I used to be pretty basic in my reading life. I read romance and romantic suspense, and that was it, at least as far as fiction was concerned. And I was happy with that. In fact, I read that way until I was in my very late 30s. And then something started shifting.

The first shift came from seeing a recommendation for Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. After reading it, my interest in memoirs was sparked. I started with travel memoirs, then moved to food, now I read a wide variety of memoirs that I find interesting.

Very quickly following that shift was the shift that introduced me to the amazing world of novels for young adults. I was gifted the wizarding series (you know the one, I won’t name it) for my 39th birthday. From there I tried a variety of other series, which led to a love of YA fantasy (as well as contemporary), which led to adult fantasy and then science fiction, etc.

This all took place over a ten year period. I thought I was reading widely and finding a lot of new authors. But while I wasn’t intentionally picking mostly straight white authors, I was. Because those were the books that I was seeing and hearing the most about. And then 2020 happened and I was challenged to really look at my shelves and make intentional changes. And I am so glad I did.

I was initially very strict about adding books by authors of color. For every book I purchased by a white author, I purchased 5 by an author of color. I was already a fan of authors like Sandhya Menon and Marie Lu, but now I was starting to read Dana L. Davis, Nic Stone and Elizabeth Acevedo too.

And I started reading more LGBTQIA+ stories, finding authors like Adib Khorram, Aiden Thomas, and Kacen Callender. Then there were stories featuring neurodivergent characters, like those by Helen Hoang, and it just kept growing from there.

My entire world view opened up so much more when I started expanding my reading. I started researching different causes to support, met new and interesting people, and challenged my own biases. Some books are hard to read, because they make me uncomfortable, but those are ultimately the most powerful because I come away from them fundamentally changed inside.

I will never regret the decision to diversify my reading. It’s made me a better person.