Reading Overview & Genre Breakdown
Books read: 20
Fiction Titles: 17
- 15 romance (5 historicals, 10 contemporaries)
- 1 Literary Fiction
- 1 Short Story Collection
Non-fiction Titles: 3
- 2 Gender Studies/Feminist Theory
- 1 History
Setting Statistics
USA: 9
Canada: 1
Australia: 1
New Zealand: 2
Philippines: 1
Spain: 1
Fictional setting: 2
Non-Fiction with a setting: 1 (New Zealand History)
Non-Fiction without a setting: 2 (both Gender Studies/Feminist Theory)
I'm interested in the statistics about setting because calssifying my reviews my setting a few months ago really drove home how much of the literature I read is set in the US.
I just did a quick tally, and of the 234 books I read last year, about 106 were fiction with a US setting (and that's excluding books only partially set in the US, or set in an alternate universe US). I thought that the UK wouldn't be far behind, given how many historical romances I read, but it's pulling a distant second with roughly 33 books. Even though I I've spoken about my disillusion with my Beyond a Single Story Challenge, I still think it's important to be aware of US (and British, and English-language) cultural hegemony in literature, and the effects that it can have.
At this point, I'm not aiming to read less books set in the US this year. I just want to keep an eye on the statistics, rather than being hit with a fait accompli in December. As you can see, 9 out of 17 fiction books I read this month were set in the US; that's 53%. I've also listed the books with real-world non-US settings in case people are interested, and made notes of which ones I intend to review. Hopefully that make me feel accountable and those reviews will get past the draft stage!
Canada: 1
Australia: 1
- In At the Deep End by Penelope Janu - review to follow
New Zealand: 2
Philippines: 1
Spain: 1
- A Dream Defiant by Susannah Fraser - review to follow; characters are British
Fictional setting: 2
Non-Fiction with a setting: 1 (New Zealand History)
Non-Fiction without a setting: 2 (both Gender Studies/Feminist Theory)
I'm interested in the statistics about setting because calssifying my reviews my setting a few months ago really drove home how much of the literature I read is set in the US.
I just did a quick tally, and of the 234 books I read last year, about 106 were fiction with a US setting (and that's excluding books only partially set in the US, or set in an alternate universe US). I thought that the UK wouldn't be far behind, given how many historical romances I read, but it's pulling a distant second with roughly 33 books. Even though I I've spoken about my disillusion with my Beyond a Single Story Challenge, I still think it's important to be aware of US (and British, and English-language) cultural hegemony in literature, and the effects that it can have.
At this point, I'm not aiming to read less books set in the US this year. I just want to keep an eye on the statistics, rather than being hit with a fait accompli in December. As you can see, 9 out of 17 fiction books I read this month were set in the US; that's 53%. I've also listed the books with real-world non-US settings in case people are interested, and made notes of which ones I intend to review. Hopefully that make me feel accountable and those reviews will get past the draft stage!
No comments:
Post a Comment