I read like a binge-eater. One month I might gorge myself on four or five books then for the next three months do nothing more than thumb through my Atomic Ranch and Dwell magazines.
I also binge-read by genre, authors and topics. An entire year might be devoted to reading primarily short fiction. Another year might include only creative nonfiction works. Then there are the periods when I read primarily Asian authors.
This is one of those periods. Since September, when I spent 10 days up north (as we Minnesotans like to say) at a friend’s lake home reading and writing, I have added no less than 11 books by Asian authors to my already overstuffed shelves.
And yesterday I picked up Sandra Tsing Loh’s “Mother on Fire.”
As I stood before the cash register of my favorite local bookstore, I worried that the sales guy looking up my frequent buyer’s club account was wondering why I buy so many Asian authors. Worse, I worried that he (white guy) might ask me for a recommendation.
Why all the guilt and paranoia? Why do I feel someone behind me is snickering, “That figures,” when I place my selected books on the counter?
Does this obsession make me some sort of reading rice queen?
And why don’t I worry about this when it is the Year of Short Stories?
Living in Minnesota plays a big part in my psychosis. I stick out in most settings, including family photos, and standing in line at Garrison Keillor’s bookstore with an armful of books by authors with last names like Chang, Lee, Jin and Yang makes me all the more obvious.
My life would be easier if I just bought the latest Dan Brown thriller like everyone else.
This is not to say that I only read Asian writers. My bookshelves are filled with books by authors of varying ethnicities, most of who are white. Asians only take up about one-third of the real estate.
But I notice that none of my Asian American friends reads as many Asian authors as I do. Is there some arbitrary threshold that limits the number of books by Asian writers that one should consume in a given period?
Or are we afraid of being too narrow – too Asian?
When I choose to read Asian writers, I am not interested in them simply because they are Asian. I want to read them because I am Asian and a writer, and the body of work among Asian writers is quite large and diverse.
I read Asian writers for the same reasons I read any writer – to understand how they handle character development and complex timelines and shifts in mood and changing scenes. And in some instances, I am able to learn the many choices a writer has in creating characters of Asian descent.
I can accept that a well-rounded reader is one who does not read only Asian authors, yet there does not seem to be an argument that defines a well-rounded reader as one who has read a wide variety and number of Asian authors whose last names are not Tan or Hong Kingston.
What do you think?
If a well-rounded reader was defined as above, what titles by Asian authors do you think should be on the list?
And if the list could include only 50 authors, how many of them should be of Asian descent?
