My New Years Resolution for 2019 was to read 19 books written by women to celebrate the centennial of the 19th amendment. This constitutional amendment guaranteed women the right to vote, albeit 144 years late.
[TLDR; Limiting my reading list to female authors greatly expanded the breadth of books I read, and led to my most profound and enjoyable year of reading yet.]
What gets measured, gets managed.
In 2016, I began keeping a list on my blog of the books I read. Even though I do on occasion fear that an AI will analyze my booklist and target me with a literarily-informed hypnotic string of messaging designed to subdue me into a spineless energy source to fuel their robotic race… I figure that’s the worst case scenario, and so 4 years later I have continued adding books.
One of the positives of keeping this list has been accountability (note the added social-accountability from it being online). Back in the Spring of 2018, I recall looking at my list and noticing that I had been neglecting my reading habit. By objectively seeing my lack of reading, I was able to acknowledge the problem and focus on a solution. Being busy with work at the time, I decided to listen to more audiobooks in the car and on walks, which in turn eventually primed my habit for reading paperbacks again.
With wind under my wings from a revamped reading habit, my booklist was growing faster than ever. I had a small dataset of close to 30 books on my list. That number — along with the images of book covers that I would download and edit onto a digital bookshelf — became a point of pride proving that after years of resisting reading assignments in school and frankly really struggling with reading, I had become a bookworm after all. Then another pattern caught my eye that pierced my pride.
Based on the books I had read and recorded, my exposure to different people’s experiences and ideas had been extremely limited. To be precise, for every 15 books I read, only one was written by a woman, and the same proportion was true for people of color.
Creative constraints.
As a self-proclaimed feminist and lover of learning, I was staring at my hypocrisy. With the truth acknowledged, I decided to break down the walls of this echo-chamber and get all sorts of symbolic with the number nine. Enter 2019, 19 books written by women, celebrating 99 years since the passing of the 19th amendment.
A majority of books are written by men… I can’t seem to find hard statistics to support that seemingly obvious claim, but here are some tangential facts: “Study confirms dramatic gender imbalance in literacy critics and the authors reviewed1.” “88% of the books reviewed on the New York Times are written by white authors2.” “Books by women priced 45% lower3.” And on and on.
While the expanse that comes from constraining creativity may come across as counterintuitive, limits can in fact refresh perspectives and force intentionality.
The famous painter, Pablo Picasso, illustrated this point during his blue period. In restricting himself to primarily work with the color blue, he got more creative in other dimensions of his art. My famous younger sister, Mary Athan, spoke similarly about how she has expanded the types of foods she eats since shifting to a vegan diet.
Before this resolution — when I had the freedom to read whatever my heart desired — my book list clearly showed that I gravitated toward non-fiction books written by white men. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. However, as a person who deeply values learning and the equality of all people (feminism), I was objectively not acting in accordance with my values.
So, how did limiting my reading choices to female authors affect my book list at the end of the year?
I went on to read works written by women from around the globe, explored a variety of amazing new genres, and even (v e r y s l o w l y) made my way through a couple in different languages.
Results & lessons learned.
Subjectively, I think that I gained greater knowledge, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness than any previous year of reading. (Note, recency bias could be at play here).
Quantitatively, I think the most notable stat I can share from this experience is that I cried more than I ever previously had while reading. Which is awesome. Brené Brown and Melinda Gates share similar sentiments around allowing your heart to break and the power that can come from that. Empathetic action can move mountains.
Concluding thoughts & recommendations.
My New Years Resolutions for 2020 do not include reading more books written by women, or any other group of people for that matter.
Because of my overwhelmingly positive experience reading works written by people of broad backgrounds, I would be foolish to revert back to that old echo chamber that I occupied for many years. That said, I know that old habits die hard and that there are many deep-seeded biases I have yet to identify. All I can do is give honest effort and treat myself compassionately on this long journey of self-actualizing.
So, I say to you: if you are someone who cares about self-growth, I implore you to identify areas in your life where you are limiting your exposure to the full richness of ideas, cultures and perspectives that exist and are accessible in this wonderful world in which we live.
Below are a few of my favorite books from 2019. I’d love to hear any of your recommendations, too.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – A beautiful story of two family trees coming together over many years, seas and harsh realities. It sheds light on African, American, and African American history and culture through the eyes of the characters in a way that made me smile and cry and crumble and rebuild. I listened to this book on audio, brilliantly performed by Dominic Hoffman. I’ve heard equally great things about reading the paperback.
The Drama of the Gifted Child by Alice Miller – To be perfectly honest, I would not say I enjoyed this book. I did, however, have a major breakthrough in the way in which I frame and think about depression. For that reason, I think it’s worth sharing here.
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates – This book is powerful, inspirational, scientific and deeply human. Over the course of their rigorous and extensive philanthropic work, Melinda and Bill have identified that there is perhaps no other lever for uplifting humanity equal to empowering women.
There are many great authors whose works I still look forward to exploring — Toni Morrison, Gloria Steinem and Mary Oliver, to name a few. There are also, of course, far more great authors that are not even on my radar. If you have any suggestions for books, I’d be love to know which and maybe why you like it and/or think I would like it. I have an ever-expanding sponge list and whenever someone recommends an interesting book, movie, etc., I include a note of who suggested it to me so that I can reach out to them when I eventually get around to sponging it up.
Peace, love & equality~
