,
43 tweets,
10 min read
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1/ i want to talk about this tweet
2/ this was not your friend asking for a casual book rec (i'm always down to give book recs)
3/ this was a NYT editor asking people for something as basic as "good books by women" which is fucking insulting
4/ he is in a powerful position with tons of resources and is writing recommendations read by thousands of readers
5/ it's his job to interrogate issues, including interrogating his own blind spots, not just admitting them (and certainly not in this tone) 
6/ the reason i'm so furious is that this is such a basic ask that it's belittling and demeaning to have to whip out receipts on demand...
7/ ...when we've been compiling lists and recommendations of our own for so long
8/ it's also something i see increasingly more: people asking for time, energy, links, etc. from women/women of color
9/ when they themselves haven't done the bare minimum of fucking googling things like "books by women" lmgtfy.com
10/ (or in this case even going to the literal NYT bestseller lists or NYT book review and scrolling just a lil bit)
11/ sure, wayfinding and googling on the internet may not always yield the best results, but it's at least a starting point
12/ i've seen many tweets that sum this up: DO THE WORK
13/ demonstrate the bare minimum of TRYING to answer your own questions and do some self reflection before outsourcing
14/ the question that should be asked here is not "what books by women should i read because i can't think of any"
15/ the question should be "why are the only books i'm excited to read or have been recommended to me written by (mostly white) men?"
16/ what influences those decisions? who influences those decisions?
17/ what articles/books you read? podcasts you listen to? newsletters you subscribe to? people you talk to?
18/ how hard do you try to answer that question on your own before asking people to help you out?
19/ it's not a surprise that most people read books by white men because unfortunately the literary world is still very homogenous
20/ and attention, awards, prestige, $$$ etc. disproportionately goes to white men
21/ i have been in that same position, but i did the bare minimum of tallying up who wrote the books i was reading nicolezhu.github.io/52-books-in-52…
22/ ...and a pattern emerged very quickly, one i sought to correct by examining how i made the decisions to read what i read
23/ i started a spreadsheet after i read this article vox.com/2015/12/29/106…
24/ i realized that biases exist on bestseller lists, in my class curriculums, etc. and i needed to diversify my sources
25/ here's a complete list of books i've read the last 3 years (and reasons why i read them) docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
26/ i see this as more of a "give a person a fish vs. teach a person to fish" issue
27/ "give a guy a book rec by a woman vs. teach a guy how to find books by women by his own goddamn self because it's not that hard"
28/ in all seriousness though, if your ambient literary environment is dominated by white men, i hope these following tactics help
29/ PUBLISH women and women of color, HIRE and PROMOTE women and women of color, PAY women and women of color
30/ FOLLOW women and women of color, LISTEN to women and women of color, READ and WATCH women and women of color
31/ i found @thejadechang and @jess7bennett after listening to an episode of @callyrgf callyourgirlfriend.com/episode-58-sum…
32/ i read everything and anything by @jennybagel after first reading this essay in buzzfeed buzzfeed.com/jennybagel/the…
33/ i started following @rgay on twitter and goodreads after reading her op-eds and essays
34/ by following @rgay on goodreads, i found and read books by mona awad and catherine chung goodreads.com/author/show/33…
36/ i got got book recs from the annual npr book concierge and buzzfeed books apps.npr.org/best-books-201…
buzzfeed.com/doree/america-…
buzzfeed.com/doree/america-…
37/ i read @ellendwu after reading a wapo article in which she was interviewed on a topic i'm interested in washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2…
38/ i took down the names of books @tanehisicoates recommended (i.e. "out of the house of bondage" by thavolia glymph)
39/ i read @margotshetterly's book after seeing "hidden figures" because i wanted to read the full story
40/ i read books by lindy west and @jessicavalenti because i followed them and their writing on twitter
41/ i read @doree after i saw her featured in 2 newsletters: @girlsnightinhq and "namaslay" by @soniachopra tinyletter.com/namaslay
42/ it is not just about investing your time and money and energy in books by women, it's investing in women and their work
43/ thread done ✅ happy reading!
