Year of the Asian Reading Challenge
Why am I attempting to do this reading challenge?
I am terrible at completing reading challenges because I am a complete mood reader and therefore struggle to read books as soon as I have told myself that I should read them! However, I am going to make a special effort to join this reading challenge, because I think it is so important.
The publishing industry still does not reflect the diversity of our world, with many groups, cultures and languages remaining unrepresented in mainstream books.
I once heard it described as having ‘window‘ books, through which you see other’s perspectives on the world and ‘mirror‘ books where you see some aspect of yourself reflected.
I think that there is a growing recognition that it is important to have both types of books and of the internalised stereotypes and unconscious damage that can be caused by growing up without seeing yourself reflected or having your worldview challenged.
In the next week, I will be taking part in Multicultural Children’s Book Day, an initiative I discovered last year which aims to raise the profile of multicultural books. Attempting to read lots of books by Asian authors is one way I can continue to showcase diverse books on my blog and, hopefully, get them into the hands of more readers!
Year Of The Asian is a year-long reading challenge dedicated to reading novels written by Asian authors, and hosted by CW @ The Quiet Pond, Lily @ Sprinkles Of Dreams, Shealea @ Shut Up, Shealea and Vicky @ Vicky Who Reads. You can visit the sign-up posts on their respective blogs for all the details, and follow @YearOfTheAsian on Twitter as well as #YARC2019 for announcements and updates throughout the year.
You can choose to join at various levels of challenge – I really wanted to go for the Bengal Tiger which is 50 books by Asian Authors, but I’m not sure if I can manage it so I’m going to attempt the Panda level challenge!
Last year I managed to read over 500 books (lots of picture books!) so I am hoping that aiming to read at least 1 in 12/1 in 10 books by Asian authors is going to be achievable. I love pandas, but in my heart I will still be aiming for that Bengal Tiger badge…
There are so many backlist titles that I have yet to read, as well as lots of amazing books coming out this year so I feel like I should be able to find lots of books to meet the challenge criteria!
Are you planning to join any reading challenges in 2019?
Do you read many books by Asian authors? Could you recommend any to me?
Chrikaru Reads 
omg this is an awesome TBR!!!! and I am sooo doing the same thing! I say i’m aiming for the panda but in reality–I WANT THAT TIGER
and it’s not actually a lot when you think about it? I mean, that’s 4 Asian authors a month and I think that’s feasible esp. with series and books like that?
so yay! thank you for participating!
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This is a selection of books I have on my shelf and those that I am hoping to get my hands on in the near future. Considering I have about two shelves of books by Asian authors (~ 60 books) already, it really shouldn’t be difficult. Looking at my shelves for this challenge has really made me think about the narrow range you often see in bookshops or libraries though – I only have so many because I have been actively searching them out for years!
Looking forward to this challenge and hoping that we both get that tiger! 🙂
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Yay best of luck for this challenge! I am also participating, though I am aiming for the lowest goal, since I can and could never read so many books in a year (you are, like, MAGIC, that’s amazing!). I’ll be rooting for you and to get that tiger for sure though! I loved the astonishing color, I hope you will too 🙂
happy reading! 🙂
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Thank you! Who knows what will happen this year, but I do tend to read a lot of shorter chapter books and picture books because I’m a teacher! I have had The Astonishing Colour on my TBR for ages and not sure why I haven’t read it yet, when I’m pretty sure I’m going to love it! Good luck with your reading challenge too! 🙂
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Oh that’s great! Some picture books really look awesome, I really should pick one up every now and then too 🙂
I hope you’ll love it! Happy reading 😀
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I often just browse through a few when I go to the library, plus I read quite a few to my class 🙂
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That’s so great. Best job ever 🙂 💖
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Oooo good luck! You have lots of books that I haven’t seen on other people’s sign up so I’m really looking forward to seeing your thoughts on those!
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