on how many were written by people who identify as women, as queer, and of color. I also read in Spanish and kept track of that. And please note that "of color" is a term that is amorphous at times. It includes people who identify as black, native, Asian, and also Latinx in the US. However, for authors who wrote in Spanish and live in LatAM and/or Spain, I don't assume they identify as "of color "

Here's the verdict:

33 of the books read were written by women.
8 books were written by LGBTQ individuals.
34 were written by people of color.
20 were written in Spanish.

Clearly, the problem is that I am not reading enough queer fiction. While, yes, individuals who identify as queer may be a fraction of a general population and perhaps slightly higher fraction of published authors, 12% is a super low, inexcusable and disappointing stat.

The other stats are not alarming per se, even if we should all be tilting our shelves to greatly favor women authors until they are equally paid/get equal opportunities in the publishing world.

Also, I need to read more indie publisher titles!