Thursday, August 16, 2007

I Have Discovered I Like Attention


I have to laugh at myself, I started this blog not really expecting any readers, but I love comments... And lately, I have had a fair amount of them, so it is really great! It's fun to get messages, anyways, because then you know someone has taken the time to either read your post or reach out to you. It is nice to have a little community of people all conversing with one another. I think anyways. And, when comments are dead on here, I post on Twisted Kingdom and different people comment over there, or Historical Tapestry (when I read historical fiction). So, I wanted to thank everyone for all their comments lately, it has been fun reading them and responding!

Speaking of TK, I actually did not read a Star Trek book today, so I do not have a review over there today. I did post, though, so you can click on over there if you are interested.

I actually read an interesting blog post today that I had to comment on. It is on an authors blog, David Anthony Durham. I have never read him before, and today was the first time I read his blog. I just found it by some link clicking earlier this morning. I was interested in this post by him. It was like 8 in the morning, I had been up since 5 something, I was starting to get tired because of lack of sleep, but I found myself considering what he had to say. I suppose I always considered myself 'color blind'. For the most part, I do not pay attention to the race or ethnicity of the books that I read. I just read them because of recommendations or because I have heard good things, various things like that. It did not cross my mind that bookstores pay attention to colour. He talks about the African American section, and I have seen that in bigger bookstores. The small bookstore does not have one, I imagine they just do not get those books in at all.

Reading his thoughts was very eye-opening to me. By not paying attention to what I was reading, I thought I was doing a good thing, but in actual fact I was only reading the 'popular' minority authors that are deemed worthy of moving to the mainstream shelves (fantasy is a bit different). I was paying attention to diversity in authors, and I always make sure I read both male and female authors. I pay attention to whether I support my fellow Canadian authors or not. I thought I was doing good, but in actual fact, I was not paying attention to whether I read a diverse selection of nationalities. Not just 'coloured' authors (I mean no offense by that), but I wonder how many Scottish authors I have read, or Irish (O.R. Melling is one). It just made me think that maybe I should try and put some diversity in what I read and try and support a diverse culture. I had been moving that way on my own, wanting to read books by, for example, a Mexican author, but it was nice of this article to offer a bit of insight. I hope you will take the time to read it.

6 comments:

  1. Just wanted to pop in and say I'm one of your readers but I don't often comment. I'm in the midst of a move right now, so I haven't been commenting much.

    I enjoy your blog!

    http://3m3am.wordpress.com

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  2. I read your blog too. :) Thanks for stopping by. And moving sucks!

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  3. Hmmm... I don't know. I don't really think about it but I do have a preference for women authors. I rarely read a male author. I think they just happen to write what I want to read.

    I do have Alex Haley's Roots sitting on a shelf. I am going to read it at some point.

    I also have a preference for Brit Lit.

    Like you, if someone recommends an author I might give them a try. It's really a matter if the story grabs me or if I like the writing style.

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  4. I read a lot of female authors too, mainly because I want to support them.

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  5. Karen Scott has had several posts about this issue-mostly concerning African American romance authors but some interesting questions and ideas were raised.

    I read mostly female authors by accident-I generally just like how they portray female characters-no matter what the genre

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  6. My friend was telling me about that. Again, something I don't think about. :)

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Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

I am so sorry, but I turned anonymous commenting off. I have had it from the very beginning, but that is how the spam is getting by my spam filter at the moment. If it is a big deal I will turn it back on and moderate all comments. I also changed moderation from older than 14 days to older than 7.