​The Book Blogger Hop 2017 #11

I am so excited to answer this week’s question (partly because this week’s question was suggested by me and partly because it’s an awesome question)! The Book Blogger Hop is a weekly Hop that is hosted by Billy @ Ramblings Of A Coffee Addicted Writer. Weekly prompts are given in the form of Blogger submitted (G-rated) questions. 

Do you read a lot of diverse or ownvoices books? Why or why not?

Most of the books I read now are diverse books and quite a few are ownvoices. I do pick up non-diverse books still but I’m less likely to go out of my way for them. Overall, I enjoy diverse books more because they better reflect the community I live in as well as myself. Plus, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed savior bit is a little overdone, no?

Another (more important) reason I read diverse and ownvoices books is because I’m not the well-represented cishet able white girl. I’m in the LGBT+ community, though I’m still figuring out where I belong there because, growing up, the only terms I had available to me were gay, lesbian, and queer, which was always spit out like it was meant to be poisonous. I have bipolar disorder and severe anxiety. I’m not a Christian.

I did not see myself positively represented at all until I was 19 years old and picked up a copy of Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. 7 has ADHD and anxiety. He had never seen himself positively represented until last week when we watched Percy Jackson (we usually read first but…long story) and HUGE thanks to Rick Riordan for writing that because OMG the look on 7’s face when someone “like him” saved the world just….nothing will ever be better than that. So, naturally, I want as much positive representation in media as possible. Since we read quite a lot in my household, that means I support a lot of diverse books.

Do you read many diverse or ownvoices books?