Kerry

I'm tossing around the idea of aiming to not read any books written by white men in 2015, and the more I think about it, the more the reasons I'm coming up with for not doing so aren't good enough to not do it.

Reason 1: A lot of non-fiction on topics I like is written by white men, esp. early modern European history.
Answer 1: This is exactly why I should do it. If I want to read non-fiction about those topics I'll seek out books by women and people of colour, which is Good.

(Reason 1b: I also thought "oh, but non-fiction on topics I like by non-white-men may be more difficult to find and expensive", but then realised...
Answer 1b: ...that's probably unexamined bias and not even true, and if it is true, is even more of a reason to consciously seek them out.)

Reason 2: I have a pile of books by various authors on my immediate to-read list (of 10-12 books), some of whom are white men.
Answer 2: A year is a good motivational period of reading/not reading things so I should definitely stick to that, and I have two months to clear all the white guy books I really desperately want to read. This will also prompt me to figure out which white guy books I really desperately want to read, and if I can't get to it in two months I probably didn't actually really desperately want to read it.

Reason 3: This really really amazing book has come out about all your favourite things and OH NO it's written by a white guy!
Answer 3: If it's that amazing it will still be amazing in 2016 and I'll read it then.

What makes an author 'white' and 'male' are obviously not uncomplicated, but since it's for my own decision-making I feel okay defining it as 'someone who looks like a dudebro' ie not excluding American Latino men, or people whose gender identities include maleness but are not only male.

I'm not looking for book recs (at least, not more than I always am!), it's more a commitment to myself that when I go "hmm, I want to read that book!" and that book is written by a white guy, I will not read that book and instead read another book.