This has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I’m excited to finally pick it up! I’ve heard it’s similar to “I Who Have Never Known Men” which I loved and still think about, so that’s extra exciting!

I replied to a comment in "The Will of the Many" by James Islington's book forum about how I made an exception to read this book because I had heard only excellent things about it (it's all true! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) and that I was diversifying my bookshelf this year. And @seema asked me if I had any structure to my journey. I started to reply then I didn't want to clog up the OP's post so I thought it would be nice to open up the discussion to the whole community. 🩷What do I mean when I say I want to diversify my bookshelf?🩷 I was inspired by my local bookshop in Melbourne, Australia called "Amplify Bookstore" who only stock books by BIPOC authors to help people diversify and/or decolonise their bookshelves. "Over the last 20 years, the number of ‘diverse’ books published in a year has not exceeded an average of 10%." I grew up reading a lot of classics, fantasy and sci-fi (1% female - Ursula K Le Guin and 99% male and White - e.g. Douglas Adams, Robert Jordan, Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Frank Herbert, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, etc. you get it...) All of which I loved and obsessed over so much that it practically became my personality. In recently years I did start to notice that my most loved books are by mostly (amazing and talented) male authors and I thought it was time for me to see the world (or other worlds ✨) through the eyes of women, queer people, POC and more. I just use a spreadsheet to check in once a month on my authors. I don't know any book tracking apps that gives you stats on an author's gender, race and 🏳️‍🌈LGBTQIA+ friendly (themselves and/or their characters), so I keep track of it myself. I google the authors, check their socials and their website and read some interviews etc. It's not perfect but it works for me. At the moment, 70% of my 2025 read list are by authors who identify as women, 57% are White, 37% are Asian, 4% are Black or African, 2% are Hispanic / Latinx. I have work to do for my Black / African / Hispanic / Latinx authors! If you are also doing the same, do you have any tips? Or share your thoughts on what you think of this? 🤔