2019 Books and 2020 Reading Goals (plus a few 2020 reading challenges listed)

Photo by Road Trip with Raj, via Unsplash

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I've re-arranged my office and now I can't find anything. The goal is to declutter most of the stuff here as sometimes I work from home and I've gotten overwhelmed with the amount of junk just hanging out in my work space. I spent all weekend moving the desk and taking boxes of stuff out of my office. Still not done. 

I did get a lot of reading done this past week though. Whilst everyone else visited family and had holiday events..I kinda bah-humbugged my way through the holiday and read. My extended family is a long ways away and I couldn't visit so I planned for a low-stress reading holiday and in that...I excelled. 

I've also been following the RWA drama. I'm not sure what else to label it as but it seems to be authors split between two factions and the RWA coming down on one side until they reversed course (and are now bleeding money). It's interesting to watch because it's everything that can go wrong with a non-profit, social media updates to sooth (or not) the masses and racism against members. I'll get to that in a minute. 

2019 Reading Challenge

My 2019 Reading Challenge was all about the base numbers. There's lots of different types of challenges people can participate in but the past couple of years I've been trying to chip away at my "to be read" pile and I haven't even attempted any other challenge. Granted, I could probably source a full challenge from my hoard but eh. I'm a mood reader like no other. 

My goal was 200 books. I had hoped to finish early and read some of my thicker/slower academic type books (I have one on super-string theory that I know is going to hurt my brain in the best way). I had more reading slumps this year than I had before plus an expanding and volatile work schedule so while I did make (and surpass my goal) it wasn't like the years before when I had easily hit 250+ books. 

Also, Goodreads is backlogged with the yearly reading page so my home page shows my current number, my "year in books" page shows the previous weeks number. It's kinda odd. I saw in the troubleshooting section that someone else had the same issue so I assume the backlog is heavy. 

As of December 30th (2019), I have read 223 books! 23 books beyond my challenge, which is great. I did get some heavy hitters in there (including some Shakespeare and a few more modern classics like Frankenstein) but I did read a few very short books as well. Some books took me months as I only read sections at a time (the three Shakespeare plays I read) and some I sat down and read in one sitting. 

2020  Reading Goal

I think my overarching goal is going to be the same...hit my "TBR" pile hard. At the moment I'm vacillating between a high number (260+) or a higher (yet lower) number like 230. These are my personal norms...I realise not everyone reads or counts books like I do. (For instance, if I skim a book to the end because I dislike it...that counts). I wish I could do a number thing...but I cannot read 2,020 books...although I could drop the zero and do 202...but eh. 

I do want to bring in more genres that I normally pass by in my attempt to get the next mystery/romance/serial killer thriller type book I gravitate towards. Some of the genre I'd like to read more of is literary fiction, historical nonfiction, thrillers or even a few horror type books, perhaps even more romance that leans contemporary or (alas!) without the serial killer/FBI angle. 

I'd also like to pay more attention to my authors background. I tend to read white lady authors the most...and I'd like to bring men back in (as long as they're writing fully fleshed out lady characters and no boobily down the stairs thing). I'd also like to read more from AOC/Authors of Color (which is a term I discovered reading the twitter reports via Courtney Milan's feed. I thought Alexandra O. Cortez (U.S. Representative and my conservative Uncle's nightmare come to life) had written a book but I've caught on now. I had a few pretty cool options for this requirement in my TBR pile that I hope to get to this year. I'd like to keep better track of all that to see where my shortcomings are. I'm not sure how to do that of yet, I saw a post on reddit with an excel sheet example so I could do something like that or do it via my Google sheets app on my phone (put it and Goodreads in a folder). I could also just keep a book journal. Basically...I want to have a more varied year. 

I'd also like to use my library more. I'm lucky to live pretty close to a branch and the system here is excellent (when is a library not though?) 

Photo by 2Photo Pots via Unsplash

2020 Reading Challenges

I think that's it as far as my reading challenge (read more, read varied) but there are other reading challenges that are already posted, which I probably won't be involved in. Some listed reading challenges: 
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• GirlXOXO - The Master list of 2020 Reading Challenges: Like the title says, this has a huge amount to sort through from poetry to location specific to the general. 
• Reading Challenge Addict - 2020 Reading Challenges (to help feed your challenge habit): Like above, this is a master list of challenges with a brief description about each one if needed. These can range from numbers to language to a theme. 
• Winfield Public Library - 2020 Reading Challenge: This is a twelve book challenge (one per month) but the point of inclusion was to note that a local library (or indie bookstore) might have a reading challenge as well. 
• Reading Women podcast - Reading Women Challenge: 24 prompts of book themes to choose from. Ideas are also given and each prompt mapped out more. 
• The Modern Mrs. Darcy - The 2020 Reading Challenge: There are ten prompts or themes on choice here with the idea to be more selective with book choice. 
• Skolion - Reading Challenges to Try in 2020: This is a bit different because some of the options include challenges via Youtube and Instagram, which is good to note that you can find your people anywhere.  
• Goodreads - Around the Year in 52 books group: This is a popular group on Goodreads. The goal is to read a book a week (52 total) with weekly "topics" or themes. 
• BookRiot - Read Harder Challenge: Encapsulates 24 themes to challenge your normal goal and includes a PDF that can be edited. 
• ​Popsugar - 2020 Reading Challenge: This is also a strong group (with a Facebook and Goodreads group). There are 40 themes with an additional ten '2020' themes. 

