My 2015 Reading Challenge

One of my friends (I forget whom, if it's you and you're reading this, I apologize for precluding you from the glory of a blog mention), posted this Pop Sugar reading challenge to Facebook:

 and I was thrilled! It had everything I wanted and needed in a book challenge: breadth, feasibility, a checklist, words. Then I noticed something else it included:

Ummm.

This filthy-bathroom graffiti has a point!

Because, let's face it, default maleness is still totally A Thing in the literary world, despite the myriad successes of an exceptional number of female YA authors in recent memory, and y'know, actual, literal centuries of writing by women.

“Go crazy!” this list seemed to say. “Do something as novel as deigning to read a book written by a woman.” (I imagined the list saying this while twirling its evil moustache and holding a drink, like some Don Draper figure with a Tom Selleck face).

Anyway, I decided, instead, to take the inverse action that this list seemed to (smugly, Selleck-ly) suggest. Every book I choose for this list will meet the criteria of the individual checklist item and also be written by a woman. Except that the lone “written by a woman” item will now be “a book written by a man”.

I mean, obviously.

And before anyone gets upset, because this is someone writing about feminism on the internet: no, I am not actually a misandrist. I do not believe that this PopSugar reading challenge is a massive obstacle for feminism to overcome. I do think that women are not as widely read and reviewed as male authors because, well, facts support that assertion. You can Encarta it. I wouldn't lie to you.

Anyway, I'm excited to read my selections. I'm also excited to share my responses to them with you! I'm aiming to get through the whole list this year, and I've also already done some reading from outside this list.