Share: Reading with Intention
Choosing what to read + choosing where to get books
In February 2020, I found myself thoroughly engrossed by The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League, a book I had found on this list of 16 Books About Race That Every White Person Should Read. For reasons I don’t recall, I had pondered spending all of 2020 reading books by and about Black people in our country.
But when the pandemic happened, I decided to abandon “heavy” stories of race for “light” fiction (The Two-Family House set in 1947 Brooklyn, Dear Evan Hansen, and a quirky novel about an eccentric young housecleaner).
Then I learned that Amaud Arbery had been murdered. And Breonna Taylor. And in late May George Floyd was murdered just a half-hour from where I live. Since June 2020, I have read increasingly more books by and about our Black and Indigenous neighbors and People of Color. In 2022, I informally committed (via an Instagram comment) to reading 20 books written by Black women. For this project (#20BooksByBlackWomen) I have a running list in the notes app of my phone where I am tracking what I have read and what’s on deck. I’m also tracking my reading on StoryGraph, of course, but with my focused reading intention this year, I find it helpful to be able to see the big picture of my plans in one list that I can rearrange based on my interests and moods in the moment and what’s available at the library. Here’s the current status of my 2022 #20BooksByBlackWomen reading list:
✔️ Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
✔️ This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
✔️ Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
✔️ Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
✔️ Feminist AF by Brittney Cooper, Chanel Craft, Susana Morris
✔️ You Got Anything Stronger by Gabrielle Union
✔️ Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes by Alexa Martin
✔️ Pride by Ibi Zoboi
✔️ The How: Notes on the Great Work of Meeting Yourself by Yrsa Daley-Ward
✔️ The Ugly Cry by Danielle Henderson
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Just over 40% of my 2022 reading so far has been by audiobook (Somebody’s Daughter, Caste, Feminist AF, You Got Anything Stronger, The Ugly Cry). Of these, I own two titles through Libro.fm, my Audible alternative of choice. Libro.fm’s monthly fee is basically the same as the Audible membership fee I had been paying. When I signed up for Libro.fm, I selected to support Black Garnet Books, my local Black, woman-owned bookstore. The Libro.fm app works great and is easy to use.
The other audiobooks I’ve read in 2022 I’ve borrowed through the library using a nifty app called Libby, which I also use for borrowing ebooks. (My understanding is that your local library may or may not be connected to Libby - and if not, your library system will offer other audiobook and ebook lending platforms. Check your library for digital loan information.) When I started using Libby, I linked my library card with the Libby app and voilà! Access to more titles than I could possibly read in my lifetime. I have discovered that I can request (put on hold) up to 15 titles at a time through Libby. If an ebook or audiobook is available before I’m ready to read it, I can delay delivery to a timeframe that might work better for me.
While I have always read a lot, in 2021 I read more than triple what I did in 2019. Part of this definitely has to do with my embracing audiobooks. Part of it is intentional goal-setting. And part of my reading increase is due to my now-empty nest. Reading goals are personal and not meant to be a contest or judgment. That said, I do stand by challenges for everyone to stretch outside their typical reading habits to include more books by Black and Indigenous folks and People of Color.
Do you have a reading goal for 2022? Do you tend to plan your reading? Or do you follow where your interests (or book availability) leads? Is there a book that’s gotten dusty on your to-read list/pile that you feel pulled to dust off this month? I’d love to know what’s on your reading list.