Let's Talk Bookish; Reading Along with Monthly Themes

It's Friday and perhaps it's time for a new Let's Talk Bookish post, courtesy of Book Nook Bits and the topic of this week is reading along with monthly themes.

Here's the further prompts for today.

With pride month in June, Black history month in February, Women’s history month in March, and so many more, themes related to race, identity and social justice hold a lot of significance for many communities. There are often reading challenges set around these themes as well. Do you ever read along with monthly themes? How do you think this helps with diversifying reading? And what about the rest of the year?

If I have any books fitting the monthly themes, I try to read at least one or two books, but I try to diversify my reading in general and not "only" during those specific months, so it's not a performative action. Like, it's totally fine reading books by Black authors the rest of the year too and not only in February. That said, those months can raise awareness and sometimes work as a kick in the rear to read books by authors one wouldn't have picked up otherwise.

As I'm bi myself, I'm perhaps slightly more aware how important books with representation can be, as it's after all nice to see "ourselves" in books, whether it's in regards of religion, race, identity, and what-not. After all, white straight men are "everywhere" in books.

I also think everyone could benefit of reading books written by someone who's different from themselves, in order to see things from a different perspective. I also suspect that a lot of people, if they look through their bookshelves, in some cases would either struggle or have a very small stack of books written by authors of colour, LGBT+ authors, etc. I'm not saying it is like that for everyone, but I think a lot of people are guilty of having a majority of white and straight authors on their shelves and I'm one of them.