A Demographically-Representative American Reading List

A Demographically-Representative American Reading List

With the #BLM protests erupting nationwide in the US (which I heartily support from afar, as I now live in England) I have been thinking about and discussing representation even more than usual.

In 2017 I tried reading only books by women (and I also founded my ongoing Books x Women Book Club). These efforts are meant to counter-balance a lifetime of reading more books by men, than by women. Because I am a woman and a feminist, this issue is personal to me. However, it isn’t enough. I am also white, a documented American citizen, etc. All this got me thinking:

What would a demographically-representative reading list look like?

First, we have to acknowledge that the US Census data is likely inaccurate and definitely incomplete. Why? Because, besides the fact that not everyone actually completes the survey, we don’t ask questions such as, Are you nonbinary? Are you gay? Etc. And, demographics are constantly changing, not frozen in time. So, for example, a lot more people are probably living in poverty now that we are living in a recession and global pandemic. But here’s the data we have:

Under 1% is rounded up to 1%. In the reading list, if a category is unknown, I assumed it is a NO but I may be wrong; if so, please let me know!

I made a “Demographically-Representative American Reading List” of 100 books that I personally endorse. I have read almost all of them, with very few exceptions. Comment or email me if you’d like me to send you the Excel document containing this data and the reading list, or click on the image below.

A Demographically-Representative American Reading List

A Demographically-Representative American Reading List