RWA, Secret Ethics boards and This hot flaming christmas turd
or
​how Courtney Milan's Twitter has entranced me all Christmas long

I mostly keep Twitter to politics, nationally and internationally (oh Brexit). I've branched out recently because there's just so many times I can see that man's face without losing my lunch. Some of the people I've started to follow are authors (some I've read and some I haven't...which is probably strange) and one of them tweeted something about Courtney Milan, the RWA and racism. I've read some of Milan's works and she's on my to-reread pile but I was utterly confused as she didn't strike me as a PR disaster a la J.K. Rowling. More tweets followed and I'm now 100% following this mess. 

I'll link some other things as it's made the national news now. The RWA is the Romance Writers of America, they host events like author workshops, member chapters and awards (like the RITAs). Romance as a genre is fairly popular and you can get a dedicated fan base if you have a decent series (Milan has one for example). Romance as a genre is also evolving with readers and many authors (not everyone of course), but honestly from when I read my grandma's harlequin books (so. much. rapey heroes and TSTL heroines) to now I see a lot of difference. I don't have any hard facts there, that's just what it seemed to me. 

Milan has served on the board of the RWA (I think as part of the ethics committee) so she's known within the community. On her twitter account she was reviewing books and talking about tropes and whatnot (she also talks about figure skating) she talked about a recently republished book as a 'fucking racist mess.' Was it? Yup. The author of that book (Kathryn Lynn Davis) and another lady (Suzan Tisdale) filed complaints with the RWA which formed a secret ethics panel (?!WTF?!) and censured Milan, asking her to step down. The actual ehthics committee found out about all this nonsense on Twitter. Yup.

Should Milan have spoken out? I don't see why not...there's no point in being polite to racist people or (if they aren't racist) pointing out problematic tropes. It's something done in every literature class I've ever had. It's also a free country...and according to the contemporary rules of RWA it's allowed. Should she have been nicer...I'm not going to hold a class on manners anytime soon for anyone involved as I'm not the etiquette police (although some people scream manners when they're trying to shut people up. I went to finishing school and I bet I could destroy everyone in this fight with 'manners', it's not important to this issue). Although if I were Davis' agent I'd have her sitting down heavily editing and rewriting her book to update it to a new, global audience and telling her to drop Tisdale as a friend. Talk about alienating potential customers. I think Davis works for Tisdale though...so I guess birds of a feather and such. 

There was a backlash against the complaint for a variety of reasons. One is that while Tisdale is an author...she's also a publisher. The RWA is not supposed to be on the side of the publisher (and apparently Tisdale has had a few complaints about some of her employees [Sue Grimshaw] that she's ignored; she also called Milan a neo-nazi...for pointing out racist undertones of a book). The current president of the RWA seems to have a truth problem and lots of people from the board have resigned. There's a recall option and now fans are fighting with one another about PC culture (such an eye roll worthy complaint...I can't take anyone seriously who whines about that). Also...other authors are sharing stories about their issues with the RWA and it's not pretty. 

I don't know what happens next but watching the social media bumbling from the RWA and some of the authors has been like a car crash. It's also added some authors to me "nope, never" list (Tisdale and her group for sure). It made me think too that it almost seems split between the books published in the 1980s and 1990s that were just...not great (and the continuation of lazy writing like that) and the 'newer' published heavy hitters that seem to really be expertly crafted (and the authors who have evolved). I wonder if some of the tension is because of this (discrepancy and talent pool) although I have no evidence there.

I mean I'll read books written in the 1990s (even romance books) that might have some issues but it's usually just the alpha man who is secretly a massive asshole not full on racist tropes. The writing also holds up well as does structure/plot. I don't know if the only issue with Davis' book was the tropes steeped in racist language and intent but what a way to have this attached to your back list. The reason I keep bringing up books written in the 1990s is that an excuse on file for the issues in Davis' book is that it was written in the 1990s which got be sidetracked by my theory and also...sneering in contempt of such an excuse. If your book was good you wouldn't need such a crutch. As a casual viewer but voracious reader I came out more on Courtney Milan's side of this mess and my view can be summed up via this twitter thread (this is not me on twitter). So I'm sure my bias (if any) can be assured before this statement but still. 

What was really off-putting as a reader is finding out that what a mess the RWA is - refusing to allow membership (if they aren't from the "right" class, race, sexual orientation or gender) and that some of the racism and other discrimination has been breathtakingly ugly. As an organization...they've failed miserably. 

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books probably has the most up to date rundown 

Also, who knew so many romance authors were lawyers? 

All the drama and racism aside...I love watching a business go down in flames on social media because of not understanding (or paying for) social media marketing and PR. It's my level of drama. 



*** Edit to add: more newspapers are starting to jump in the fray as I've seen the reporters coming into Twitter threads and asking for documents and interviews (not a great look for the RWA). The RWA has annouced a new board that has been chosen by the President (under recall) and possibly the Executive Director (lots of stories about this one floating around too), Also not the best look by the RWA. 

The Guardian has written an article as well that I don't think I linked above but the journalist was in the Twitter threads so I saw it. It's called A romance novelist spoke out about racism. An uproar ensued.