Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge

This blog is to track my participation in a “Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks” challenge.

The blog title.

The blog title is a tongue-in-cheek dig at all the whingers who crawl out of the woodwork whenever someone publishes a western literature canon list, complaining that their particular demographic is under represented. Sorry, but most of the canon is written by dead white guys for a very simple reason: most western literature, whether good or otherwise (and Sturgeon’s Law dictates that most falls into the otherwise category), was written by dead white guys:

• Our literary traditions go back to the Sumerians and the Epic of Gilgamesh (if not earlier). With over 3000 years of back catalogue, it’s statistically more likely that an given piece of writing was done by a deceased author than one still living.
• For most of those 3000 odd years, it was quite rare to encounter a female author. Again, it’s simply more likely that a piece was written by a male.
• Given that I'm discussing western literature (i.e., the literature of European nations and the colonial areas dominated by those nations), the vast majority of authors would identify as being “white”

It's not discrimination, it's just basic statistics.


The Rules of the Game.

The target is to read 52 books before the end of 2018. This shouldn't be too hard as I read a lot anyway, but the intention is to give my reading a bit of direction, so there are a few restrictions:

• I must read at least 12 books that are generally seen as being canon;
• I must read at least 12 books by Australian authors (my homeland has been woefully neglected in my past reading)
• I must read at least 12 non-fiction books;
• I can’t count any books read this millennium (but I can count books I started and put aside and then restarted this year);
• I can’t count YA books unless they qualify as serious literature; and
• I can’t count anything short (novellas for example).

I haven’t figured out how poetry and drama will be dealt with.