Reading Audit: Second Quarter 2017
Another quarter down, another stack of books to account for. I read 89 books between April and June 2017 — a number that surprised even me. Here's the breakdown.
What I Read
The quarter included a mix of published titles and unpublished manuscripts — the latter came through contract work, which always shifts the numbers. When I strip those out, the core reading list still reflects my ongoing interest in middle grade and young adult fiction, with a healthy dose of contemporary realism and the occasional speculative detour.
Author Demographics
I continued tracking male-female author ratios, as I've done in previous quarters. The numbers this time reinforced a pattern I've been noticing: the books I gravitate toward — and the ones that land on my desk — skew heavily toward women authors. That's not a complaint. It does make me think about whose stories get pushed into my orbit and why.
"Counting isn't the point. But noticing who gets published, who gets reviewed, and who gets read — that matters."
Reflections
Eighty-nine books in three months is a lot, even for me. Some of that pace came from reading shorter middle grade novels and verse novels, which I can move through quickly. The contract manuscripts also inflated the count — those aren't books I'd necessarily choose on my own, but they're part of the work I do. I'm not setting a target for Q3. I just want to keep reading widely and paying attention.